Banking bar, Kokesh related, OECD shaming, quotable, downfall, and listening in. It’s all here in the FCPA roundup.
Banking Bar
The Federal Reserve recently announced “that it is prohibiting Tim Leissner and Ng Chong Hwa, also known as Roger Ng, from the banking industry for their participation in a scheme to illegally divert billions of dollars from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund. Leissner was also fined $1.42 million and consented to the permanent ban.”
This previous post went in-depth into the rather unusual Vantage Drilling Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action and this post continues the analysis by highlighting additional issues to consider.
Timeline
As highlighted here, in July 2015 (or shortly thereafter) Vantage Drilling voluntarily disclosed to the DOJ/SEC. Thus, from start to finish the company’s FCPA scrutiny lasted approximately 3.5 years. While this is below recent averages of approximately 4.5 years, it is still too long for FCPA scrutiny to last particularly since Vantage Drilling, in the words of the SEC:
Recently, Steven Peikin (Co-Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement) gave this speech in which he talked about the meanings of success of the SEC’s enforcement program as well as the remedies and relief available to the SEC in enforcement actions.
While not Foreign Corrupt Practices Act specific, Peikin’s speech was FCPA relevant and portions of the speech (along with commentary) are excerpted below.
This previous post highlighted the SEC’s $25.2 million FCPA enforcement action against Sanofi and this post continues the analysis by highlighting additional issues to consider.
Timeline
Sanofi’s FCPA scrutiny began in mid-2014 (see this prior post). Thus, from start to finish, its scrutiny lasted approximately 4 years.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record to regular readers … if the FCPA enforcement agencies want the public to have confidence in their FCPA enforcement programs, they must resolve instances of FCPA scrutiny much quicker. The validity and credibility of FCPA enforcement depends on this. Having FCPA scrutiny linger for over four years is inexcusable particularly since Sanofi, in the words of the SEC:
Prior posts here and here highlighted the DOJ’s June FCPA enforcement action against Legg Mason regarding business conduct in Libya. It was noted in the prior post that FCPA enforcement actions against issuers that involve a DOJ and SEC component are almost always announced on the same day. Yet for some reason, back in June the i’s were not dotted or the t’s crossed at the SEC and the DOJ’s June enforcement action clearly had a placeholder for the forthcoming SEC prong.
That happened earlier today as the SEC finally announced its enforcement action.
