This post has little to do with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act specifically.
However, during the early months of Covid in Spring 2020, this post highlighted how the standard in the FCPA’s internal controls (and books and records) provisions is “reasonable” and that “reasonable” (a term used throughout the law) contemplates a variety of factors including the circumstances in which conduct occurs.
Given that FCPA scrutiny tends to last 4 years on average – and given that conduct giving rise to FCPA scrutiny tends to be up to 5-10 years old – this site has more than once “wondered” how FCPA internal control and/or books and records “deficiencies” will be viewed in future FCPA enforcement actions for the general time period March 2020 – 2021 (or perhaps even 2022).
If this recent Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) enforcement action against Goldman Sachs is any indication, the answer is the government may not care about the real-world conditions during that time period.