Policy Considerations Archives

Issues To Consider From The SQM Enforcement Action

By Mike Koehler on February 7, 2017 in Gray Cloud, Internal Controls, Policy Considerations, Political Contributions, Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile S.A.

This previous post went in-depth into the $30.5 million Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action against Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile S.A. (SQM) announced on January 13th. The action focused on the Chilean chemical and mining company’s conduct with Chilean officials.

As mentioned in the original post, there was no U.S. nexus alleged other than SQM having Series B shares, a form of American Depository Shares, listed on the New York Stock Exchange and thus being required to file periodic reports with the SEC.

This post highlights additional issues to consider.

Friday Roundup

By Mike Koehler on January 9, 2015 in ALSTOM, Bahamas, Compliance, FCPA Jurisprudence, Joseph Sigelman, Kazuo Okada, Lawrence Hoskins, Policy Considerations, U.K. Bribery Act, United Kingdom, Universal Corporation

From the dockets, cleared, when the dust settles, outreach, and quotable. It’s all here in the Friday roundup.

From the Dockets

Sigelman

This recent post highlighted the motion to dismiss filed by Joseph Sigelman. Among other things, Sigelman challenged the DOJ’s interpretation and application of the “foreign official” element in regards to Ecopetrol, the alleged “the state-owned and state-controlled petroleum company in Colombia.”

On December 30th, U.S. District Judge Joseph Irenas denied the motion (as well as addressed other motions) in a 1 page order.

Hoskins

This recent post highlighted the motion to dismiss filed by Lawrence Hoskins. Among other things, the motion argued that the indictment “charges stale and time-barred conduct that occurred more than a decade ago; it asserts violations of U.S. law by a British citizen who never stepped foot on U.S. soil during the relevant time period; and, it distorts the definition of the time-worn legal concept of agency beyond recognition.”

In this December 29th ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Janet Arterton (D. Conn.) denied the motion to dismiss concluding that factual issues remain as to the disputed issues.

Cleared

Remember Kazuo Okada and Universal Entertainment Corp. They were at the center of a boardroom battle royal with Wynn Resorts in which a Wynn sanctioned report stated:

“Mr. Okada, his associates and companies appear to have engaged in a longstanding practice of making payments and gifts to his two (2) chief gaming regulators at the Philippines Amusement and Gaming Corporation (“PAGCOR”), who directly oversee and regulate Mr. Okada’s Provisional Licensing Agreement to operate in that country. Since 2008, Mr. Okada and his associates have made multiple payments to and on behalf of these chief regulators, former PAGCOR Chairman Efraim Genuino and Chairman Cristino Naguiat (his current chief regulator), their families and PAGCOR associates, in an amount exceeding $110,000.” The report categorizes this conduct as “prima facie violations” of the FCPA.

Universal recently issued this release which states:

“The Prosecutor General of the Philippines has proposed to the Secretary of Justice to terminate the investigation into the groundless suspicion that our group may have offered bribes to officials of Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation …”.

When The Dust Settles

It is always interesting to see what happens when the dust settles from an FCPA enforcement action (see here for the prior post).

A portion of the recent Alstom enforcement action alleged improper payments in connection with power projects with the Bahamas Electricity Corporation (“BEC”), the state-owned and state-controlled power company.

According to the Nassau Guardian “Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson said The Bahamas has requested information from the US regarding the allegations, including the identity of the alleged bribe taker.”

This follow-up report states:

“Former Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) board member Philip Beneby said on Tuesday he would find it hard to believe that any member of the board accepted bribes from a French power company to swing BEC contracts its way. […] “The allegation is stating that a member of the board received some kickback, but it’s kind of strange to me that a member of the board would receive a kickback if the board unanimously agreed that the contract be awarded to Hanjung out of Korea, then only to find out later that the Cabinet overturned the board’s decision. So that decision to not award Hanjung from Korea the contract came from the Cabinet, not from the board.” According to Beneby and former minister with responsibility for BEC, Bradley Roberts, in 2000 the board of BEC unanimously voted to award a generator contract to Hanjung Co. out of South Korea, but that decision was overturned by the then Ingraham Cabinet, which decided to award the contract to Alstom (then ABB). […] Former deputy prime minister Frank Watson was the minister at the time responsible for BEC. He said the decision to award the contract to Alstom was a Cabinet decision that involved no bribery. Watson insisted he was unaware of any claims that a bribe had been paid with respect to the award of that particular contract. Beneby, who is the proprietor of Courtesy Supermarket, said he remembers the event quite well as it was the first time a board decision was overturned.”

