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Observations From The OECD’s Phase 4 U.S. Review Report

By on November 19, 2020 in Affirmative Defense – Promotional Expenses, Deferred Prosecution Agreements, Disgorgement, Enforcement Agency Policy, Facilitating Payments, FCPA Statistics, Individual Enforcement Action, Industry Sweeps, Kokesh, Non-Prosecution Agreement, Obtain or Retain Business, OECD, Origins of FCPA Actions, Statute of Limitations, Voluntary Disclosure, Whistleblowers, Yates Memo
oecd

Recently, the OECD released its Phase 4 review of the United State’s implementation of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention … in effect a review of the FCPA, its enforcement, and related issues.

The first question one needs to ask themselves is whether they care what “experts from Argentina and the United Kingdom” (as stated by the OECD “the report and its recommendations reflect the findings of experts from Argentina and the United Kingdom”) think about the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, U.S. law enforcement (DOJ and SEC) policies and practices, and U.S. jurisprudence.

In any event, the Phase 4 Report “explores issues such as detection, enforcement, corporate liability, and international cooperation, as well as covering unresolved issues from prior reports.” (See here for a 2010 post summarizing the OECD’s Phase 3 review).

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Top 20 SEC Disgorgement Amounts

By on November 11, 2020 in Disgorgement, FCPA Statistics
Disgorgement

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act contains specific penalty provisions for both violations of the anti-bribery and books and records and internal control provisions. However, in the FCPA’s modern era there has been a dramatic shift by the SEC away from the FCPA’s statutory penalties in most corporate enforcement action towards disgorgement.

The 2004  FCPA enforcement action against ABB is believed to be the first FCPA enforcement in which the SEC sought a disgorgement remedy and since then the SEC has secured approximately $4.9 billion in disgorgement (and associated pre-judgment interest) in approximately 140 corporate enforcement actions. Set forth below is the current top 20 list of SEC disgorgement amounts.

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Issues To Consider From The Herbalife Enforcement Action

By on September 1, 2020 in Disgorgement, Gray Cloud, Herbalife, Internal Controls, Root Causes
Issues

This prior post went in-depth into the recent $123 million Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action against Herbalife and this post highlights additional issues to consider.

Timeline

As highlighted in this post, Herbalife disclosed its FCPA scrutiny in early 2017.  Thus, from start to finish, its scrutiny lasted more than 3.5 years. I’ve said it many times, and will continue saying it until the cows come home, if the DOJ/SEC wants their FCPA enforcement programs to be viewed as credible and effective they must resolve instances of FCPA scrutiny much quicker.

This is particularly true in the Herbalife matter given that the conduct focused on a single country as well as the following language from the enforcement agencies.

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Issues To Consider From The World Acceptance Corp. Enforcement Action

By on August 10, 2020 in Collateral Effects, Country Exits, Disgorgement, Gray Cloud, Parent – Subsidiary Issues, Strict Liability, Uncategorized, World Acceptance Corp
Issues

This prior post went in-depth into the SEC’s recent $21.7 million Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action against World Acceptance Corp. (WAC) and this post highlights additional issues to consider.

Timeline

As highlighted in this post, WAC disclosed its FCPA scrutiny in mid-2017.  Thus, from start to finish, its scrutiny lasted more than three years. I’ve said it many times, and will continue saying it until the cows come home, if the SEC wants its FCPA enforcement program to be viewed as credible and effective it must resolve instances of FCPA scrutiny much quicker.

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