Credit when credit is due, no fear despite fear based marketing, a further Section 1504 development, and individual prosecutions in Canada, it’s all here in the Friday roundup.
Credit When Credit is Due
In this previous February 2012 post, I called out the DOJ for its deficient and misleading FCPA website in that the website did not inform the public of the DOJ’s setbacks in the Africa Sting cases, the O’Shea case, the Wooh case and the Lindsey Manufacturing cases. I ended the post by saying that the DOJ’s FCPA website ought to be improved and ought to keep citizens informed of all FCPA developments – not just those that cast the DOJ in a favorable light.
I am happy to dole out credit when credit is due and can now report that Wooh’s entry (here), O’Shea’s entry (here), the Lindsey related entry (here) and the numerous Africa Sting related entries have all been updated to reflect the final disposition of those cases.
Few Companies Concerned About the U.K. Bribery Act
Despite marketing campaigns that were often based on fear and overblown rhetoric, one year into the U.K. Bribery Act few companies have changed their compliance programs as a result and even fewer are concerned about an enforcement action being brought against their organization, according to this recent poll by Deloitte Financial Advisory Services. Specifically 24% of respondents answered “yes” to the following question – “in July 2012, one year after the UK Bribery Act enforcement began, will your company have changed its anti-corruption program to comply” and 9% answered “yes” to the following question – “one year after UK Bribery Act enforcement began, is your company concerned about a UK action being brought against your organization.”
That is pretty much what I predicted in this January 3, 2011 post that states as follows – “I don’t see how companies already subject to the FCPA and already thinking about compliance in a pro-active manner, have much to worry about when it comes to the U.K. Bribery Act …”.
Even so, the silly marketing continues as evidenced by this post “Don’t Be Lulled by a Dearth of UK Bribery Act Convictions” which begins as follows. “Be warned that the UK Bribery Act is considered to be the world’s most restrictive and far-reaching anti-corruption law to date. This measure differs in many key aspects from the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.”
A Further Section 1504 Development
This recent post provided an update on Section 1504 of Dodd-Frank, the so-called Resource Extraction Issuer Disclosure Provisions, an ill-conceived “miscellaneous provision” tucked into Dodd-Frank at the last minute that will substantially increase compliance costs and headaches for numerous companies that already have extensive FCPA compliance policies and procedures by further requiring disclosure of perfectly legal and legitimate payments to foreign governments.
In a further update, last week several House members wrote to SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro “regarding the status of the long-delayed final rule making.” In the letter, the House members state that the Commission “has had more than enough time to consider and respond to all of the substantive comments from industry, civil society, investors and others” and that the “issue is too serious to allow further delay.”
Canada Prosecutions
Recent media articles (see here from the Globe and Mail and here from the Canadian Press) report that “two former executives of SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. have been charged with corrupting foreign officials” under Canada’s FCPA-like law, the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act. Ramesh Shah (a former Vice President) and Mohammad Ismail (a former Director of International Projects) allegedly “offered payment to secure contracts for supervision and construction of the Padma Bridge and an elevated expressway in Dhaka, Bangladesh.”
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A good weekend to all.
