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ABB Becomes The First Company To Resolve THREE FCPA Enforcement Actions

By on December 6, 2022 in 2022 Enforcement Action, ABB, DOJ Enforcement Action, Foreign Issuers, Repeat Offenders, Root Causes, SEC Enforcement Action, South Africa, Third Parties, Uncategorized
Trifecta

The first time ABB resolved a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action was in 2004 concerning conduct in Nigeria, Angola and Kazakhstan.

The second time ABB resolved an FCPA enforcement action was in 2010 concerning conduct in Mexico as well as in connection with the Iraqi U.N. Oil for Food program.

Since 2017 (see here for the prior post), ABB has been under additional FCPA scrutiny and last Friday ABB became the first company to resolve an FCPA enforcement action for a third time. The latest enforcement action concerned conduct in South Africa and the net FCPA settlement amount was $147.5 million (a DOJ component of net $72.5 million and an SEC component of net $75 million).

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Oracle Becomes The 20th Corporate FCPA Repeat Offender

By on September 28, 2022 in 2022 Enforcement Action, Customer Discounts, Distributor Issues, India, Oracle, Repeat Offenders, SEC Enforcement Action, Technology Industry, Turkey, United Arab Emirates
oracle

As highlighted in this prior post, in 2012 Oracle resolved a $2 million SEC Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action finding that “Oracle violated the books and records and internal accounting controls provisions of the FCPA by failing to prevent Oracle India Private Limited from keeping unauthorized side funds at distributors from 2005 to 2007.”

As a condition of settlement, Oracle consented to the entry of a final judgment, among other things, “permanently enjoining it from future violations” of the books and records and internal controls provisions and in resolving the matter the SEC noted the “significant enhancements” Oracle made to its FCPA compliance program.

Yesterday, the SEC announced a $22.9 million FCPA enforcement action against Oracle “to resolve charges that it violated provisions of the FCPA when subsidiaries in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and India created and used slush funds to bribe foreign officials in return for business between 2016 and 2019.”

In resolving a second FCPA enforcement action, Oracle becomes the 20th corporate FCPA repeat offender (see here for the list).

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FCPA Repeat Offenders

By on June 6, 2022 in Repeat Offenders
repeatoffender

As highlighted in this post, 19 companies have resolved FCPA enforcement actions – not once – but twice. Ten of these instances have occurred since 2017.

Note: this post uses the term repeat offender to mean a business organization that has resolved more than one FCPA enforcement action regardless of which agency (DOJ or SEC) brought the enforcement action; regardless of the form of resolution (plea agreement, NPA, DPA, administrative order, etc.) and regardless of whether the charges or findings were anti-bribery violations or books and records and internal controls violations in connection with foreign bribery issues. This post does not include instances in which a company resolved an enforcement action concerning foreign bribery and then resolved an action implicating the books and records and internal controls in a so-called non-FCPA FCPA enforcement action. (See here and here for examples). Nor does it include instances in which there was a time gap between a DOJ enforcement action and an SEC enforcement action based on the same core conduct (for instance Las Vegas Sands and Beam).

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Friday Roundup

By on November 19, 2021 in Beam Inc., Compliance, COVID-19, Debra Parris, Enforcement Agency Policy, Enforcement Agency Speeches, FCPA Statistics, Monitor, MTS Systems, Repeat Offenders
Roundup

Under scrutiny again, guilty plea, and for your listening enjoyment.

It’s all here in the Friday roundup.

Under Scrutiny Again

As highlighted in this prior post, in 2019 Russia-based Mobile TeleSystems PJSC (MTS) agreed to resolve an $850 million DOJ/SEC FCPA enforcement action based on the same alleged core conduct in several other Uzbekistan telecom focused FCPA enforcement actions. (See here and here). As a condition of settlement, MTS was required to retain an independent compliance monitor.

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Deputy AG Monaco On Individual Accountability, Prior Misconduct, Monitors, And NPAs and DPAs (With Commentary)

By on November 1, 2021 in Deferred Prosecution Agreements, DOJ, Enforcement Agency Policy, Enforcement Agency Speeches, Individual Enforcement Action, Monitor, Non-Prosecution Agreement, Repeat Offenders, Uncategorized
Monaco

Last week, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco delivered this speech as part of the ABA’s National Institute on White Collar Crime.

While the speech is generating a significant amount of attention, substantively the speech was largely a yawner and the policy changes articulated are marginal at best and elevate form over substance.

As has been highlighted several times on these pages, FCPA (and related) enforcement has long suffered from the following problem (nicely articulated by a practitioner in 1982):

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