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Issues To Consider From The Stericycle Enforcement Action

Issues

This previous post highlighted the recent net $59 million Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action against Stericycle (an Illinois based medical waste disposal company) for conduct in Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina.

Portions of the alleged conduct were egregious in that an executive of the company’s Latin America division orchestrated the bribery schemes and others associated with the company used “spreadsheets to track the bribe payments.”

Nevertheless, there are several legal and policy issues to consider from the enforcement action.

Timeline

As highlighted in this post, Stericycle disclosed its FCPA scrutiny in mid-2017.

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Stericyle Resolves A Net $59 Million FCPA Enforcement Action

stericle

Stericycle (an Illinois based medical waste disposal company) has been under FCPA scrutiny since mid-2017 (See here).

As highlighted here, approximately two months ago the company disclosed that it had “reached agreements in principle with the DOJ and SEC.” Specifically, Stericycle disclosed:

Yesterday, the DOJ and SEC announced (here and here) a parallel FCPA enforcement action against Stericycle.

The DOJ enforcement action involved this criminal information charging Stericycle with  two counts of conspiracy to violate (1) the FCPA’s anti-bribery provisions, and (2) the FCPA’s books and records provision. The criminal charges were resolved via this deferred prosecution agreement pursuant to which Stericycle agreed to pay a net $35 million criminal penalty.

The SEC enforcement action involved this administrative order finding that Stericycle violated the FCPA’s anti-bribery, books and records, and internal controls provisions pursuant to which the company agreed to pay a net approximate $24 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest.

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Stericyle Discloses Future $81 Million FCPA Resolution

stericle

Even though the DOJ and SEC have long talked about the importance of prompt Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigations (for instance who can forget a high-ranking DOJ enforcement attorney stating in 2017 that the DOJ’s “intent is for our FCPA investigations to be measured in months, not years”), the fact remains that FCPA lasts way too long.

Stericycle (an Illinois based medical waste disposal company) that has been under FCPA scrutiny since mid-2017.

In November 2021, Stericycle disclosed the accrual of $61 million for resolution of the FCPA matter.

Recently, the company upped the accrual to approximately $81 million and disclosed that it has “reached agreements in principle with the DOJ and SEC.”

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Stericycle Accrues $61 Million For Future FCPA (And Related) Settlements

stericle

Even though the DOJ and SEC have long talked about the importance of prompt Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigations (for instance who can forget a high-ranking DOJ enforcement attorney stating in 2017 that the DOJ’s “intent is for our FCPA investigations to be measured in months, not years”), the fact remains that FCPA scrutiny tends to last approximately four years on average.

Stericycle (an Illinois based medical waste disposal company) that has been under FCPA scrutiny since mid-2017.

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Once Again, Rebooting A Long-Standing FCPA Proposal, This Time In The Aftermath Of A Recent Disclosure By Pactiv Evergreen

proposal

Including the first time I proposed this concept in 2010, this is the 11th time I have written this general post (see hereherehereherehereherehereherehere and here for the previous versions). Until things change I will keep writing it which means I will probably keep writing this same general post long into the future.

The proposal is this: when a company voluntarily discloses an FCPA internal investigation to the DOJ and/or SEC and when one or both of the enforcement agencies do not bring an enforcement action, have the enforcement agency publicly state, in a thorough and transparent mannerthe facts the company disclosed and why the enforcement agency did not bring an enforcement action based on those facts.

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