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Friday Roundup

By on March 13, 2020 in Amec Foster Wheeler, Andres Truppel, Eberhard Reichert, John Wood Group, Monitor, Siemens, Siemens Argentina Enforcement Action, ZTE
Roundup

Scrutiny alerts, wow that case is still going on, and for the reading stack.

It’s all here in the Friday roundup.

Scrutiny Alerts

ZTE

According to this report “ZTE, the Chinese telecom giant that pleaded guilty three years ago to violating U.S. sanctions against Iran and North Korea, is the subject of a new and separate bribery investigation by the Justice Department […] The new investigation … centers on possible bribes ZTE paid to foreign officials to gain advantages in its worldwide operations. […] [N]ews reports, documents and at least one lawsuit filed in recent years have accused ZTE of corruption in more than a dozen countries, including Algeria, Liberia, Kenya and Zimbabwe.” (See here for a 2018 post regarding ZTE).

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78 Year Old German National Pleads Guilty In Connection With Argentine Bribery Scheme That Largely Occurred Approximately 20 Years Ago

By on March 23, 2018 in Eberhard Reichert, Siemens Argentina Enforcement Action
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As highlighted in this prior post, in December 2011 the DOJ criminally charged several former Siemens’ executives and agents in connection with a relatively small prong of Siemens’ overall massive bribery scheme that was resolved in 2008 for a still-record setting $800 million overall settlement amount.

The relatively small prong involved an Argentine national-identify card project and the following individuals were charged for conduct that allegedly occurred between 1996 and 2009: Uriel Sharef, Herbert Steffen, Andres Truppel, Ulrich Bock, Stephan Signer, Eberhard Reichert, Carlos Sergi and Miguel Czysch.

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Friday Roundup

By on January 5, 2018 in ALSTOM, Bombardier, Canada, Ciena Corp, Collateral Effects, Eberhard Reichert, ISO 37001, Joo Hyun Bahn, Larry Kushniruk, Petrobras, Related Civil Litigation, SEC, Siemens Argentina Enforcement Action
Roundup

Guilty plea, Petrobras civil settlement, Alstom is done reporting, scrutiny alert, SEC FCPA enforcement, from the docket, checking in up north, and for the reading stack. It’s all here in the Friday roundup.

Guilty Plea

As highlighted in this prior post, in January 2017 the DOJ announced an FCPA and related enforcement action against four individuals for their roles in a scheme to pay $2.5 million in bribes to facilitate the $800 million sale of a commercial building in Vietnam (the so-called Landmark 72) to a Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund.

Today, the DOJ announced: “Joo Hyun Bahn, aka Dennis Bahn, 39, of Tenafly, New Jersey, pleaded guilty in federal court in Manhattan to one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and one count of violating the FCPA.  U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos of the Southern District of New York accepted the guilty plea.  Sentencing is scheduled for June 29 …”.

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Friday Roundup

By on October 9, 2015 in Andres Truppel, DOJ, Gray Cloud, John Ashe, Kinross Gold Corp., Siemens Argentina Enforcement Action, United Nations
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Alleged bribery at the U.N., former Siemens exec pleads guilty to long-standing charges, scrutiny alerts and updates, quotable, and for the reading stack.

It’s all here in the Friday roundup.

Alleged Bribery at the United Nations

The United Nations does much preaching about bribery and corruption, yet perhaps it should look inward as once again one of its own is alleged to have engaged in bribery and corruption.

This recent criminal complaint charges John Ashe and others with a variety of criminal offenses.  Ashe is described as having various positions at the U.N. including serving as the Permanent Representative of Antigua to the U.N. and recently serving as the President of the U.N. General Assembly.

According to the complaint, various other defendants (most of whom are alleged to be naturalized U.S. citizens, as well as a Chinese national who allegedly has a New York-based non-governmental organization) made bribe payments to Ashe in connection with a U.N. sponsored conference center in Macau, China and to influence business interactions with Antiguan government officials.

The alleged bribery is charged under 18 USC 666 (theft or bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds) on account of the U.N. receiving U.S. federal government funds.

However, Ashe is likely a “foreign official” under the FCPA given that the definition of “foreign official” includes individuals associated with “public international organizations” and the U.N. has been designated as such an organization.

Moreover, as highlighted above, the alleged payors of the bribes to Ashe are predominately naturalized U.S. citizens subject to the FCPA’s anti-bribery provisions. The Chinese national defendant is alleged to have engaged in conduct in the U.S. likely sufficient to satisfy the dd-3 prong of the FCPA.

The recent enforcement action is certainly not the first to involve bribery of a U.N. official.

As highlighted here, the Richard Bistrong enforcement action involved bribe payments to, among others, U.N. officials.

