A Focus On SEC Individual Actions
This previous post highlighted various facts and figures from 2017 SEC FCPA enforcement actions against issuers.
As highlighted in the prior post, of the 7 corporate SEC FCPA enforcement actions in 2017, just 1 (14%) has involved, at present, related SEC charges or findings against company employees.
In 2017, the SEC charged or found that 3 individuals violated the FCPA: Michael Cohen and Vanja Baros (associated with Och-Ziff) and Jeannot Lorenz (associated with Halliburton)
This post focuses on SEC FCPA individual actions historically.
Misguided FCPA Blog Commentary
This FCPA Blog post opines on the “three most important FCPA stories of 2017.” However, as highlighted in this post the opinion for the reason for the increase in individual prosecutions is misguided and lacking in any factual support.
The FCPA Blog post states: “More individuals held accountable. First under the Pilot Program, and now under the new DOJ guidance, companies are trying to qualify for cooperation credit. That puts more attention than ever on the individuals actually responsible for the overseas bribery. The fruits of the policy were evident in 2017.”
Jeffrey Chow Is The Lawyer Implicated Connection With The Keppel Offshore & Marine Enforcement Action
In connection with last week’s net $105.5 million Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action against Keppel Offshore & Marine (see here for the prior post), the DOJ noted that it “also unsealed charges … against a former senior member of KOM’s legal department, who pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA on Aug. 29, 2017 in the Eastern District of New York.”
That individual is Jeffrey Chow, a U.S. citizen and Tulane educated lawyer, who had various positions in the legal department of KOM “including Administrative Manager, General Manager and Director, from at least in or about and between 1990 and 2017.” (See here for the DOJ information).
DOJ Announces FCPA Enforcement Action Against Former Embraer Exec Colin Steven
In 2016, Embraer (a Brazil-based aircraft manufacturer with American Depositary Shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange) resolved a parallel DOJ / SEC Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action alleging improper conduct in the Dominican Republic, Saudi Arabia, Mozambique, and India (See here for the prior post).
The net FCPA settlement amount was $187 million and in terms of Saudi Arabia it was alleged that “Embraer [largely through the conduct of Executive B] agreed to pay and did pay Saudi Arabia Official [described as “an official in a high-level decision-making position in a state-owned and controlled company in Saudi Arabia that performed a government function] more than $1.5 million to obtain a contract for the sale of three business jets, valued at approximately $93 million to Saudi Arabia Instrumentality.”
Yesterday, the DOJ returned to these allegations and announced an enforcement action against Executive B, also known as Colin Steven (a U.K. citizen residing in the United Arab Emirates).
FCPA Flash – A Conversation With Leslie Caldwell (Former Ass’t AG, DOJ Criminal Division) About The DOJ’s New “FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy”
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 Leslie Caldwell. Caldwell is currently partner in the San Francisco and Silicon Valley offices of Latham & Watkins and previously served as the Assistant Attorney General of the DOJ’s Criminal Division. In this role, Caldwell was involved in implementing and promoting the DOJ’s April 2016 FCPA Pilot Program.