Smartmatic Employees (And Others) Criminally Charged In Connection With Bribery Schemes In The Philippines
The DOJ recently announced that a “federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida returned an indictment … charging three executives of an election voting machine and service provider company and a former Chairman of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) of the Republic of the Philippines for their roles in an alleged bribery and money laundering scheme to retain and obtain business related to the 2016 Philippine elections. […] These bribes were allegedly paid to obtain and retain business related to providing voting machines and election services for the 2016 Philippine elections and to secure payments on the contracts, including the release of value added tax payments.”
Although not mentioned in the indictment, the company at issue is Smartmatic (and related entities).
Individual Pleads Guilty To A Bribery Scheme Involving Nepal Airlines
Last month, Julian Aires (an individual associated with a joint venture partner of AAR Corp. – a U.S. based aviation services company) pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the FCPA’s anti-bribery provisions in connection with business dealings with South Africa Airways (SAA) as well as a contract involving Swissport and SAA. (See here for the prior post).
It was noted that the enforcement action was likely the first of several related enforcement actions to come as AAR’s recent annual report disclosed FCPA scrutiny in South Africa as well as Nepal.
Sure enough.
Recently, Deepak Sharma (pictured) (a United Kingdom citizen and resident) pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the FCPA’s anti-bribery provisions in connection with a bribery scheme involving Nepal Airlines Corporation (“NAC”), an alleged instrumentality of the Nepali government.
Individual Pleads Guilty To FCPA Charge In Connection With Bribery Scheme Involving South African Airways
In 2016, AAR Corp. (a U.S. based aviation services company) announced that it had teamed with a joint venture partner – JM Aviation South Africa (Pty) Ltd. – to secure a five year contract to provide inventory management and repair services to South Africa Airways Technical (SAAT) Ltd. (a wholly-owned subsidiary of South African Airways – SAA).
Recently, the DOJ charged Julian Aires (a U.S. citizen who resided in San Diego and associated with JM Aviation South Africa) with conspiracy to violate the FCPA’s anti-bribery provisions in connection with an SAAT contract as well as another contract involving Swissport (an airport ground services and air cargo handling company) and SAA.
According to the court docket, Aires has pleaded guilty.
DOJ’s New Whistleblower Pilot Program Aims to Generate Information About Corporate Wrongdoing, But Numerous Questions Remain
The following Covington attorneys contributed to this post: Steve Fagell, Nancy Kestenbaum, Aaron Lewis, Ashley Nyquist, Adam Studner, and Chas Hamilton.
On March 7, 2024, Deputy Attorney General (“DAG”) Lisa Monaco announced that DOJ is embarking on a “90-day sprint” to develop and implement a pilot program that will provide whistleblowers the chance to receive a monetary award in exchange for new information about “significant corporate or financial misconduct.”
The FOREIGN Corrupt Practices Act
Since 2021, the DOJ has resolved 19 corporate Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement actions.
The “Foreign” in Foreign Corrupt Practices Act refers to the location of the bribe recipient (as in “foreign” non-U.S. officials).
However, the “Foreign” in Foreign Corrupt Practices Act might as well refer to the location of the bribe payor as well – in other words the location of the company resolving the FCPA enforcement.
As highlighted below, of the 19 DOJ corporate FCPA enforcement actions since 2021, 14 of the 19 enforcement actions (74%) have involved foreign companies.
Set forth below are the 19 corporate DOJ FCPA enforcement actions since 2021 along with a general description of the company involved.