The Top 50 Corporate FCPA Settlements
Recently, the FCPA Blog published a list of the “40 biggest Foreign Corrupt Practices Act resolutions of all time.” The list is false and misleading in many respects. For starters, the list contains enforcement actions in which the company was not even charged or found to be in violation of the FCPA’s provisions. Second, it contains inaccurate and inconsistently applied math. Third, it contains amounts that the DOJ and SEC (the only government agencies on planet earth that actually enforce the FCPA) did not even secure.
If you value accurate FCPA enforcement information, set forth below is a list of the top 50 corporate FCPA settlement amounts actually secured by the DOJ/SEC.
In Terms Of Settlement Amounts, 2019 FCPA Enforcement Has Set An All-Time Record
The previous Foreign Corrupt Practices Act record in terms of settlement amounts was 2016 in which the DOJ and SEC collected approximately $2.4 billion (see here).
With last week’s record-setting $1.06 billion enforcement action against Ericsson (see here), 2019 has eclipsed 2016. With approximately three weeks left in 2019 (keep in mind the end of the calendar year has historically been an active period for FCPA enforcement), the DOJ and SEC have collected approximately $2.65 billion in settlement amounts in 14 core corporate actions this year.
The Top Ten List Of Corporate FCPA Settlements
Everybody, it seems, likes “Top Ten” lists.
This post highlights the top ten corporate FCPA settlements of all-time.
It seems odd saying this, but the list (unlike other lists) only includes enforcement actions where the corporate defendant was charged with or found to be in violation of the FCPA’s provisions (not other laws). In addition, the list highlights net FCPA settlement amounts actually secured by U.S. law enforcement after consistently accounting for (unlike other lists) certain credits or deductions in several enforcement actions involving foreign companies.
Trace’s Bribery Risk Matrix Restates The Obvious
Recently Trace International, which calls itself “the world’s leading anti-bribery standard setting organization,” released its Trace Bribery Risk Matrix.
Like other rankings of bribery and corruption, there is nothing per se wrong with the Bribery Risk Matrix. However, as stated several times on these pages (see here and here), I am not sure what these rankings really do (other than generate media coverage for the organization releasing the rankings) given that they generally restate the obvious (hence the picture of “Captain Obvious”).
An FCPA Enforcement Action Against A U.S. Company Is More Than Twice As Likely To Originate From A Voluntary Disclosure Compared To An FCPA Enforcement Action Against A Non-U.S. Company
At last week’s FCPA Institute – Boston (attended by a diverse group of professionals from leading companies and firms from around the world) a participant asked about any differences between the percentage of U.S. company Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement actions that originate with a voluntary disclosure vs. FCPA enforcement actions against non-U.S. companies that originate with a voluntary disclosure.
I responded that U.S. company enforcement actions were much more likely to result from voluntary disclosures compared to non-U.S. company enforcement actions, but promised to provide the actual numbers and they are set forth below (courtesy of FCPAnalytics).