Category: Wal-Mart

Friday Roundup

In the classroom, survey says, a candid statement, on-point, an informative read, patience and a prediction.  It’s all here in the Friday roundup.

In The Classroom

I was pleased to learn that my recent article “Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Enforcement As Seen Through Wal-Mart’s Potential Exposure” (here) was required reading for the MBA students in Jeffrey Klink’s FCPA-related class at the University of Pittsburgh Joseph S. Katz Graduate School of Business. (See here for a recent profile of the class.)  Klink (a former AUSA and current CEO of Klink & Co., a global risk management firm – here) shared the following.

“During our class we discussed your recent article regarding the Wal Mart case at length.   Many students opined that it was likely that many of the payments were in fact facilitation payments and especially where permits would definitely be issued.  The majority of students, however, believed that probably many payments were not clerical or ministerial, noting that according to the NY Times article, payments caused zoning maps to be changed, and environmental permits were obtained likely without proper process.   Students believed that these kinds of payments were not grease or skid payments, but were in fact bribes designed to allow Wal Mart to open new stores without competition, thus gaining new business.  All but one of the 41 students (a bright law student held out) present believed that Wal Mart had successfully obtained new business by paying  bribes through the $24 million in payments to gestores.  We also discussed the significance of an organization’s compliance culture.   Wal Mart was viewed very negatively by the students, having been subject to successful discrimination suits regarding gender bias, its poor treatment of vendors, locking its own injured employees inside stores, and the facts of the Mexico bribery case, where, if the NY Times article is correct, it was clear that top officials buried facts, did not pursue an investigation, and promoted corrupt executives to high ranking positions.   As geography under the FCPA can also be destiny, I also noted that Mexico is rated #100 by TI, and it doesn’t appear that Wal Mart had a risk plan in place to address its growth in places where corruption and bribery are extremely common and not unexpected.  Many students believed that Wal Mart, like other large organizations, likely engaged in, and continues to engage in, cost – benefit thinking where executives conclude that the cost of bribery is not significant compared to the benefits that accrue to the organization through growth and profits.”

Staying on campus and referring to “THE” New York Times article (see here for the prior post) readers may enjoy this webcast of the recent Wal-Mart focused Milbank Tweed Forum at the NYU School of Law.  Moderated by Professor Kevin Davis (the author of recent FCPA scholarship – here and here), the panel included David Barstow, the investigative reporter at the New York Times who broke the Wal-Mart story.

Survey Says

Speaking of the significance of the FCPA, a recent boardroom survey conducted by BDO USA (an accounting and consulting firm) reveals as follows.  “One-third (33%) of directors cite corruption/bribery as the greatest fraud risk facing their company, compared to approximately one-fifth that identify either revenue recognition (20%) or earnings management (18%).  Two-thirds (68%) of directors indicate their companies conduct business in foreign locations or with foreign customers or suppliers. Of those conducting international business, a majority (57%) say they deal with foreign officials and almost one-third (32%) of those believe compliance risks related to bribery of government officials has increased over the past two years, compared to just four percent reporting a decrease.”

The survey, conducted in late August and early September 2012, examined the opinions of 72 corporate directors of public company boards, with revenues ranging from $250 million to $750 million, regarding financial reporting and corporate governance issues. For more, see this BDO release.

Candid Statement

Hank Walther (a former Assistant Chief in the DOJ’s FCPA unit and currently at Jones Day – see here), stated in this recent interview in the Metropolitan Corporate Counsel as follows.

“Most government attorneys realize that a company can take every reasonable step to prevent wrongdoing but ultimately is powerless if somebody really wants to break the law.”

Makes you wonder why the DOJ is steadfast in its opposition to an FCPA compliance defense.  But then again the current enforcement environment provides the DOJ maximum leverage.  However, for the reasons I articulate in “Revisiting a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Compliance Defense” (here), the DOJ should be in favor of a compliance defense.

On-Point

This previous post, “Testing Innocence,” noted that the longest individual FCPA sentences (Joel Esquenazi and Carlos Rodriguez) were issued in enforcement actions where the defendants exercised their constitutional rights to a jury trial.  The conduct Esquenazi and Rodriguez allegedly engaged in (and the jury found, although their appeals are pending) paled in comparison to some other FCPA individual prosecutions – such as the individual prosecutions in the Bonny Island Nigeria cases.  What did Esquenazi and Rodriguez do that warranted such a long sentence?  They tested their innocence.