For additional coverage of the Ashe charges, see here.

Former Siemens Exec Pleads Guilty

Recently, the DOJ announced that Andres Truppel of Argentina, the former chief financial officer of Siemens S.A. – Argentina (Siemens Argentina), pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the anti-bribery, internal controls and books and records provisions of the FCPA; and to commit wire fraud.

On social media, some commentators have tried to link the guilty plea to the recent Yates Memo.  Such an attempt is off-target as Truppel and other former Siemens executives and agents were criminally charged in December 2011.

As highlighted in this prior post from nearly four years ago, the Siemens Argentina individual enforcement action was brought after the DOJ faced much scrutiny for not bringing any individual enforcement action in connection with a bribery scheme “unprecedented in scale and geographic reach” in which there existed at Siemens a “corporate culture in which bribery was tolerated and even rewarded at the highest levels of the company.” (Those are direct quotes from DOJ/SEC).

This scrutiny occurred, among other places, during the Senate’s November 2010 FCPA hearing in which hearing Chair Senator Arlen Specter gave me this homework assignment regarding the Siemens enforcement action.

As highlighted in the prior post, despite the Siemens Argentina individual enforcement action, the fact remains that only a sliver of the conduct at issue in the 2008 enforcement action against Siemens resulted in individual prosecutions.  As alleged by the enforcement agencies, the corruption at Siemens involved more than $1.4 billion in bribes to government officials in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas.  As alleged (see here) “among the transactions on which Siemens paid bribes were those to design and build metro transit lines in Venezuela; metro trains and signaling devices in China; power plants in Israel; high voltage transmission lines in China; mobile telephone networks in Bangladesh; telecommunications projects in Nigeria; national identity cards in Argentina; medical devices in Vietnam, China, and Russia; traffic control systems in Russia; refineries in Mexico; and mobile communications networks in Vietnam.”

For additional coverage of the Truppel plea, see here and here.

Scrutiny Alerts and Updates

There has never been an FCPA enforcement action against a Canadian company, but recently Kinross Gold Corp (a company with shares listed on the NYSE) stated:

“In August 2013, Kinross received information regarding allegations of improper payments made to government officials and certain internal control deficiencies at its West Africa mining operations. Kinross takes such allegations very seriously and action was immediately taken in accordance with Kinross’ Whistleblower Policy. External legal counsel was immediately retained to conduct an objective internal investigation into the allegations.

In March and December 2014, and July 2015, Kinross received subpoenas from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) seeking information and documents on substantially the same subjects as had previously been raised. In December 2014, Kinross received similar requests for information from the United States Department of Justice (the “DOJ”).

Kinross is fully cooperating with the SEC and DOJ and continues to diligently pursue its own internal investigation, which, over the course of the past 25 months, has not identified issues that Kinross believes would have a material adverse effect on the Company’s financial position or business operations. Our internal investigation is ongoing, and additional issues or facts could become known as the investigation continues.

It is important to note that the SEC subpoenas expressly state that: “This investigation is confidential and nonpublic and should not be construed as an indication by the Commission or its staff that any violation has occurred, nor as a reflection upon any person, entity or security.”

Kinross is committed to operating in accordance with the highest ethical standards and conducting business in an honest and transparent manner that is in compliance with the law. Kinross has a longstanding culture of ethical conduct and accountability consistent with its Code of Business Conduct and Ethics and related anti-corruption compliance program.”

Quotable

Informed by my prior experience as an FCPA lawyer in private practice, I have long pinned one of causes for the inexcusable long duration of FCPA inquiries on the high attrition rates at the DOJ and SEC’s FCPA Unit.

Since leaving the DOJ, Paul Pelletier (former Acting Chief and Principal Deputy Chief of the DOJ’s Fraud Section and currently a partner at Mintz Levin) has offered an informed voice on the long duration of DOJ FCPA inquiries.  (See here for instance).

Commenting on the Yates Memo in this recent FCPA Blog guest post, Pelletier writes:

“To avoid delay in the efficient and timely prosecution of business entities, implementation of the formal requirements of the Yates Memo will require the deft and even hand of prosecutors, both experienced in investigating and prosecuting complex corporate white collar crime and trained in the methods of real time prosecutions. This unique experience and specific training are required and essential.

From 2002 through 2010, the average Criminal Division tenure of a Fraud Section prosecutor exceeded 5 years and according to the OECD’s most recent Foreign Bribery Report, during that same time frame, the average duration of a foreign bribery investigation measured from the last act of the offense to resolution was approximately 3 years. Commentators have noted an increasingly high and troubling turnover rate in the Fraud Section since 2010, radically altering the average tenure of Section prosecutors. Moreover, since 2010 the average investigatory duration of foreign bribery matters has doubled to more than sixyears.

