Fact Checking The White House Fact Sheet
The White House recently released this fact sheet titled “U.S. Achievements in the Global Fight Against Corruption.”
This post fact checks the fact sheet and highlights the false claims in it.
Among other things, the fact sheet highlights “enforcing our bans on foreign bribery and money-laundering – and pressing other countries to do the same.” and states:
There Is No FCPA News Today
Really, there isn’t!
There is nothing in the FCPA space today particularly newsworthy warranting your attention.
Sure, I could have perhaps drawn compliance lessons from the sun rising this morning, watched old episodes of Little House on Prairie to distill compliance lessons, or talked about my six egg laying chickens in the context of the Tyson Foods FCPA enforcement action.
But who really cares!
Top Ten Corporate FCPA Settlements
Set forth below is the current top ten corporate FCPA settlements of all-time actually secured by U.S. law enforcement (in other words net FCPA settlement amounts).
In reviewing this list, it is interesting to note that approximately 15 years ago, the largest FCPA settlement of all-time was $44 million.
Unlike certain other lists, the below list is calculated after consistently accounting for certain credits or deductions in several enforcement actions involving foreign companies and/or related foreign law enforcement actions.
An Interesting FCPA Related Issue
Some interesting Foreign Corrupt Practices Act related issues are tucked away on some court docket just waiting for someone to notice.
This post concerns such a story.
As highlighted in this prior post, in 2021 Frederick Cushmore Jr. (a former executive of Pennsylvania-based coal mining company Corsa Coal Corp.) was criminally charged and pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge to violate the FCPA’s anti-bribery provisions in connection with a bribery scheme in Egypt involving Al Nasr Company for Coke and Chemicals (“Al Nasr” or “NCCC” – an alleged Egyptian state-owned and state-controlled entity and a subsidiary of Metallurgical Industries Holding Company, which was owned and controlled by the Egyptian government).
Scrutiny Alerts And Updates
This post highlights a scrutiny alert regarding previous FCPA violator SQM and scrutiny updates regarding Calavo Growers (is it “boiling the ocean?) and the two instances of “monkey business” FCPA scrutiny involving Inotiv and Charles River.
SQM
As highlighted in this prior post, in 2017 Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile S.A. (SQM) (a chemical and mining company based in Chile with American Depository Shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange) resolved a $30.5 million FCPA enforcement action (DOJ and SEC) in relation to alleged conduct with Chilean officials.
SQM recently disclosed: