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Potpourri

Potpourri

Individual FCPA Charges

One reason to read FCPA Professor is to stay ahead of the curve.

For instance, this October 2015 post highlighted alleged bribery at the United Nations charging John Ashe (described as having various positions at the U.N. including serving as the Permanent Representative of Antigua to the U.N. and recently serving as the President of the U.N. General Assembly) and others with a variety of criminal offenses based on allegations that payments were made to Ashe in connection with a U.N. sponsored conference center in Macau, China and to influence business interactions with Antiguan government officials.

The post noted that although the alleged bribery was charged under 18 USC 666 (theft or bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds) on account of the U.N. receiving U.S. federal government funds, Ashe was likely a “foreign official” under the FCPA given that the definition of “foreign official” includes individuals associated with “public international organizations” and the U.N. has been designated as such an organization.

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The Sun Rose, A Dog Barked, And A Company Disclosed FCPA Scrutiny

dog bark

This is not the first post regarding this general topic (see here and here for prior posts), merely the most recent.

Has the general increase in Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement over the past decade done anything to deter future FCPA violations? Why in this current era of purported increased FCPA compliance does there seem to be more, not less, FCPA inquiries?  Does effective compliance reduce FCPA scrutiny or does effective compliance uncover more FCPA issues?  If the latter, does that argue in favor of a compliance defense?

If every company hired FCPA counsel to do a thorough review of its world-wide operations – given the current enforcement theories – would 50% of companies find technical FCPA violations?  75%?  95%?  If the answer is any one of those numbers is that evidence of how corrupt business has become or is that evidence of how unhinged FCPA enforcement theories have become?

While pondering the above questions, do recognize that a company disclosing or otherwise being the subject of FCPA scrutiny has become as common as the sun rising and a dog barking (hence the picture).

This post highlights recent disclosures and scrutiny from just the past week involving the following companies: Fairmont Santrol, Platform Speciality Products, Alere, Aegerion Pharmaceuticals and Tabcorp.

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