On July 7th the U.K. Guardian reported (here) that “up to five [U.K. police] officers were paid between them a total of at least £100,000 in cash from the News of the World.” The next day, Dominic Rushe and Jill Treanor of the U.K. Guardian made the link (see here) between these payments and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
What followed over the next 10 days was the most intense worldwide media coverage of the FCPA in its nearly 35 year history.
Last Wednesday, in a development seldom – if ever – seen in the FCPA context, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and John Rockefeller (D-WV) wrote Attorney General Eric Holder and SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro (see here) requesting “that the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission investigate whether News Corporation, a U.S.-based corporation, has violated United States law – specifically the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977.” Separately, Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) wrote Holder and Schapiro (see here). Senator Lautenberg stated as follows. “The limited information already reported in this case raises serious questions about the legality of the conduct of News Corporation and its subsidiaries under the FCPA. Further investigation may reveal that current reports only scratch the surface of the problem at News Corporation. Accordingly, I am requesting that DOJ and the SEC examine these circumstances and determine whether U.S. laws have been violated.”
Public interest groups (see here for one example) also began demanding an FCPA inquiry into the News of the World scandal.
Soon thereafter, it was reported that the FBI (an agency that investigates allegations of criminal violations of the FCPA under the supervision of the Fraud Section of the DOJ Criminal Division) opened an investigation of News Corp. Among others, Congressmen John Conyers “applaud[ed] Attorney General Eric Holder’s announcement that the Justice Department has opened a formal investigation into allegations that News Corp. may have violated both federal wiretapping statutes and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.” (See here).
The News Corp. scandal is wide in scope potentially implicating several laws both here in the U.S. and the U.K. This post focuses on News Corp.’s potential FCPA exposure.
Can the FCPA apply to News Corp. even if the improper conduct took place outside of the U.S.?
Yes. News Corp. is a U.S. company and as such the FCPA has extraterritorial application meaning it can face FCPA liability even if the conduct at issue takes places entirely outside of the U.S. Indeed, in most FCPA enforcement actions the conduct at issue takes place outside of the U.S. Further, it is very common in FCPA enforcement actions for parent companies to be held legally responsible for the acts of subsidiary employees on the theory that such employees acted as “agents” of the parent company and that the parent company ultimately derived the financial benefit from the improper conduct at issue.
Indeed, even News Corp.’s FCPA policies and procedures (here) states as follows. “The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) is a U.S. law that forbids bribery of foreign (meaning non-U.S.) government officials, whether elected or appointed, even if the bribe takes place outside the United States. Because News Corporation is a U.S. corporation, the FCPA may apply to all Company employees everywhere in the world, regardless of their nationality or where they reside or do business.”
Why do the London police payments implicate the FCPA’s anti-bribery provisions?
As a general matter, the FCPA’s anti-bribery provisions prohibit the payment of money or anything of value to a “foreign official” to “obtain or retain business.” London police officers are “foreign officials” under the FCPA. For instance, in this 2006 FCPA enforcement action the DOJ asserted that an Iraqi police officer was a “foreign official” under the FCPA.
As to “obtain or retain business,” for most of its history FCPA enforcement actions focused on payments to “foreign officials” to “obtain or retain business” with a foreign government. However, during the past decade, the DOJ has brought numerous FCPA enforcement actions premised on payments to customs officials, tax officials, immigration officials and the like where the payments have nothing to do with “obtaining or retaining business” with a foreign government. Rather, the payments were alleged to have assisted the payor in “obtaining or retaining” business in the general sense.
The leading court decision on this issue is U.S. v. Kay. 359 F.3d 738, 740 (5th Cir. 2004). As further explained in this piece (pages 917-921), in Kay, a U.S. circuit court (one step below the U.S. Supreme Court) concluded that payments to a “foreign official” to lower taxes and custom duties in a foreign country can provide an unfair advantage to the payer over competitors and thereby assist the payer in obtaining and retaining business. The court concluded that there was “little difference” between these type of payments and traditional FCPA violations in which a company makes payments to a “foreign official” to influence or induce the official to award a government contract. Even so, the court stated that not all such payments to a “foreign official” outside the context of directly securing a foreign government contract violate the FCPA; it merely held that such payments “could” violate the FCPA. The court recognized that “there are bound to be circumstances” in which a custom or tax reduction merely increases the profitability of an existing profitable company and thus, presumably, does not assist the payer in obtaining or retaining business.
Despite Kay’s equivocal holding, there has been a significant increase in FCPA enforcement actions since the decision concerning payments to “foreign officials” that better position the payor to “obtain or retain business” in the general sense. (See for instance the “CustomsGate” category under the Search page of this site).
Thus, payments to London police officers that allowed News of the World to obtain non-public information to write sensational news stories – and thus sell more newspapers – would seem to fit the type of FCPA enforcement common post-Kay. Given that News Corp. is a media company and its product is information, such payments are similar to an oil and gas company making payments to a “foreign official” to obtain non-public information concerning the location of oil and gas deposits.
What about the FCPA’s books and records and internal control provisions?
