This previous post highlighted the DOJ’s recent $11.2 million declination with disgorgement and forfeiture against Linde for nearly decade-old conduct of an acquired entity.
This post continues the analysis by highlighting additional issues to consider.
Voluntary Disclosure
Nearly all decisions to voluntary disclose should be questioned (see this article for the reasons why), but Linde’s decision to voluntarily disclose should seriously be questioned.
Last Friday the DOJ quietly updated its FCPA Pilot Program “declinations” page to include a June 16th letter from the Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office (D.N.J.) to counsel for Linde North America Inc. and Linde Gas North America LLC.
The letter states that “consistent with the FCPA Pilot Program announced on April 5, 2016, the [DOJ is closing its] investigation of [Linde] and certain of their subsidiaries and affiliates concerning violations of the FCPA.”
Pursuant to the letter agreement, Linde agreed to disgorge or forfeit approximately $11.2 million. The Linde enforcement action is the first corporate FCPA enforcement action in the Trump era and is similar to the previous “declinations with disgorgement” enforcement actions released by the Obama DOJ in September 2016. (See here for a prior post).
Yesterday, Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Trevor McFadden delivered this speech in Brazil.
As highlighted in this post, McFadden talked about “some recent developments regarding the DOJ’s international cooperation efforts,” “some of the diverse tools in [the DOJ’s] prosecutorial toolbox that allow [it] to prosecute corruption” and “the importance of transparency in our anti-corruption prosecutions.”
Quotable, no reliable way to measure, Microsoft explains, scrutiny alert, a direct selling license in China, and offensive use of the FCPA. It’s all here in the Friday roundup.
Quotable
Some think – or at least I’ve been told – that certain of my Foreign Corrupt Practices Act views are controversial or out of the “main stream” (whatever the “main stream” actually is or means). Yet, I am confident that much of what I write and talk about represents silent majority views.
Indeed, as I’ve commented before, one of the interesting things about writing about the FCPA and related issues on a daily basis is that often I just need to wait for a former FCPA enforcement official to say the same thing.
On April 5, 2016, the DOJ announced a one-year FCPA Pilot Program (see here for the prior post).
With just a few weeks left in the program, the DOJ could easily make an emphatic statement about the future of the program.
But that is not what Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Blanco did last week in a speech at the ABA National Institute on White Collar Crime.