The FCPA community once again saw the high cost of testing innocence this past spring and summer when the individual defendants in the so-called Carson enforcement action pleaded guilty on the eve of trial.  (See here, here, here).  The guilty pleas came after the trial court judge issued a pro-defendant jury instruction relating to knowledge of foreign official.  (See here).  On the brink of the DOJ being put to its ultimate burden of proof on “foreign official” and other elements as well, the DOJ offered plea agreements to substantially reduced charges and the defendants, likely mindful of the high costs of testing their innocence, did what most rationale, risk averse actors in their position would do – agreed to plead guilty.

The Wall Street Journal ran a feature story this week “Federal Guilty Pleas Soar As Bargains Trump Trial” (here) which documented the trend of a “growing number of federal defendants who [plead guilty] often to avoid the lengthy prison sentences that can come with losing at trial.”  Among other things, the article noted that “federal [sentencing] guidelines not only toughened punishments but also formalized a system to reward defendants who plead guilty by reducing sentences if they accept responsibility or cooperate with prosecutors, among other things.  As part of plea deals, federal prosecutors often drop additional charges that could add years, or decades, to a sentence.  Going to trial brings none of those benefits for the accused.”

The WSJ article included research (here) co-authored by my Southern Illinois University School of Law colleague Lucian Dervan (here) which found that 55% of students who were innocent in a control group study pleaded “guilty.”  The study showed “a strong compulsion to have the matter resolved even if it meant confessing to something that they really didn’t do.”

Informative Read

Breon Peace and Ryan Becker (Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton – here and here) recent authored this informative article in Bloomberg Law that touches upon just about everything you would want to know about the FCPA and statute of limitations.  The article, written in the context of Wal-Mart’s potential FCPA scrutiny discusses black letter law and judicial decisions, but rightly notes in connection with Wal-Mart as follows.

“Given the facts as reported by the New York Times, Wal-Mart, and individuals involved in the bribery scheme, would have a plausible statute of limitations defense to any FCPA actions—even a potential conspiracy charge. As a practical matter, companies, especially publicly held companies like Wal-Mart, typically make a strategic decision to fully cooperate with a DOJ investigation. Despite the potential success of a statute of limitations defense, a company will often make the judgment that the negative press of a protracted investigation and the uncertainty of the outcome at trial make cooperation the more prudent business judgment. The company’s hope is that it will be given credit for the cooperation and it will achieve a better outcome than if it went to trial (i.e., avoid charges, a deferred prosecution agreement, or a reduced fine).”

Patience

Before Wal-Mart’s potential FCPA scrutiny dominated the headlines, there was News Corp.  In July 2011, world-wide media attention focused on the company, not just the phone hacking aspects of the scandal, but the potential FCPA implications as well.  See here for the prior post.  In the prior Q&A style post, I addressed the issue of how long the FCPA gray cloud will likely hang over News Corp. and said that it would likely be between 2-4 years if the case followed the typical pattern.  In February of this year, I noted (here) that the FCPA aspect of News Corp.’s scrutiny was following a typical path.

Eliot Spitzer (former New York Governor, former New York Attorney General and current TV personality) apparently is not aware of the typical path.  In this recent Slate article titled “Why Hasn’t Eric Holder Charged News Corp. With Foreign Corrupt Practices?” Spitzer writes as follows.

“[W]here is the inept U.S. Department of Justice in all this? The DOJ has brought many irrelevant and tiny cases against companies for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which makes it illegal to bribe either individuals or government officials, even in a company’s overseas operations. The DOJ loves to use the statute to show just how tough it is. Yet now they have the most important case sitting right there in front of them. It’s easy. Even a rookie could field this one. But what are they doing? It’s not clear. If they fail to make this case against News Corp., Eric Holder is a failure as attorney general.”

Patience.  And while Sptizer is waiting, he may want to brush up on the FCPA – not sure what he means when he says that the FCPA “makes it illegal to bribe either individuals or government officials.”

