Several prior posts (see here, here, here, here, here, here and here) have highlighted the general issue that a troubling amount of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement (particularly by the SEC and its internal controls theories) amounts to little more than ipse dixit ((Latin for he himself said it – an unsupported statement that rests solely on the authority of the individual who makes it – in other words because the SEC says so).
The FCPA’s internal controls provisions require issuers to have “internal accounting controls sufficient to provide reasonable assurances” that certain limited financial objectives are met. The FCPA then provides the following definition of “reasonably assurances” and “reasonable detail” – “such level of detail and degree of assurance as would satisfy prudent officials in the conduct of their own affairs.”
