The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has always been a law much broader than its name suggests.

Sure, the FCPA contains anti-bribery provisions which concern foreign bribery.

Sure, the FCPA’s books and records and internal controls provisions can be implicated in foreign bribery schemes.

However, the fact remains that most FCPA enforcement actions (that is enforcement actions that charge or find violations of the FCPA’s books and records and internal controls provisions) have nothing to do with foreign bribery. For lack of a better term, these enforcement actions have longed been called non-FCPA, FCPA enforcement actions by this site.

The latest examples concerns TAL Education Group (TAL) (a company incorporated in the Cayman Islands and having its principal place of business in China with American Depository Shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange).

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Just two week days remain in the SEC’s fiscal year and time will tell whether historical end of September Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement actions will be forthcoming.

In the meantime, we can nibble on a non-FCPA, FCPA enforcement action announced by the SEC today (among a flurry of actions announced in recent days).

Non-FCPA, FCPA enforcement actions are a term long used by this site to describe enforcement actions that charge or find violations of the FCPA’s books and records and internal controls provisions that have nothing to do with foreign bribery. 

The latest example involves Hyzon Motors Inc. (a New York-based company that builds hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles) and Craig Knight, (Hyzon’s former CEO and Max Holthausen (former managing director of Hyzon’s European subsidiary).

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Four week days remain in the SEC’s fiscal year and time will tell whether historical end of September Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement actions will be forthcoming.

In the meantime, we can nibble on a non-FCPA, FCPA enforcement action released by the SEC yesterday (among a flurry of actions announced in recent days).

Non-FCPA, FCPA enforcement actions are a term long used by this site to describe enforcement actions that charge or find violations of the FCPA’s books and records and internal controls provisions that have nothing to do with foreign bribery. 

The latest example involves GTT Communications (a Virginia based company with shares listed on the NYSE until 2021 which thereafter filed for bankruptcy and emerged as a private company in 2022).

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