Prediction

No, I am not going to predict that the DOJ’s FCPA guidance will be released next week.  OK, maybe I will, see here from Compliance Week.

Rather my prediction concerns FCPA risk in India.

The Indian Commerce Ministry recently eased (see here) foreign investment restrictions giving multi-brand retailers greater access to the growing Indian market.  Per the new policy, it will be the “prerogative of the states to allow a multi brand store” and “local and state-level regulations which govern shops and establishment are the prerogative of the respective state governments.”

I predict that India’s new FDI policy will be an FCPA compliance headache for relevant companies seeking to expand in India as the new policy facilitates points of contact between a company and state and local officials in regards to license, permit, and land issues.  In “Revisiting a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Compliance Defense” (see here), I highlight how companies subject to the FCPA are often funneled into an arbitrary world of low-paying civil servants who frequently supplement their meager salaries through payments condoned in the host country.  I argue that such barriers create the conditions in which harassment bribes flourish and I predict India’s new FDI policy will do just that.

*****

A good weekend to all.

Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Enforcement As Seen Through Wal-Mart’s Potential Exposure

I am pleased to share my article “Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Enforcement As Seen Through Wal-Mart’s Potential Exposure” recently published in the Bloomberg BNA White Collar Crime Report.

The abstract is as follows.

High-profile instances of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act scrutiny focus attention on the law and its enforcement across a broad spectrum. In spring 2012, arguably the most high-profile instance of scrutiny in the FCPA’s 35-year history occurred as Wal-Mart’s alleged conduct in Mexico dominated the news cycle. Wal-Mart’s scrutiny has been instructive in many ways at a key point in time for the FCPA. The article uses Wal-Mart’s potential FCPA exposure as a prism to view the current FCPA enforcement environment.

Among the issues discussed in the article are the following: whether Congress intended in passing the FCPA to capture the type of payments at issue in Wal-Mart; what caselaw instructs as to the payments; whether what Congress intended or what courts have concluded even matters; the impact of Wal-Mart’s scrutiny on the company as well as industry peers; and the politicization of Wal-Mart’s scrutiny and its impact on FCPA reform.

The complete article can be downloaded here.

A Wide-Ranging Interview

The FCPA Report is an online publication that contains articles on a variety of FCPA topics to assist lawyers in relevant practice areas, in-house counsel,  and risk and compliance managers stay ahead of the curve.  It launched this June and features thematic sourced and researched by primarily lawyers, as well as contributed articles by experts in the field, interviews with leading figures, and reports on important developments. It is available to subscribers and trial subscribers at www.fcpareport.com.

I was pleased to do a telephone interview with the FCPA Report in mid-August.  Today’s post sends you to the wide-ranging Q&A previously published, in two parts, in the FCPA Report and linked to here with permission.

Topics covered in the Q&A include the following:  statute of limitations, judicial scrutiny, the duration of FCPA scrutiny, voluntary disclosure, Wal-Mart’s FCPA scrutiny, facilitation payments, obtain or retain business, foreign official, corporate fines, victims issues, a private right of action, FCPA Inc. and the revolving door, the three buckets of FCPA financial exposure and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act reform.

Friday Roundup

The sting may be over but it effects are not, Orthofix information unsealed, checking in on Wal-Mart, a pipeline report, a safe assumption, and the alternative reality.   It’s all here in the Friday roundup.

The manufactured Africa Sting case may be over, but it effects are still being felt.

Allied Defense Group (“ADG”) employed Mark Frederick Morales, one of the individuals charged in the case.  The company stated in its recent quarterly filing (here) as follows.

“In February and March, 2012, the DOJ dismissed charges against all individuals indicted in the FCPA sting operation, including the former employee of MECAR USA. Since this time, the Company’s FCPA counsel has had several discussions with the DOJ and SEC regarding the agencies’ respective inquiries. Based upon these discussions, it appears likely that resolution of these inquiries will involve a payment by the Company to at least one of these government agencies in connection with at least one transaction involving the former employee of Mecar USA. At this point, the amount of this payment is undeterminable.”

As noted in this previous post, in January 2010, ADG agreed to be acquired by Chemring Group PLC.