As explored in this prior post, many FCPA enforcement actions assume an actual casual link between alleged payments and obtaining or retaining business. However, the reality is that such a casual link is not always present.

Outeach

This event notice from the New England Chapter of the National Defense Industrial Association caught my eye.

“FBI Seminar on FCPA and International Corruption: Outreach to Industry Education Session

Join us for an engaging morning seminar to learn how to be compliant with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The FBI’s International Corruption Unit (ICU) is conducting private sector outreach and education to support a new initiative. The FBI recognizes the importance of forging new partnerships and strengthening existing relationships to help level the playing field for US businesses competing internationally. By fostering better understanding of FCPA requirements, the FBI and private sector can join forces more efficiently to fight international corruption and ensure fair global markets and a strong US economy.

The FBI is excited to showcase five pillars of FCPA compliance in their program: Private Sector Outreach, Training and Education, Dedicated Personnel, Domestic and International Partnerships and Proactive Enterprise Theory Investigations. Utilizing the five pillars approach, the FBI is gaining new momentum and expertise.

Additionally, the FBI will discuss new analysis outlining bribery hotspots and trends. Using charts and graphs the FBI will examine the latest bribe payment techniques, who is paying bribes and who is accepting bribes. Specific regions of the world will be discussed along with the various risks associated with doing business in these areas.

Lastly, the FBI will present a guest speaker who violated the FCPA, cooperated with the FBI and eventually was incarcerated for his crimes. This segment will provide a unique and impactful insight into the rationalization of an employee who paid bribes, despite knowledge and training on FCPA.The FBI is looking forward to the opportunity to discuss best practices and enhance FCPA compliance with industry partners”

Quotable

This recent Forbes article ask “isn’t it strange that the U.S. gets to fine Alstom, a French company, for bribery not in the U.S.?” The article concludes:

“It’s most certainly not good economics that one court jurisdiction gets to fine companies from all over the world on fairly tenuous grounds. Who would really like it if Russia’s legal system extended all the way around the world? Or North Korea’s? And I’m pretty sure that the non-reciprocity isn’t good public policy either. Eventually it’s going to start getting up peoples’ noses and they’ll be looking for ways to punish American companies in their own jurisdictions under their own laws. And there won’t be all that much that the U.S. can honestly do to complain about it, given their previous actions.”

That is pretty much what Senator Christopher Coons said during the November 2010 Senate FCPA hearing. “”Today we the only nation that is extending extraterritorial reach and going after the citizens of other countries, we may someday find ourselves on the receiving end of such transnational actions.”

In a recent speech, Stuart Alford QC (Joint Head of Fraud at the Serious Fraud Office) addressed the following question: “why have there been no Bribery Act prosecutions; is this Act really being taken seriously?” In response to his own question, Alford stated, in pertinent part:

“The Bribery Act is not retrospective. Therefore, for conduct to be criminal under the Act it has to have been undertaken after 1 July 2011. Often conduct of this type takes some time to surface; and, once it does, it takes time to investigate. SFO cases must, by definition, be serious or complex and they very often include international parties and conduct. While the SFO is always striving to investigate criminal conduct in as timely a way as possible, these types of cases will take some time to move through the process of investigation and on to prosecution.

The Bribery Act represented a very significant shift in setting the standards for the more ethical corporate culture I referred to a moment ago. When one looks at legislation of this kind, both here and abroad, one can see that a flow of prosecutions can take time to develop. We only have to look at the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in the USA, to see that it took many years for that work to build up a head of steam, and not really until the turn of the century did we start to see the level of prosecutions that we do now.”

