Slow Down – Rapid International Expansion As An FCPA Risk Factor
Earlier this week, the DOJ and SEC announced a parallel Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action against Stericycle Inc. concerning conduct in Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina.
Portions of the alleged conduct were egregious in that an executive of the company’s Latin America division orchestrated the bribery schemes and others associated with the company used “spreadsheets to track the bribe payments.”
Big picture though, according to the SEC, a root cause of the enforcement action was Stericycle’s rapid international expansion.
Issues To Consider From The Quad/Graphics Enforcement Action
This previous post highlighted the SEC’s recent $10 million Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action against Quad/Graphics and this post continues the analysis by highlighting additional issues to consider.
Timeline
As highlighted in this prior post, Quad voluntarily disclosed in April 2016. Thus, from start to finish, the company’s FCPA scrutiny lasted approximately 3.5 years. While this is slightly below the average length of time FCPA scrutiny tends to last in the current era (see here), 3.5 years is still too long for a company that voluntarily disclosed and cooperates to be under FCPA scrutiny.