Whatever explanation may be offered for these jaw dropping statistics, the practical effect is that most FCPA investigations will be passed from prosecutor to prosecutor, almost certainly leading to unnecessarily protracted investigations—perhaps an exclamation point which highlights the critical consequences to FCPA investigations flowing from implementation of the Yates Memo, absent a root cause cure.

Given the formal requirements of the Yates Memo, no matter how good the prosecutors’ intentions or how noble their cause, without the DOJ’s commitment to sustained and focused training combined with a similar effort to retain prosecutors with the experience essential to the success of the endeavor, corporations (including employees and shareholders) caught up in the throes of an FCPA investigation, if they choose to cooperate, are likely to be forced to suffer the untold and unwarranted costs and disruptions of seemingly interminable investigations. That should not be the consequence of DOJ’s renewed focus.”

For the Reading Stack

This recent Wall Street Journal Risk & Compliance Journal article states:

“The Justice Department’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act unit is focusing its enforcement efforts on quality rather than quantity. Spokesman Peter Carr said after years of handling smaller cases coming from corporate self-reporting, the unit is now putting more at stake and going after blockbuster cases. Initiatives to boost foreign corruption enforcement personnel and resources are being used to go after that high-profile wrongdoing, Mr. Carr said. Many of those programs began years ago. His comments came in response to news that the Department’s anti-bribery efforts were eclipsed by the Securities and Exchange Commission in the third quarter. “The department several years ago handled more cases based on self-reporting by companies, and as a result of that we saw more resolutions, but smaller cases,” Mr. Carr said in an email. “We are currently focusing on bigger, higher impact cases, including those against culpable individuals, both in the U.S. and abroad, and those take longer to investigate and absorb significant resources, but there are a lot of cases out there. In fact, the department is increasing its FCPA resources, and the three new FBI squads focusing on this issue are now staffed and operational.” […] “Our investigations of FCPA cases are as robust as ever, and the resources we dedicate to FCPA cases continue to grow.  These are sophisticated cases that can take years to investigate,” Mr. Carr said. “The number of public announcements about filed cases or resolutions will vary over time, but our commitment to FCPA cases is strong.”

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A good weekend to all.

Former SEC Enforcement Official Throws The Red Challenge Flag

By on February 10, 2014 in Disgorgement, Fine / Penalty Issues, Guest Posts, SEC, Siemens Argentina Enforcement Action, Statute of Limitations, Stephan Signer, Ulrich Bock, Uncategorized

Today’s post is from Russ Ryan (Partner, King & Spalding).  Prior to joining King & Spalding,  Ryan spent ten years in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, including his last  three years as Assistant Director of the Division.

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Sometimes you see something in a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act case that’s so inexplicable you wish someone would throw the red challenge flag and have the play reviewed under the hood or up in the booth.  Unfortunately, in the largely-overlooked wind-down phase of the SEC’s FCPA case against several former Siemens executives, the last of the defendants defaulted, so nobody was around to throw the challenge flag – and as a result the SEC seems to have gotten away with a doozy of a blown call.

Recall that this is the same 7-defendant case in which only one – Herbert Steffen – actively contested the SEC’s charges.  Of the other six defendants, the SEC voluntarily dismissed one (Carlos Sergi), three others settled without admitting or denying any wrongdoing (Bernd Regendantz, Andres Truppel, and Uriel Sharef), and the last two defaulted (Ulrich Bock and Stephan Signer).  Steffen, a German citizen and the only defendant who actively contested the charges, was dismissed from the case in February 2013 in a widely-noted decision that found a lack of personal jurisdiction over him.  (See here for my prior guest post).  None of the other defendants in the case were U.S. citizens either, and few if any appear to have had any significant contacts with the United States; the SEC alleged the familiar sporadic touching of U.S. bank accounts, along with a single meeting in Miami during the decade-long alleged bribery scheme, but proffered little else to support personal jurisdiction over any of these foreign nationals.

You might think the court’s dismissal of the only defendant who actively contested personal jurisdiction might have led the SEC to tread carefully when seeking penalties and other sanctions against the defaulting defendants.  Think again.

To the contrary, the SEC took an astonishingly aggressive approach to sanctions against the defaulting defendants, and it got everything it asked for.  The overall case raises legal and policy issues too numerous to address here, but two warrant especially close scrutiny.  First, the SEC convinced the court to impose more than a half-million dollars in civil penalties against each of the two defaulting defendants, despite alleging only four alleged bribes and despite the FCPA’s statutory limit of $10,000 per violation (increased for the relevant period to $11,000 through the SEC’s periodic inflation adjustment as authorized by statute).