Spot-on and consistent with my own observations on July 1, 2011 when the Bribery Act went live.

Top Book Review

International Policy Digest recently compiled its top book reviews of 2014. On the list is the following.

Review of Mike Koehler’s ‘The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in the New Era’

By John Giraudo

If you care about the rule of law, ‘The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in the New Era’ by Mike Koehler, is one of the most important books you can read—to learn how it is being eroded. Professor Koehler’s book may not make it to the top of any summer reading list, but it is a must read for people who care about law reform.

For more information on the book, see here.

*****

A good weekend to all.

Friday Roundup

By Mike Koehler on April 11, 2014 in China, Dmitry Firtash, GlaxcoSmithKline, H-P, Monitor, Nigeria, Pharmaceutical Industry, Policy Considerations, Related Foreign Investigations, SEC

It’s a complex world, you ask – I answer, scrutiny alerts and updates, quotable, and for the reading stack. It’s all here in the Friday Roundup.

It’s a Complex World

The world in which we live in is seldom simple and straight-forward. This includes the so-called “fight” against corruption and bribery. Regarding China’s “crackdown” on bribery, the BBC China Blog reports:

“Much has been written about China’s ongoing crackdown on corruption, but now one of the world’s biggest banks has put a price on it. According to a report published by Bank of America Merrill Lynch this week, the Chinese government’s anti-graft campaign could cost the economy more than $100bn this year alone. […] Many of the micro effects of Xi Jingping’s anti-corruption drive have already been well documented of course; a slowdown in the restaurant trade for example, and a big dip in sales of luxury goods. Over the past year or so, in Shanghai’s posh malls and boutique designer shops – once at the centre of the happy merry-go-round of official largesse and gift giving – you’ve almost been able to hear the sound of the weeping and gnashing of teeth. But the BofAML report suggests that the campaign is also having a significant and troubling macroeconomic effect. Since early last year, it says, government bank deposits have been soaring, up almost 30% year on year. Even honest officials, the report suggests, are now so terrified of starting new projects, for fear of being seen as corrupt, that they’re simply keeping public funds in the bank. […] The report’s authors admit their calculations are a “back-of-the-envelope estimate of fiscal contraction”, but even if they are only half right it is an extraordinary amount of money and it highlights some of the challenges facing China’s anti-corruption crusader-in-chief, President Xi Jinping.”

Some-what related to the above topic, as noted in this Washington Times article:

“A key player in Nigeria’s emergence as Africa’s largest economy says U.S. companies are ceding investment opportunities to China and the Obama administration should do more to reverse the trend. “The Obama administration has to focus more on Nigeria, said Prince Adetokunbo Sijuwade, whose family holds royal status in a vital corner of southern Nigeria and is invested heavily in transportation and oil infrastructures. “We feel that we can learn from the U.S. in terms of expertise. […] Prince Sijuwade speculated that several factors may have deterred U.S. investors in recent years, from concerns about government corruption to security. But he argued that allegations of widespread corruption in Nigeria are “overstated.”“Corruption is all over the world,” he said, noting potential U.S. investors’ fears of violating the Justice Department’s anti-corruption laws as an inhibiting factor on Nigerian investment.”

You Ask – I Answer

This op-ed poses the question “what’s driving pharma’s international bribery scandals?”

You ask – I answer.

A dubious and untested enforcement theory + extreme risk aversion because of potential exclusion from government sponsored healthcare programs + other typical reasons for why other companies face FCPA scrutiny, such as employees and third parties acting contrary to a company’s good-faith compliance policies and procedures = several FCPA enforcement actions against pharma and healthcare related companies.

