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.
A Focus On DOJ Individual FCPA Enforcement Actions
This recent post focused on SEC individual FCPA actions in 2025 and historically.
Today’s post highlights various facts and figures regarding the DOJ’s prosecution of individuals for Foreign Corrupt Practices Act offenses in 2025 and historically.
The key word above is FCPA offenses.
Some in the FCPA space include enforcement actions containing non-FCPA charges (often money laundering charges against alleged “foreign officials” or with increasing frequency money laundering charges against alleged bribe payors – see here) related to an FCPA enforcement action as an individual FCPA enforcement action. While it is fine to track such enforcement actions, calling these FCPA enforcement actions is not accurate. (In fact, as highlighted in this prior post, a high percentage of enforcement actions in recent years on the DOJ’s FCPA website are not actual FCPA enforcement actions).
Individual Pleads Guilty To FCPA Offense … Of Some Sort
Many Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement actions are accompanied by DOJ or SEC press releases.
Others just randomly appear on a court docket waiting for someone to notice.
In the later category, MLex recently noticed an FCPA enforcement action against Carlos Leopoldo Alvelais Alarcon.
The court docket contains some information, but not much.
This much is known.
Slumbering Individual Enforcement Actions
Most in the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act space learn when the DOJ announces criminal FCPA charges against individuals. Thereafter, the tendency (including by myself) is to sort of forget about many of the individual cases.
However, recently I examined the dockets for all individuals criminally charged with FCPA offenses since January 1, 2017 and was surprised to learn that a meaningful percentage of these cases are slumbering with no substantive activity recorded in quite some time.
Thus, when viewing DOJ FCPA individual enforcement action statistics it is important to keep in mind that many of these cases are slumbering and are not being actively prosecuted.
Thoughts Regarding One Of The Recent Speeches By A DOJ Official
Prior posts here and here highlighted recent speeches delivered by DOJ Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole Argentieri.
This post concerns Argentieri’s speech from last week and a future post will focus on Argentieri’s speech earlier this week.
It has been interesting to read some of the commentary on these recent speeches.
But then again, I read these speeches through the following lenses.