Balt Resolves $1.2 Million FCPA Enforcement Action
Earlier this month, the DOJ filed criminal charges against David Ferrera and Marc Tilman in connection with an alleged bribery scheme involving an alleged “foreign official” at Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Reims, an alleged French state-owned and state-controlled public university hospital. (See here for the prior post).
Today, the DOJ returned to the same core allegations in announcing a $1.2 million Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action against Balt SAS (a medical device company headquartered in France). As stated in the DOJ release, Ferrera was an executive at Balt’s U.S. subsidiary and Tillman was hired by Balt’s U.S. subsidiary as a consultant.
Balt joins approximately 35 other companies not to contest the dubious FCPA enforcement theory that employees of certain foreign health care systems are “foreign officials” under the FCPA and thus occupy a status akin to a President or Prime Minister.
Time will tell if Ferrera and/or Tillman contest this enforcement theory as the previous post noted that the matter is believed to be the first DOJ individual FCPA enforcement action based on this theory.
Notable Criminal FCPA Enforcement Action Filed
It is one of the more dubious FCPA enforcement theories there is.
It has never been subjected to judicial scrutiny.
It is a relatively new enforcement theory when one considers that the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was enacted in 1977.
It is an enforcement theory that has been used 35 times in corporate enforcement actions since introduced to the FCPA context in 2002 and thus is one of the more obvious reasons for the general increase in FCPA enforcement in the modern era. (See here).
It is the enforcement theory that employees (such as physicians, nurses, mid-wives, lab personnel, etc.) of certain foreign health care systems are “foreign officials” under the FCPA and thus occupy a status akin to a President or Prime Minister.
It is believed that this enforcement theory has never been used to criminally charge an individual with FCPA offenses …. until now.
French Anti-Corruption Agency Issues Annual Report
Today’s post is from Paris-based Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner attorneys David Père, Ariane Dulcire and Cécile Terret.
The French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA) was created by Law n°2016-1691 of 9 December 2016 known as the Sapin II Law. As part of its missions, Article 3 of the Law provides that it prepares an annual activity report that is made public. In these annual reports, the AFA sets out the actions, work and events it carried out during the past year, in accordance with the missions entrusted to it by the French legislator.
French Minister Of Justice Releases Guidelines To Fight International Corporate Corruption
A guest post today from Paris-based Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner attorneys Cécile Terret and David Père.
On 2 June 2020, French Minister of Justice Nicole Belloubet released guidelines to prosecutors setting out the contours of French criminal policy regarding international corruption (the “Note”). This Note recalls the major role to be played by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) and then presents the principles that should guide legal action and sanctions.
Stock Option Grants For Doctors Results In FCPA Enforcement Action
[This post is part of a periodic series regarding “old” FCPA enforcement actions]
In March 2005, the DOJ announced that Micrus (a medical device company based in California) agreed to non-prosecution agreement and to pay a $450,000 criminal penalty to resolve its Foreign Corrupt Practices Act liability. The conduct at issue largely focused on stock option grants provided to physicians at publicly owned and operated hospitals in France, Turkey, Spain, and Germany.