Senator Coons: You Can’t Be Serious
Senator Christopher Coons (D-DE) has a law degree from Yale. He previously worked as in-house counsel for a large company.
Senator Coons was a key participant in the Senate’s November 2011 hearing on “Examining Enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.”
During the hearing he stated.
“I have some personal experience from private practice in exactly this issue. Working for an excellent company, trying to deliver good compliance was, at times, a challenge, because of the moving target of knowing exactly what the compliance standards were. This was a number of years ago. Your advisory opinions, I think, have helped significantly. But I think we will listen attentively to the other panels for some clarity about what the current challenges are and would welcome an opportunity to continue to work with you and the department on helping clarify exactly what constitutes good compliance so that in-house counsel can sleep at night and compliant companies can more actively and effectively export.”
Further Thoughts On “The FCPA Reinforcement Act”
Earlier this week, various Democratic Senators introduced a bill titled “The FCPA Reinforcement Act” seeking to extend the statute of limitations to ten years – for a limited time period – for certain FCPA offenses. (See here for the prior post).
This post contains additional thoughts on the bill.
First, statute of limitations are a bedrock, black-letter legal principle. As stated by a unanimous Supreme Court: “Statute of limitations are intended to ‘promote justice by preventing surprises through the revival of claims that have been allowed to slumber until evidence has been lost, memories have faded, and witnesses have disappeared. They provide ‘security and stability to human affairs. [They] are ‘vital to the welfare of society [and] ‘even wrongdoers are entitled to assume that their sins may be forgotten.’”
“The FCPA Reinforcement Act” Introduced In Senate
Despite the brief 118 day “pause” of FCPA enforcement in 2025 (during which various aspects of FCPA and related enforcement continued), corporate FCPA enforcement by the DOJ in 2025 was above certain recent prior years. (See here).
The past nine months has been one of most active periods of FCPA trials of individuals in the FCPA’s nearly 50 years. In September, there was an FCPA trial. In December, there was an FCPA trial. In February, there was an FCPA trial. Post-trial activity continues in some of these matters in which the DOJ remains steadfast in its positions.
Another FCPA trial is soon to begin. (See here).
Last week, the DOJ brought a notable FCPA enforcement action against individuals. (See here).
The enforcement theories in these matters are generally similar to prior DOJ enforcement theories over the past approximate 20 years.
Despite the above facts, some insist that FCPA enforcement has stopped, slowed down, or changed.
This group now formally includes various Democratic Senators who recently introduced “The FCPA Reinforcement Act” in the Senate.
Potpourri
Calavo Growers
As highlighted in this prior post, in early 2024 Calavo Growers, Inc. “a global leader in quality produce, including avocados, tomatoes and papayas, and a pioneer of healthy fresh-cut fruit, vegetables and prepared foods” disclosed:
“On January 16, 2024, the Company announced that its internal audit process had identified to the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors certain matters that the Board of Directors determined after fiscal year end merited enhanced evaluation. A Special Committee of the Board of Directors (the “Special Committee”) was established to commence an investigation, with the assistance of external legal counsel and external forensic accountants. The Special Committee determined that certain of those matters related to the Company’s operations in Mexico raised potential issues under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”). The Company voluntarily disclosed this ongoing investigation to the SEC and the DOJ, and the Company intends to fully cooperate with the SEC and the DOJ in connection with these matters.”
Looking Back At The Senate’s FCPA Hearing
Fifteen years ago this month, the Senate held a hearing titled “Examining Enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.”
(See here for the full hearing transcript, here for the video).
It was the first congressional hearing on the FCPA during its new era of enforcement (to be followed by a June 2011 FCPA hearing in the House) and the first FCPA hearing in Congress since the FCPA was amended in 1998.
In opening the hearing, Senator Arlen Specter (who passed away in 2012) noted that “oversight is a major function of Congress,” but that Congress does “not do very much of it.”