Scoular Resolves $10.2 Million FCPA Enforcement Action
In 2025, Carlos Leopoldo Alvelais pleaded guilty to a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act offense of some sort in the Western District of Texas. (See here for the prior post).
The facts and circumstances of the enforcement action were unclear as much of the substantive court docket was and remains under seal.
However, last Friday the DOJ announced that “The Scoular Company (Scoular), an agricultural supply chain company based in Omaha, Nebraska, will pay over $10 million to resolve an investigation by the Justice Department into a years-long scheme in which it relied on bribery of Mexican officials to deliver trains of goods across the U.S.-Mexico border.”
According to the DOJ release, Carlos Leopoldo Alvelais was a customs broker who paid bribes on behalf of Scoular.
Deere & Co. Resolves $9.9 Million FCPA Enforcement Action
As highlighted in this recent post, approximately 20% of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement activity takes place in the month of September as the SEC’s fiscal year comes to a close.
In September’s first FCPA enforcement (there have been several non-FCPA, FCPA enforcement actions already – see here), Deere & Co. has agreed to pay approximately $9.9 million to resolve an SEC matter based on the conduct of a subsidiary in Thailand. The enforcement action largely concerns Thai officials visiting massage parlors and participating in non-business travel funded by the subsidiary.
The DOJ’s First FCPA DPA Involved Monsanto
[This post is part of a periodic series regarding “old” FCPA enforcement actions]
In early January 2005, the DOJ used a deferred prosecution agreement for the first time to resolve a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action. The “guinea pig” was Monsanto.
This post highlights the DOJ and parallel SEC enforcement action against the company (aggregate settlement amount of $1.5 million) based on conduct in Indonesia.
The Burgeoning Marijuana Industry And The FCPA
Assessing whether a new and growing industry has risk under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is not really a complex assessment.
At its most basic level, it involves assessing whether the industry has points of contact with “foreign officials” in the global marketplace.
As highlighted in this post, the burgeoning marijuana industry certainly does and the FCPA risk of this industry is no different than several other agricultural companies that have resolved FCPA enforcement actions.
You Don’t Need To Look Far For The Location Resulting In Several Individual FCPA Enforcement Actions
This prior post highlighted the DOJ’s recently announced Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action against Joseph Baptiste for alleged bribery in Haiti.
The Baptiste enforcement action is just the latest in a long list of FCPA enforcement actions (all of the criminal actions were against individuals associated with small, privately-held companies) alleging improper business conduct in Haiti (a country located a short distance from the U.S.).
What makes this unusual is that Haiti attracts (relatively speaking compared to many other countries) little business activity by those subject to the FCPA. But then again, perhaps one of the reasons for this lack of business activity is the FCPA itself. As highlighted in this 2010 post, some called for the FCPA not to apply to doing business in Haiti arguing: “one of the best way to help Haiti” is to “pass a law stating that the FCPA does not apply to dealings in Haiti. As it stands right now, U.S. businesses are unwilling to take on this legal risk and the result is similar to an embargo. You can’t do business in Haiti without paying bribes.”