Friday Roundup
Ironic, scrutiny update, and for the reading stack. It’s all here in the Friday roundup.
Ironic
As highlighted in this previous post, in February 2016 SAP (a German company with American Depository Shares registered with the SEC) resolved a $3.9 million FCPA enforcement action based on conduct in Panama and was ordered to cease and desist from committing or causing any violations and any future violations of the FCPA’s books and records and internal controls case.
Fresh off its 2016 FCPA enforcement action, SAP again became the subject of FCPA scrutiny. (See here for the prior post). Indeed, yesterday the Wall Street Journal reported:
The Origins Of 2017 Corporate FCPA Enforcement Actions
Yesterday’s post compared corporate FCPA enforcement actions in 2017 to prior years. However, before a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action is announced, scrutiny must first arise.
Today’s post highlights the origins of 2017 corporate enforcement actions. (See here for a similar post highlighting the origins of 2016 corporate enforcement actions).
As highlighted in the post, like prior years, 2017 corporate enforcement actions originated in a variety of ways from voluntary disclosures, to foreign media reporting and foreign law enforcement investigations, to pro-active SEC investigations, to civil litigation.
Friday Roundup
Funny, also funny, corruption in the anti-corruption industry, the head of the DOJ’s FCPA Unit writes, reasons for the general increase in FCPA enforcement, scrutiny alert, asset recovery, and for the reading stack. It’s all here in the Friday roundup.
Funny
This recent FCPA Blog post asked “what’s the most important FCPA case ever” and stated: “The Africa Sting showed how far the feds would go to make a splashy FCPA case. But the final lesson was that using a big sting to concoct a supposed industry-wide conspiracy was a bad idea. The judge didn’t buy it, and neither did a couple of juries.”
Funny that the post doesn’t mention that the the person at the center of this failed, manufactured case was its current Contributing Editor and training partner Richard Bistrong.
FCPA Flash – A Conversation With Kara Brockmeyer (Former Chief Of The SEC’s FCPA Unit)
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 written posts on FCPA Professor.
This FCPA Flash episode is a conversation with Kara Brockmeyer. Earlier this year, Brockmeyer left the SEC where she served as Chief of the SEC’s FCPA Unit since 2011. In the podcast Brockmeyer (currently a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton): looks back at her time as FCPA Unit Chief including what she views as the most significant matters / trends; discusses a few items that, in her view, are not well-understood or appreciated about the SEC’s FCPA enforcement program; explains theories of enforcement regarding the FCPA’s internal controls provisions; and shares insights regarding the SEC’s whistleblower program relevant to the FCPA.
The podcast is a must listen for any FCPA practitioner or compliance professional.
Bribery Involving World Bank Officials
[This post is part of a periodic series regarding “old” FCPA enforcement actions]
As noted in this post, one interesting aspect of the recently announced Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action against Joseph Baptiste is he previously entered into a plea agreement but does not intended to honor the plea agreement.
As highlighted below, the FCPA enforcement action against Ramendra Basu (a former World Bank official) for, among other things, alleged bribery in Kenya involved a similar dynamic and this post summarizes the enforcement action as well as a related enforcement action against Gautam Sengupta (a former World Bank Task Manager).