Scrutiny Alerts and Updates

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week:

“GlaxoSmithKline PLC is investigating allegations of bribery by employees in the Middle East, according to emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, opening a new front for the company as it manages a separate corruption probe in China. A person familiar with Glaxo’s Mideast operations emailed the U.K. drug company late last year and earlier this year to report what the person said were corrupt practices in Iraq, including continuing issues and alleged misconduct dating from last year and 2012. The emails cite behavior similar to Glaxo’s alleged misconduct in China, including alleged bribery of physicians. […] In an email, the person said Glaxo hired 16 government-employed physicians and pharmacists in Iraq as paid sales representatives for the company while they continued to work for the government. A government-employed Iraqi emergency-room physician has prescribed Glaxo products, even when they weren’t in the hospital’s pharmacy and a competitor’s brand was in stock, an email from the person said. Glaxo has been hiring government-employed Iraqi doctors as medical representatives and paying their expenses to attend international conferences, the person alleged in the emails. Glaxo pays other doctors high fees to give lectures in exchange for promoting and prescribing its drugs, the allegations continued. After Glaxo won a contract with the Iraqi Ministry of Health in 2012 to supply the company’s Rotarix vaccine, Glaxo paid for a workshop in Lebanon for Iraqi Ministry of Health officials, the email said. That included paying for a doctor’s family to travel to Lebanon “so it would be a family vacation for him at the hotel.”

As noted in the article, GSK has been under FCPA scrutiny since 2011 and GSK’s scrutiny China was the frequent focus of media attention last summer (see here for the prior post).

Quotable

Russel Ryan (King & Spalding and former high-ranking SEC enforcement attorney) hits a home run with this recent Wall Street Journal editorial titled: “When Regulators Think They Are Prosecutors.” It states, in pertinent part:

“[A]dministrative agencies like the SEC were never intended to become arms of law enforcement. They were created to regulate, not prosecute. […] There are good constitutional reasons why agencies like the SEC were not born with this power to prosecute and punish. Prosecuting private citizens and companies is serious business. It’s a core executive branch function historically entrusted to the attorney general, a “principal Officer” subject to unfettered presidential control under Article II of the Constitution. […] [I]f policy makers insist on transforming the commission and similar agencies into quasi-criminal prosecutors with ever-increasing power to seek harsh punitive sanctions, those agencies should be brought under the stewardship of the attorney general or given cabinet rank with leaders who are removable at the president’s pleasure. Even that wouldn’t cure a second level of constitutional infirmity. Based mostly on precedent established before the SEC had any power to punish, courts have exempted SEC prosecutions from many bedrock due-process protections taken for granted in criminal cases. The presumption of innocence, for example, is largely meaningless because the SEC can win by a mere “preponderance of the evidence” rather than proof beyond reasonable doubt. The right to remain silent is equally hollow because courts let the SEC treat silence as evidence of guilt. For SEC defendants who can’t afford a good lawyer, tough luck, because there’s no right to have counsel appointed at government expense as there would be in a criminal prosecution. And even when the SEC loses after trial, double jeopardy doesn’t prevent it from trying to reverse the verdict or force a retrial, as it would a criminal prosecutor. Dodd-Frank made things even worse by expanding the SEC’s ability to impose draconian financial penalties in administrative proceedings that have lax evidentiary rules, no jury trial, and limited judicial oversight.Basic constitutional safeguards should protect American citizens and businesses whenever a law-enforcement agency seeks to punish them for alleged wrongdoing, even in nominally civil proceedings. It’s time to incorporate those safeguards into an increasingly penal administrative prosecution system that is quickly sliding down a slick and constitutionally hazardous slope.”

For Ryan’s previous guest post on similar issues, see here.

Reading Stack

Certain of the conduct at issue in this week’s FCPA enforcement action against HP and related entities concerned alleged conduct in Poland. This article from a Polish news service looks at what happens “when the dust settles.”

An insightful post on the Trace Blog from a former DOJ FCPA enforcement attorney who oversaw several monitors titled “Five Questions That can Keep Your Monitor From Running Away.” Perhaps the best question though is: are monitors truly needed in many FCPA resolutions? (See here and here for prior posts).

For your viewing enjoyment here, recently indicted Ukrainian businessman Dmytro Firtash (see here) has released a video which insists he is an innocent party caught at the center of a “battlefield for the two biggest global players of Russia and the USA”.

*****

A good weekend to all.

Top Menu

Navigation

Issues To Consider From The SQM Enforcement Action

Friday Roundup

Subscribe