A Christmas Classic
A Christmas classic from James McGrath, a valued colleague in the FCPA space with a candid wit, who passed away in 2014. The below post originally appeared on McGrath’s Internal Investigations Blog on December 24, 2012.
The allegations being investigated surround gifts being given by individual businessmen to the family of an Israeli government official a number of years ago. These businessmen – a Mr. Balthasar, a Mr. Gaspar, and a Mr. Melchior – supposedly provided a family in the royal line of King David with significant gifts, including gold, frankincense, and myrrh, in return for favorable consideration of an as-yet undetermined project in the Middle East.
Hmmmm …. Interesting
Should a company subject to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act refuse to hire a law firm that employs an attorney who helped create – while at the DOJ or SEC’s FCPA Unit – the enforcement climate the company is now subject to?
Interesting issue and it would seem that the company in the above scenario would have some legitimate concerns about the issue – particularly given that the enforcement climate created was in part the result of expansive enforcement theories advanced in resolution documents not subject to any meaningful judicial scrutiny.
According to this article, “Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase made clear that it won’t work with law firms that employ former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission attorneys who led the charge on crypto enforcement suits, singling out Milbank LLP for its hiring of ex-SEC enforcement director Gurbir Grewal.”
Will There Be An Acceleration Of FCPA Enforcement Prior To January 20th?
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement has historically been robust as the calendar year ends.
Will it be even more robust this year and the first few weeks of January prior to the change in administrations on January 20th?
Perhaps.
After all, DOJ and SEC officials often seemingly “grade” themselves on the number of enforcement actions brought and the amount of money secured through settlements. At least when many of these same attorneys join law firms, these figures are often mentioned in law firm press releases.
Between the approximate 60 day time period of Trump winning the Presidency in November 2016 and inauguration day in January 2017 there were nine FCPA enforcement actions – an unusually large number of enforcement actions for such a short amount of time.
FCPA Institute – Zoom: Upcoming Events
Per request, there will be two FCPA Institute – Zoom events in late November and early December.
The first FCPA Institute – Zoom event is geared towards Asian time zones and will occur on Sunday, November 24; Monday, November 25; and Tuesday, November 26th between 8:30 p.m. – 11:30 p.m. (U.S. Central Time Zone). Even though geared towards Asian time zones, anyone is welcome to register for this event if agreeable with your schedule.
The second FCPA Institute – Zoom will occur on Tuesday, December 3; Wednesday, December 4; and Thursday, December 5 between 8:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. (U.S. Central Time Zone).
Here We Go Again …
Here we go again.
Some of the same “compliance commentators” / “expert class” are already acting like they did 8 years ago.
Questioning the wisdom of the voters, calling the winning candidate a “fraud” and spouting stuff like this “if confused and delusional Trump is in charge, we could end up with kooks who see their sole mission as ramming through right-wing beliefs no matter what the cost to others or how nonsensical those policies are in the real world.”
And then to end with saying that some people are “convinced of their righteousness.” (See here).