How did the SEC get away with a penalty demand more than ten times this apparent $44,000 statutory limit for each defendant?  First, by saying that each of the four alleged bribes should be triple-counted as three separate securities law violations – once as a bribe, again as a books-and-records violation, and yet again as an internal-controls violation – thus artificially multiplying four violations to create twelve.  And as the SEC wonks among us well know, books-and-records and internal-controls violations come with their own separate statutory penalty regime.  But even here the SEC was super aggressive, taking the position that these classically non-fraud violations involved “reckless disregard” of a regulatory requirement, thus allowing the SEC to demand the maximum $60,000  per violation in “second-tier” penalties rather than the $6,000 per violation in the “first-tier” penalties ordinarily associated with non-fraud violations.  (The statutory anomaly that permits dramatically higher civil penalties for books-and-records and internal-controls violations than for bribery violations is another topic beyond the scope of this guest post.)

By triple counting each bribe in this way, the SEC demanded $11,000 + $60,000 + $60,000 ($131,000 total) in penalties against each defaulting defendant, and then multiplied that amount yet again for each of the four alleged bribes in question, arriving at a staggering total penalty of $524,000 per defendant.  This penalty for each of the defaulting defendants was much higher than the total penalties paid by all three of the settling defendants combined (which were only $40,000, $80,000, and $275,000 respectively).

But that’s not even the most bizarre aspect of the SEC’s penalty demand.  Of the four bribes alleged by the SEC against the defaulting defendants, three unquestionably occurred – according to the SEC’s own complaint and penalty motion papers – more than five years before the lawsuit was filed in December 2011, thus raising the obvious question of how the SEC could lawfully request, and how the court could lawfully impose, any penalty at all for those bribes.  By now everyone knows that SEC penalty demands are subject to the 5-year statute of limitations codified at 28 U.S.C. § 2462.  Indeed, just last year the Supreme Court unanimously ruled against the SEC in a case that involved the same statute (Gabelli v. SEC), wherein the SEC conceded the statute’s applicability to penalty demands.  (See my prior guest posts here and here).

So how did the SEC overcome this seemingly insurmountable statute of limitations obstacle?  Essentially by ignoring the issue entirely.  Of course, it’s possible the SEC got a tolling agreement from these two foreign nationals who later decided to ignore the ensuing lawsuit altogether, but that seems improbable. In any event, neither the SEC’s complaint nor its penalty motion mentioned any tolling agreement.  Of the $524,000 in penalties demanded and imposed against each of the defaulting defendants, nearly $400,000 seems obviously barred by the statute of limitations, yet neither the SEC nor the court appears to have acknowledged this issue at all.

One final oddity in this case warrants a separate challenge flag.  On top of the $524,000 in penalties imposed against defaulting defendant Bock, the SEC was awarded another $316,000 against him in what the agency euphemistically styled as “disgorgement” of ill-gotten profits from the bribery scheme.  But as described by the SEC, this money bore no resemblance to profits derived from any of the alleged bribes.  The SEC described it as hush money allegedly paid to Bock (and his wife) to buy his silence and false testimony in two arbitration proceedings that occurred long after he had retired from the company and that, according to the SEC, helped prevent the bribery scheme from being uncovered.

In my recent article, The Equity Façade of SEC Disgorgement, I wrote at length about how disgorgement in SEC cases, as a general matter, is often stretched beyond its proper limits.  The default judgment against Bock reflects many of the concerns I raised in that article, but it also reflects an even more fundamental disconnect under settled disgorgement law.  Characterizing the kind of hush money allegedly paid to Bock as ill-gotten profits caused by his alleged securities law violations seems a stretch to say the least.  The SEC’s theory was that the money was paid to induce and reward Bock’s false testimony in two arbitration proceedings – not as his share of any alleged bribes, not as extra compensation he was paid for his securities law violations, and not as his share of profits earned by Siemens as a result of the bribes.  Here too, neither the SEC nor the court addressed the obvious causation issue, and the SEC got the full amount it demanded.

One can only hope that neither the SEC nor the courts will view these default judgments as models for similar treatment of individuals in future FCPA cases.  This case illustrates the oft-lamented perils presented by the multitude of SEC cases that are decided each year without any effective advocacy on behalf of the defendant – typically due to the defendant’s default, pro se status, lack of adequate financial resources, or counsel possessing little or no expertise in securities law.  The perils run not only to the hapless defendants who invariably get steamrolled in such cases, but sometimes also to the credibility and ultimate enforceability of the resulting judgments.

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See here for original source documents relevant to the above issues.

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