Friday Roundup
Former SEC FCPA Unit Chief Kara Brockmeyer on declinations and voluntary disclosure, Wal-Mart’s global chief ethics and compliance officer on increased standardization in global anti-corruption efforts, scrutiny updates, French first, and for the reading stack.
It’s all here in the Friday Roundup.
Former SEC FCPA Unit Chief Kara Brockmeyer On Declinations and Voluntary Disclosure
Brockmeyer is profiled in this recent Corporate Crime Report Q&A. (See here for a recent FCPA Flash podcast with Brockmeyer).
DOJ Charges Two Individuals With FCPA And Other Violations In Connection With An African Bribery Scheme On Behalf Of CEFC China Energy Company Ltd.
Yesterday, the DOJ announced that Chi Ping Patrick Ho (of Hong Kong, China) and Cheikh Gadio (of Senegal) were criminally charged with conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, violating the FCPA, conspiring to commit international money laundering, and committing international money laundering.
Although not specifically mentioned in the DOJ’s indictment, it is easy to connect the dots that Ho is associated with China Energy Fund Committee (CEFC) and as noted here, CEFC is “fully funded by CEFC China Energy Company Limited.” Gadio is associated with Sarata Holding (a consulting and advising firm specializing in business and development partnerships with Africa).
Big picture – in the past two weeks – the DOJ has announced three core FCPA enforcement actions involving 9 individuals. (See here for the November 7th action against 5 individuals associated with Rolls-Royce and here for the November 9th action against 2 individuals associated with SBM Offshore).
Reading Assignment For All Executive Officers: The Mace Enforcement Action
The recent Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action against Anthony Mace (the former CEO of SBM Offshore) is a must read
FCPA lawyers should send this post to their clients. In-house counsel and other compliance professionals should send this post to their executive officers and the Mace enforcement action should make its way into FCPA training and communications.
For starters, criminal FCPA enforcement actions against large company employees are unusual. (As highlighted in this prior post, the vast majority of individual criminal FCPA enforcement actions are against persons associated with small, privately held business organizations).
DOJ Announces FCPA Enforcement Action Against Two Former SBM Offshore Executives
If you are scoring at home, in the past 48 hours the DOJ has announced FCPA enforcement actions involving 7 individuals. (See here for the prior post regarding the FCPA enforcement action earlier this week against 5 individuals associated with Rolls-Royce).
By way of comparison, as highlighted in this post, in all of 2016 8 individuals were involved in DOJ FCPA enforcement actions and in 2015 8 individuals were also involved in DOJ FCPA enforcement actions.
In other words, those predicting a slow down in FCPA enforcement in the Trump administration were ignorant to begin with, but now really need to move on to other topics.
SEC Co-Director Of Enforcement Peikin Reflects On The Past, Present, And Future Of The SEC’s Enforcement Of The FCPA
Earlier today, Steven Peikin (Co-Director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division) delivered this speech at a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act / OECD Convention Anniversary Conference held at NYU School of Law. This post excerpts portions of Peikn’s remarks.
But first a few comments.
In talking about the past, I wonder if Peikin is even aware of the following historical fact. As highlighted in the article “The Story of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,” the SEC never wanted any role in enforcing the FCPA’s anti-bribery provisions. However, congressional leaders at the time of the FCPA’s enactment had a high level of distrust with the Justice Department and insisted, against the SEC’s objections both when the FCPA was enacted in 1977 and when it was first amended in 1988, that it play a role in enforcing the FCPA’s anti-bribery provisions.