The Story Of George McLean
This post (originally published in 2013) concerns a historic individual in terms of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act history.
Prior posts here and here provided necessary background information concerning the DOJ’s FCPA enforcement action against George McLean (a former Vice President of Solar Turbines International (“Solar”), a division of International Harvester Company). As indicated in the prior posts, McLean (and several others) were criminally charged in 1982 for FCPA and related offenses.
Unlike others in the case (and indeed unlike most other FCPA individual defendants over the course of FCPA history), McLean fought back, believed in his innocence, and for the first time in FCPA history, put the DOJ to its burden of proof. McLean won, both in terms of a pre-trial dismissal of substantive FCPA charges (see this prior post) and at trial on an FCPA conspiracy charge as he was found not guilty . The most amazing part of McLean’s story is that, for the most part, McLean fought back as a pro se defendant (in other words, he represented himself).
A Look At Risk Factors
Nothing “earth shattering” in this post, just a look at the “risk factors” recently disclosed by a few issuers.
Alaska Silver Corp. is a British Columbia, Canada incorporate mineral exploration company and its “portfolio consists of five mineral properties in the Illinois Creek District of western Alaska, which contain gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc at varying stages of exploration and deposit styles.”
Zaglin Trial Begins
In late 2023, the DOJ announced the unsealing of an indictment criminally charging: Carl Alan Zaglin (the owner of a Georgia-based manufacturer of law enforcement uniforms and accessories); Francisco Roberto Cosenza Centeno (former Executive Director of the Comité Técnico del Fideicomiso para la Administración del Fondo de Protección y Seguridad Poblacional (TASA) a Honduran governmental entity that procured goods for the Honduran National Police); and Aldo Nestor Marchena (a dual citizen of the U.S. and Peru) for their alleged participation in a scheme to pay and conceal bribes to Honduran government officials to secure contracts to provide uniforms and other goods to the Honduran National Police. (See here for the prior post).
Cosenza and Marchena previously pleaded guilty.
Earlier this week, the Zaglin trial began in the S.D. of Florida. The matter is believed to be just the 24th FCPA jury trial in the FCPA’s nearly 48 years.
What Will September Bring?
September is a great month. The heat and humidity of July and August have largely subsided, evenings are crisp and cool, the leaves begin to change, the kids go back to school, college football returns to campus, and oh those honeycrisp apples!
As highlighted in this post, historically September has tended to be an active month for FCPA enforcement. In fact, of the 130 corporate FCPA enforcement actions since 2015, 25 of the actions (approximately 20% have occurred in September).
Why?
Well, the SEC’s fiscal year ends on September 30th and while we would like to think that the government does not “close its books” like a business organization at the end of a fiscal year, this most certainly appears to be the case.
Indeed SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce has called this September dynamic (which is observable not just in FCPA enforcement actions but other actions as well) as the SEC’s “own version of earnings management.” (See here).
Checking In On The Pinate Matter
As highlighted in this prior post, in August 2024 the DOJ announced that a “federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida returned an indictment … charging three executives of an election voting machine and service provider company and a former Chairman of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) of the Republic of the Philippines for their roles in an alleged bribery and money laundering scheme to retain and obtain business related to the 2016 Philippine elections. […] These bribes were allegedly paid to obtain and retain business related to providing voting machines and election services for the 2016 Philippine elections and to secure payments on the contracts, including the release of value added tax payments.”
Although not mentioned in the indictment, the company at issue is Smartmatic (and related entities).
The individuals charged with Foreign Corrupt Practices Act offenses were: