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Nortek / Akamai – Don’t Believe The Hype, Rather Ask What Viable Criminal Charges Did The DOJ Actually Decline?

By on June 9, 2016 in Akamai Technologies, Declination Decisions, DOJ FCPA “Pilot Program”, Nortek Inc.
shrug

Earlier this week, at the same time the SEC announced non-prosecution agreements against Nortek and Akamai Technlogies (see here and here for prior posts), the DOJ released two “declination” letters involving the companies. [Note: the FCPA Blog’s assertion that the letters were “released by the companies and not by the DOJ” is false. The DOJ’s press office released the letters in an e-mail titled “Department Declination Letters for Akamai and Nortek FCPA Inquiries” on Tuesday, June 7th at 12:24 p.m.]

Before the expected flood of FCPA Inc. client alerts and commentary regurgitating the assertions in the DOJ letters and otherwise extoling the virtues of the DOJ’s FCPA Pilot Program, this post intervenes by posing the salient question – based on the information in the the public domain just what viable charges did the DOJ decline?

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Friday Roundup

By on May 27, 2016 in Bermuda, Compliance Defense, Deferred Prosecution Agreements, DOJ FCPA “Pilot Program”, FCPA Investigative Costs, Investigative Fees, MAXpower Group, Non-Prosecution Agreement, Standard Chartered, Wal-Mart
Roundup

A public service announcement, Wal-Mart’s pre-enforcement action professional fees and expenses, scrutiny alert, happenings in Bermuda, a fee dispute, quotable, a useful timeline, for the reading stack, and good for a few chuckles. It’s all here in the Friday roundup.

A Public Service Announcement

Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act requires the disclosure of a material connection between an advertiser and an endorser when the relationship isn’t otherwise apparent to consumers. As the FTC has made clear, the law applies to bloggers.

Certain members of the FCPA’s blogosphere (who frequently write about compliance best practices, transparency, conflicts of interest and related topics) may want to take notice and act accordingly.

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FCPA Flash – A Conversation With Homer Moyer

By on May 24, 2016 in DOJ FCPA “Pilot Program”, FCPA Flash, Gray Cloud, Investigative Fees
FCPA Flash

The FCPA Flash podcast provides in an audio format the same fresh, candid, and informed commentary about the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and related topics as readers have come to expect from the written posts on FCPA Professor.

This FCPA Flash episode is a conversation with Homer Moyer (Miller & Chevalier – Washington, D.C.). In the episode, Moyer (a “dean of the FCPA bar”) discusses the following topics: whether, as the FCPA nears 40, the law has been “successful,” the pros and cons of recent FCPA enforcement trends, various aspects of the DOJ’s FCPA “pilot” program, the typical length of FCPA scrutiny, and the costs of investigating potential FCPA violations.

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Friday Roundup

By on May 20, 2016 in Core Labs, DOJ FCPA “Pilot Program”, Enforcement Agency Policy, Enforcement Agency Speeches, Serious Fraud Office, SNC Lavalin, Standard Bank, Unaoil, United Kingdom, Vantage Drilling
Roundup

Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell on the DOJ’s FCPA Pilot Program, scrutiny alerts and updates, quotable and for the reading stack. It’s all here in the Friday roundup.

Caldwell on the FCPA Pilot Program

This article contains a recent Q&A with Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell about the DOJ’s FCPA Pilot Program.

After reading the below excerpts, you might also want to read the article “Grading the DOJ’s FCPA Pilot Program.”

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Yates Defends The “Yates” Memo

By on May 17, 2016 in DOJ, DOJ FCPA “Pilot Program”, Enforcement Agency Policy, Enforcement Agency Speeches
Sally Yates, during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee to be Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice. March 24, 2015. Photo by Diego M. Radzinschi/THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL.

As highlighted in this prior post, in September 2015 the DOJ released this memo authored by DOJ Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates titled “Individual Accountability for Corporate Wrongdoing” (the so-called “Yates” Memo).

The “Yates” Memo was met with mounds of criticism including from former high-ranking DOJ officials. Against this backdrop Yates, not surprisingly defended her namesake memo.

The latest defense occurred last week as Yates delivered this speech at the New York City Bar Association White Collar Crime Conference.  Yates focused her remarks on “why we did it and how it’s working so far in practice.”

Her remarks focused on individually accountability, cooperation, and how the Yates Memo is working in practice. As to this later issue, Yates, not surprisingly, stated that the memo is “causing positive change within companies.” This claim of course is difficult, if not impossible, to verify empirically.

Yates also touched upon the DOJ’s recent FCPA “Pilot Program.” (See here for the article “Grading the DOJ’s FCPA Pilot Program”).

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