Corrupt Intent Archives - FCPA Professor

Bankman-Fried Seeks Dismissal Of FCPA Charge

By Mike Koehler on May 10, 2023 in Corrupt Intent, Extradition, FCPA Jurisprudence, Obtain or Retain Business, Samuel Bankman-Fried

In December 2022, the Department of Justice announced criminal charges against Samuel Bankman-Fried arising from an “alleged wide-ranging scheme by [him] to misappropriate billions of dollars of customer funds deposited with FTX, the international cryptocurrency exchange [he] founded …, and mislead investors and lenders to FTX and to Alameda Research, the cryptocurrency hedge fund [he] also founded.”

Specifically, Bankman-Friend was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to defraud the Federal Election Commission and commit campaign finance violations.

As highlighted in this prior post, in March 2023 the DOJ filed a superseding indictment adding a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act conspiracy charge to the criminal charges Bankman-Fried is facing.

An Informative Read

By Mike Koehler on April 6, 2023 in Anything of Value, Canada, Corrupt Intent, Damodar Arapakota, Foreign Official, Foreign Officials, IMEX Systems, Obtain or Retain Business, Travel and Entertainment, Uncategorized

This prior post highlighted the recent acquittal of Damodar Arapakota (founder and former chief executive of Toronto-based Imex Systems) by a Canadian judge of a charge of bribery of a foreign public official under Canada’s Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act (CFPOA)

The actual decision by the Canadian judge (see here) makes for an interesting read in that the CFPOA (while not a carbon copy of the FCPA) does contain many of the same general elements.

While touching upon other CFPOA elements such as mens rea and the meaning of advantage or benefit under the CFPOA, the main reasons the judge found Arapakota not guilty was due to the lack of nexus between the advantage or benefit (travel expenses) given to the foreign official and the discretionary act performed by the foreign official as well as the judge’s conclusion that the discretionary act performed by the foreign official did not satisfy the CFPOA’s “obtain or retain an advantage in business” element.

The logic, reasoning and rationale of the decision are all FCPA relevant.

Checking In On The Wakil Enforcement Action

By Mike Koehler on August 24, 2022 in Corrupt Intent, Facilitating Payments, Naman Wakil, Obtain or Retain Business, Statute of Limitations

As highlighted in this prior post, in August 2021 the DOJ announced that Naman Wakil, a Syrian national and U.S. lawful permanent resident, was “arrested in Miami on charges related to his alleged role in a scheme to bribe Venezuelan officials and launder funds to obtain contracts from Venezuela’s state-owned and state-controlled energy company, Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA), and Venezuela’s state-owned and state-controlled food company that purchased food for Venezuela, Corporación de Abastecimiento y Servicios Agrícola (CASA).”

Recently, Wakil (through his attorneys Stephen Binhak and Black Srebnick attorneys Howard Srebnick and Jackie Perczek) filed three motions.

The first motion is a motion to dismiss the indictment for failure to state an offense and states in summary:

Issues To Consider From The Stericycle Enforcement Action

By Mike Koehler on April 27, 2022 in Corrupt Intent, Country Exits, Facilitating Payments, Gray Cloud, Healthcare Providers As Foreign Officials, Internal Controls, Monitor, Obtain or Retain Business, Stericycle, When the Government Doesn’t Pay

This previous post highlighted the recent net $59 million Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action against Stericycle (an Illinois based medical waste disposal company) for conduct in Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina.

Portions of the alleged conduct were egregious in that an executive of the company’s Latin America division orchestrated the bribery schemes and others associated with the company used “spreadsheets to track the bribe payments.”

Nevertheless, there are several legal and policy issues to consider from the enforcement action.

Timeline

As highlighted in this post, Stericycle disclosed its FCPA scrutiny in mid-2017.

A Closer Look At The Ng Jury Instructions

By Mike Koehler on April 15, 2022 in Anything of Value, Corrupt Intent, FCPA Trial, FCPA Trials, Foreign Official, Foreign Officials, Internal Controls, Jury Instructions, Obtain or Retain Business

Foreign Corrupt Practices Act jury trials are rare.

Therefore, FCPA jury instructions are also rare.

Highlighted below are certain portions of the jury instructions from the recent trial of Roger Ng (a former managing director at Goldman Sachs) was who convicted by a jury of FCPA and related offenses for paying bribes to various Malaysian and Abu Dhabi officials in connection with 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), Malaysia’s state-owned and state-controlled investment development company.

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Bankman-Fried Seeks Dismissal Of FCPA Charge

An Informative Read

Checking In On The Wakil Enforcement Action

Issues To Consider From The Stericycle Enforcement Action

A Closer Look At The Ng Jury Instructions

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