In addition to its anti-bribery provisions, the FCPA also contains books and records and internal control provisions applicable to U.S. listed companies such as News Corp. The books and records provision requires that “issuers” (the statutory term for U.S. listed companies) “make and keep books, records, and accounts, which, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the issuer.” The internal controls provision require that “issuers” “devise and maintain a system of internal accounting controls sufficient to provide reasonable assurances that:” among other things, “transactions are executed in accordance with management’s general or specific authorization;” “access to assets is permitted only in accordance with management’s general or specific authorization;” and “transactions are recorded as necessary to permit a preparation of financial statements in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles … and to maintain accountability for assets.”
These provisions, despite being part of the FCPA, are generic in scope. Thus, if other payments part of News Corp.’s wide-ranging scandal – such as “hush” settlement payments to phone hacking victims are misrecorded on the company’s books and records, such entries would provide the basis for independent FCPA books and records violations – even if such conduct does not directly implicate the FCPA’s anti-bribery provisions. As to the London police payments, such payments, if not recorded accurately on the company’s books and records, would of course also give rise to an independent FCPA books and records violation. Both the DOJ and the SEC (which also has FCPA jurisdiction over U.S. listed companies) frequently hold parent companies liable for the books and records violations of subsidiaries on the theory that subsidiary books and records are consolidated with the parent company’s books and records for purposes of financial reporting.
As to the FCPA’s internal control provisions, the enforcement agencies often take the rather simplistic position that because the payments were made or because corporate expenses were not accurately recorded, the company did not have effective internal controls.
If News Corp. faces FCPA liability does that mean that executive officers will as well?
Not necessarily. Under U.S. legal principles, a corporate entity such as News Corp. can face legal liability based on the conduct of any employee or agent to the extent the employee or agent was acting within the scope of their authority and the conduct was intended to benefit, at least in part, the organization. Many FCPA enforcement actions against corporate entities result from the improper conduct of low to mid-ranking employees in the absence of any allegation that executive officers or board members knew about the conduct at issue or participated in the conduct at issue. Thus, just because News Corp. may face FCPA liability under these principles does not necessarily mean that executive officers will as well.
As to individuals (whether high-ranking executives or otherwise) there needs to be some evidence of culpable conduct – which in the FCPA criminal context – often means participating in the improper conduct, authorizing the improper conduct, or knowing of the improper conduct but failing to put a stop to it.
Will U.S. authorities defer to British authorities in investigating the London police payments?
Some have suggested that U.S. authorities are unlikely to bring an enforcement action because the U.K. has strong anti-corruption laws and is capable of handling this matter domestically. I disagree. The U.K. Bribery Act went live on July 1st, but it only covers conduct that occurs after that date. Prior to the Bribery Act, the U.K. had a hodgepodge of antiquated bribery and corruption statutes. However, the problem with those statutes is they required a “controlling mind” of the corporate to be involved in the conduct at issue in order to prosecute the entity. The weakness of these pre-Bribery Act laws was clearly evident in the U.K. BAE enforcement action from 2010. As the Serious Fraud Office stated in court papers “a serious evidential difficulty had been identified in respect of potential corruption charges, namely the difficulty of proving the involvement of a ‘controlling mind’ in the offending.” Thus, if there is no evidence of “controlling minds” being involved in the London police payments, pre-Bribery Act laws will be insufficient to bring bribery charges as occurred in the BAE matter. This evidentiary difficulty is one of the reasons the U.K. passed the Bribery Act.
U.S. enforcement agencies have a good relationship with their U.K. counterparts and cooperation between the agencies is likely to occur, but there is little reason to believe that the U.S. will stand down and not bring an enforcement action if that is what the evidence warrants. In fact, there have been several FCPA enforcement actions concerning U.K. business entities, based on conduct occurring in the U.K.,and/or involving U.K. citizens. See here for the 2010 FCPA enforcement action relating to Innospec, here for the FCPA enforcement action concerning employees of Pacific Consolidated Industries and here for the FCPA enforcement action against U.K. citizen Jeffrey Tesler.
What is likely to happen next?
There are multiple reasons why News Corp. will cooperate, if it is not already, in the DOJ’s FCPA investigation. The DOJ has substantial discretion (some would argue too much) in resolving corporate criminal matters. Under the DOJ’s Principles of Prosecution of Business Organizations (see here), one of the factors DOJ will consider in deciding how to resolve any potential action is the company’s cooperation. Cooperation in the FCPA context often means conducting an internal, independent review of the conduct at issue and sharing the results, witness statements, key documents, etc. with the enforcement agencies on a near real-time basis. Cooperation is also a mitigating factor under the advisory U.S. Sentencing Guidelines which provide a monetary penalty range for all FCPA criminal actions.
How long is this FCPA gray cloud likely to hang over News Corp?
Likely for a few years. It is typical for an FCPA enforcement inquiry to begin based on a certain set of limited and discrete facts – here the London police payments. However, before the enforcement agencies (DOJ or SEC) will agree to resolve an FCPA matter, it is typical for the agencies to ask the “where else” question. In other words, the question will be – if News Corp. employees (broadly speaking) made the London police payments, did other News Corp. employees around the world make similar payments to “foreign officials” to “obtain or retain business.” To answer this question, and because News Corp. is likely in cooperation mode and because the company has an incentive to learn this information itself, News Corp. will likely conduct a targeted world-wide review of its operations. Such a review takes time and often costs tens of millions of dollars in professional fees and expenses. Because of these dynamics, it is typical for FCPA scrutiny – from the point of investigation to the point of enforcement action – to last between 2-4 years.
