Trump Administration Archives

It’s Time Again To Take A Deep Breath

These pages have covered Donald Trump and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act since 2012 (see here) and long before he was President (see here and here).

Days after Trump was elected President in November 2016, this post was titled “Let’s All Take a Deep Breath When It Comes To FCPA Enforcement In The Trump Administration.” When there was not a corporate FCPA enforcement action during the (better sit down for this one – first four months of the Trump Administration) this post was titled “Let’s All Take A Deep Breath, Gaps In FCPA Enforcement Are Common.”

As highlighted below, it is time again for everyone to take a deep breath when it comes to the FCPA and Trump.

Friday Roundup

By Mike Koehler on March 30, 2018 in Airbus, Canada, Elbit Imaging, Ericsson, Exxon Mobil, Internal Controls, Internal Investigation Issues, Internet Gold, Monitor, Related Civil Litigation, SEC, Trump Administration

A home run, quotable, monitors, up north, scrutiny alerts and updates, irksome, and for the reading stack. It’s all here in the Friday roundup.

Home Run

The latest issue of the always informative FCPA Update from Debevoise & Plimpton (released by the way on the opening day of the Major League Baseball season) hits a home run.

The lead article by Paul Berger (former Associate Director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division) concerns the recent Elbit Imaging enforcement action (see here for the prior post) and states in pertinent part:

Friday Roundup

By Mike Koehler on January 19, 2018 in Amway, Canada, Chemring Group, Collateral Effects, Compliance, Deferred Prosecution Agreements, McKinsey & Co., Multilevel Marketing, Third Parties, Trump Administration, Year in Review 2017

Scrutiny alerts and updates, ripple, didn’t fit the narrative, too far into the weeds, the emerging global facade of enforcement and for the reading stack. It’s all here in the Friday roundup.

Scrutiny Alerts and Updates

Amway

Multilevel marketing companies Avon and Nu Skin Enterprises previously resolved FCPA enforcement actions concerning conduct in China. (See here, here, here, here and here for prior posts). Multilevel marketing companies USANA and Herbalife are currently under FCPA scrutiny for its business practices in China.

The Purported Trump / Tillerson FCPA Exchange Is Old News … In Any Event, Some Context

By Mike Koehler on October 10, 2017 in Congressional Activity, Trump Administration

As one who closely follows news related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, I was surprised over the past few days about the amount of coverage given to a purported exchange between President Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson about the FCPA.

The originating source for this coverage was a relatively minor blurb in this New Yorker article. What surprised me (and you certainly would not know this from reading the New Yorker article because it doesn’t mention this) is that the purported exchange was widely reported back in March.

This post highlights how this is an “old news” item, provides facts about FCPA enforcement during the first 8 months of the Trump administration, and demonstrates that President Trump is far from the only politician to raise concerns about the FCPA and its enforcement. Indeed, Democrats and Republicans have long done the same thing.

Attorney General Nominee Jeff Sessions – “I was taught if they violated a law, you charge them. If they didn’t violate the law, you don’t charge them.”

By Mike Koehler on November 21, 2016 in Deferred Prosecution Agreements, FCPA Reform, Non-Prosecution Agreement, Trump Administration

Non-prosecution agreements and deferred prosecution agreements have distorted many areas of law, perhaps none more than the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

As highlighted in the article “Measuring the Impact of NPAs and DPAs on FCPA Enforcement,” since introduced to the FCPA context in 2004, alternative resolution vehicles have become the dominant way the DOJ resolves corporate FCPA scrutiny and serve as an obvious reason for the general increase in FCPA enforcement over the past decade. To the many cheerleaders of increased FCPA enforcement, NPAs and DPAs are thus worthy of applause.

Yet in a legal system based on the rule of law, quality of enforcement is more important than quantity of enforcement. Through empirical data and various case studies, the above article measures the impact NPAs and DPAs have on the quality of FCPA enforcement and concludes that NPAs and DPAs — while resulting in higher quantity of FCPA enforcement — result in lower quality of FCPA enforcement.

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It’s Time Again To Take A Deep Breath

Friday Roundup

The Purported Trump / Tillerson FCPA Exchange Is Old News … In Any Event, Some Context

Attorney General Nominee Jeff Sessions – “I was taught if they violated a law, you charge them. If they didn’t violate the law, you don’t charge them.”

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