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Seventh Circuit: “The United Nations Convention Against Corruption Is Not Binding Federal Law”

By on March 24, 2022 in Biomet, FCPA Related Charges, United Nations Convention Against Corruption, Zimmer Holdings
Judicial Decision

It has not been a good month for Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS – the Mexican Social Security Institute) in U.S. appellate courts.

This recent post discussed a Sixth Circuit decision affirming the dismissal of a civil lawsuit on forum non conveniens grounds filed by IMSS against Stryker in the aftermath of the company’s FCPA enforcement action which involved, among other conduct, alleged bribery of IMSS officials.

As highlighted in this prior post, in 2017 Biomet became an FCPA repeat offender as the DOJ and SEC brought a parallel FCPA enforcement action in which the company agreed to an overall settlement amount of $30.4 million. A portion of the enforcement action involved conduct in Mexico and in the words of the DOJ: “Biomet’s subsidiaries used a customs broker whose five subagents bribed Mexican customs officials to allow Biomet to export mislabeled products to Mexico.” In the words of the SEC: “Biomet subsidiary 3i Mexico engaged Mexican Customs Broker and certain subagents to pay bribes to Mexican customs officials for the purpose of circumventing Mexican customs laws regarding importing unregistered and improperly labeled products into Mexico.”

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Potpourri

By on August 13, 2020 in Biomet, Books and Records, FCPA Inc., FCPA Sentences, Internal Controls, KBR, Media Reporting, Media Reporting About the FCPA, Monitor, Zwi Skornicki
Potpourri

Deficient FCPA Reporting

In this New York Times article, journalists once again demonstrate their deficient FCPA knowledge. In reference to Microsoft’s possible purchase of TikTok and the potential of the U.S. Treasury receiving a portion of the sale, the article states: “In essence, the president is promising to orchestrate the kind of pay-to-play bounty that the United States prohibits companies from making to governments of other countries under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.”

However, the FCPA does not prohibit business organizations from providing things of value to foreign governments – just foreign officials. As stated in the U.S. government FCPA Guidance “”The FCPA prohibits payments to foreign officials, not to foreign governments.”

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Friday Roundup

By on October 11, 2019 in Alejandro Yeatts, Biomet, Braskem SA, Compliance, Compliance Defense, Defamation, Foreign Law Enforcement Cooperation, Frank Roberto Chatburn Ripalda, Nancy Gougarty, Pemex, Related Civil Litigation, Serious Fraud Office, SFO, Westport Fuels Systems
Roundup

Scratch that trial, scrutiny alert, affirmed, follow-up, Braskem-related, and across the pond. It’s all here in the Friday roundup.

Scratch That Trial

One of the FCPA trials scheduled this Fall (see here for the prior post) involved Frank Chatburn. As highlighted here, in April 2018 Frank Roberto Chatburn Ripalda (a dual United States and Ecuadorian citizen) was criminally charged for conspiring with others for making corrupt payments to PetroEcuador officials in order to obtain and retain contracts for Galileo (described as an Ecuadorian company that provided services in the oil and gas industry) from PetroEcuador.

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Friday Roundup

By on May 24, 2019 in Arbitration Issues, Biomet, Compliance, Detelina Subeva, DOJ Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs, Major League Baseball, Vantage Drilling, Whistleblowers, Zimmer Holdings
Roundup

Whistleblower award, interesting observations, scrutiny update, why in the world, you lose some and you win some, and guilty plea. It’s all here in the Friday roundup.

Whistleblower Award

According to this report, “a former Brazilian surgeon who blew the whistle on a medical device company that allegedly bribed doctors to win business will get a $4.5 million award from U.S. regulators, according to his lawyers. The surgeon will get the money for playing a crucial role in helping the SEC uncover a bribery scandal at Biomet Inc. that spanned the globe. (See here for the SEC release).

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Issues To Consider From The Zimmer Biomet Enforcement Action

By on February 6, 2017 in Biomet, Disgorgement, Internal Controls, Repeat Offenders, Zimmer Holdings
Issues

This previous post went in-depth into the $30.4 million Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action against Zimmer Biomet announced on January 12th.

This post highlights additional issues to consider.

Repeat Offender

Biomet is not the first company to be a repeat FCPA criminal offender, just the latest. Other criminal examples include Aibel Group / Vetco entities and Marubeni (and there several other examples involving SEC civil violations such as Orthofix Int’l recently becoming a repeat FCPA offender). To learn more about these examples, see the article “Measuring the Impact of NPAs and DPAs on FCPA Enforcement.”

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