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 122 corporate FCPA enforcement actions since 2015, 24 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).
FCPA Institute – Zoom (Sept. 10-12)
Since 2014, the FCPA Institute has elevated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act knowledge and practical skills of professionals from around the world. The FCPA Institute began as an in-person event, but shifted to Zoom in 2020. The Zoom event is time and cost efficient and has resulted in greater participation from professionals around the world.
The next FCPA Institute – Zoom will be offered on September 10-12 and consists of 9 hours of integrated and cohesive instruction (each day from 8:30-11:30 a.m. central) led by Professor Koehler, an FCPA expert with FCPA practice and teaching experience.
FCPA Institute – Zoom participants will encounter FCPA authority and other sources of information that define the modern era of FCPA enforcement and will gain knowledge of the following topics among others:
National Energy Services Resolves Books And Records And Internal Controls Matter
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has always been a law much broader than its name suggests.
Sure, the FCPA contains anti-bribery provisions which concern foreign bribery.
Sure, the FCPA’s books and records and internal controls provisions can be implicated in foreign bribery schemes.
However, the fact remains that most FCPA enforcement actions (that is enforcement actions that charge or find violations of the FCPA’s books and records and internal controls provisions) have nothing to do with foreign bribery. For lack of a better term, these enforcement actions have longed been called non-FCPA, FCPA enforcement actions by this site.
The latest example concerns National Energy Services Reunited Corp. (a British Virgin Islands corporation headquartered in Houston).
NOT Flying Under The Radar – The Many FCPA Enforcement Actions Against Companies In The Aviation Industry
When compiling a list of the industries that have the highest Foreign Corrupt Practices Act risk, the aviation industry is probably not going to be near the top of many lists.
However, it should be because as highlighted in this post there have been approximately 20 corporate FCPA enforcement actions against companies in the industry (broadly defined) in FCPA enforcement history resulting in approximately $900 million in settlement amounts.
In fact, the aviation industry was front and center in “The Story of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act” as Lockheed’s payments to Japanese Prime Minister Tanaka, Prince Berhard (the Inspector General of the Dutch Armed Forces and the husband of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands) and Italian political parties was arguably the most high profile example of foreign corporate payments Congress learned about in the mid-1970’s which motivated it to enact the FCPA.
With recent FCPA enforcement actions against individuals associated with AAR Corp. (see here and here) and with the company disclosing FCPA scrutiny, the below list is likely to expand in the near future.
FCPA Institute – Zoom (Sept. 10-12)
Since 2014, the FCPA Institute has elevated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act knowledge and practical skills of professionals from around the world. The FCPA Institute began as an in-person event, but shifted to Zoom in 2020. The Zoom event is time and cost efficient and has resulted in greater participation from professionals around the world.
The next FCPA Institute – Zoom will be offered on September 10-12 and consists of 9 hours of integrated and cohesive instruction (each day from 8:30-11:30 a.m. central) led by Professor Koehler, an FCPA expert with FCPA practice and teaching experience.
FCPA Institute – Zoom participants will encounter FCPA authority and other sources of information that define the modern era of FCPA enforcement and will gain knowledge of the following topics among others: