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DOJ To Increase Its Focus On Investigations, Prosecutions, And Asset Recoveries Relating To Corruption In Northern Triangle Countries

northerntri

Presumably in connection with the visit by Vice President Kamala Harris to Guatemala, earlier this week U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland “announced a series of steps that the Department of Justice is taking to address the threats posed by both corruption and by transnational human smuggling and trafficking networks” in Central America.

The main focus of the establishment of so-called “Joint Task Force Alpha” will be “to enhance U.S. enforcement efforts against the most prolific and dangerous human smuggling and trafficking groups operating in Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.”

In addition, the DOJ release states: “Joint Task Force Alpha will also complement the Justice Department’s efforts to fight corruption.  The Justice Department will increase its focus on investigations, prosecutions, and asset recoveries relating to corruption in Northern Triangle countries through its Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement program, counternarcotics prosecutions, and Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative.”

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Friday Roundup

Roundup

Not true, DOJ appeal, scrutiny alert, and monitor extended. It’s all here in the Friday roundup.

Not True

In this recent Trace International sponsored podcast about the 2014 Esquenazi decision, Bill Steinmen (Senior Editor at the FCPA Blog) asserts that the FCPA’s “legislative history doesn’t really shed any light” on the meaning of “instrumentality” in the FCPA.

Not true.

There is much information in the FCPA’s legislative history relevant to the issue of whether Congress intended the phrase “instrumentality” in the “foreign official” definition to cover state-owned or state-controlled enterprises (“SOEs”).

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Friday Roundup

Roundup

Elevate, further to the clustering phenomenon, transparency, dismissed, and incomplete. It’s all here in the Friday roundup.

Elevate

Learning a new topic or elevating your knowledge and practical skills in a topic is not just for formal students in formal educational settings. Professionals in the workplace can also benefit from back to “school” experiences.

For professionals in the FCPA space – or wishing to join the FCPA space – the FCPA Institute serves this objective and has “graduated” approximately 200 hundred diverse professionals since its launch in 2014.

The next FCPA Institute will take place in Nashville on May 3-4th. See here to learn more and to register.

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DOJ Announces FCPA Enforcement Action Against Former Embraer Exec Colin Steven

colin steven

In 2016, Embraer (a Brazil-based aircraft manufacturer with American Depositary Shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange) resolved a parallel DOJ / SEC Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action alleging improper conduct in the Dominican Republic, Saudi Arabia, Mozambique, and India (See here for the prior post).

The net FCPA settlement amount was $187 million and in terms of Saudi Arabia it was alleged that “Embraer [largely through the conduct of Executive B] agreed to pay and did pay Saudi Arabia Official [described as “an official in a high-level decision-making position in a state-owned and controlled company in Saudi Arabia that performed a government function] more than $1.5 million to obtain a contract for the sale of three business jets, valued at approximately $93 million to Saudi Arabia Instrumentality.”

Yesterday, the DOJ returned to these allegations and announced an enforcement action against Executive B, also known as Colin Steven (a U.K. citizen residing in the United Arab Emirates).

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Issues To Consider From The Embraer Enforcement Action

Issues

This previous post went in-depth into the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action against Embraer.

This post continues the analysis by highlighting additional issues to consider from the enforcement action.

Timeline

In previous SEC filings Embraer stated: “In September, 2010, we received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, and associated inquiries from the U.S. Department of Justice, or DOJ, concerning possible non-compliance with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practice Act, or FCPA, in relation to certain aircraft sales outside of Brazil.”

Thus from start to finish Embraer’s FCPA scrutiny lasted over six years.

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