Another publicly traded company that employed an Africa Sting defendant, Amaro Goncalves, is Smith & Wesson.  The company disclosed in its most recent quarterly filing (here) as follows.

“On February 21, 2012, the DOJ filed a motion to dismiss with prejudice the indictments of the remaining defendants who are pending trial, including our former Vice President-Sales, International & U.S. Law Enforcement. On February 24, 2012, the district court granted the motion to dismiss. We cannot predict, however, when the investigation will be completed or its final outcome. There could be additional indictments of our company, our officers, or our employees. If the DOJ determines that we violated FCPA laws, we may face sanctions, including significant civil and criminal penalties. In addition, we could be prevented from bidding on domestic military and government contracts and could risk debarment by the U.S. Department of State. We also face increased legal expenses and could see an increase in the cost of doing international business. We could also see private civil litigation arising as a result of the outcome of the investigation. In addition, responding to the investigation may divert the time and attention of our management from normal business operations. Regardless of the outcome of the investigation, the publicity surrounding the investigation and the potential risks associated with the investigation could negatively impact the perception of our company by investors, customers, and others.”

Even though the individual Africa Sting cases are over, the case provided a point of entry into several companies and an entire industry and its effects are still being felt as demonstrated by the above disclosures.

Orthofix

This previous post discussed the July enforcement action against Orthofix International.  As noted in the post, the specifics of the DOJ’s allegations were not known as the information against Orthofix was filed under seal.  The information (here) was recently unsealed.  In summary fashion, the DOJ alleged as follows under the heading “corrupt conduct.”  “From [2003 through March 2010], with the knowledge of Orthofix Executive A [a citizen of Peru and legal permanent resident in the U.S. who was a senior manager of Orthofix Inc. (an indirectly wholly owned subsidiary) and responsible for sales operations in Latin America], Promeca [an entity incorporated and headquartered in Mexico and an indirectly wholly owned subsidiary of Orthofix International] and its employees paid approximately $300,000 to Mexican officials, in return for agreements with IMSS and its hospitals to purchase millions of dollars in Orthofix International products.”

IMSS is a social service agency of the Mexican government that provided public services to Mexican workers and their families and the Mexican Officials identified in the information are as follows.

Mexican Official 1 – a deputy administrator of Magdelena de las Salinas (a hospital in Mexico City that IMSS owned and controlled)

Mexican Official 2 – the purchasing director of Magdelena de las Salinas

Mexican Official 3  – the purchasing director of Lomas Verdes (a hospital in the State of Mexico that IMSS owned and controlled)

Mexican Official 4 – a sub-director of IMSS

According to the information, “Executive A knew of the payments and things of value [provided to the Mexican Officials] but failed to stop the scheme or report the scheme to Orthofix Interntional or Orthofix’s Inc.’s compliance department.”

Under the heading “Internal Controls” the information alleges, among other things, as follows.  “Orthofix International,which grew its direct distribution footprint in part by purchasing existing companies, often in high-risk markets, failed to engage in any serious form of corruption-related diligence before it purchased Promeca.  Although Orthofix International promulgated its own anti-corruption policy, that policy was neither translated into Spanish nor implemented at Promeca.  Orthofix International failed to provide any FCPA-related traning to many of its personnel, including Executive A.  Orthofix also failed to train Promeca personnel for years on the FCPA, to test regularly or audit particular transactions, or to ensure that subsidiary maintained controls sufficient to detect, deter or prevent illicit payments to government officials.”

The information charges one count of violating the FCPA’s internal control provisions.

Checking In On Wal-Mart

During the media feeding frenzy after the New York Times Wal-Mart article (see here for the prior post), I had the pleasure to appear on Eliot Spitzer’s Viewpoint program on Current TV.  At the end of the segment, after the substantive issues were discussed, Spitzer offered that he has several contacts in the FCPA bar and that, regardless of the substantive issues involved in Wal-Mart’s FCPA scrutiny or the ultimate outcome, lots of lawyers were poised to make lots of money.

Spitzer of course was right.

During its second quarter earnings call (see here for the transcript) Wal-Mart executives stated as follows.   “Within core corporate, we incurred approximately $34 million in expenses related to third-party advisors reviewing matters involving the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and we expect these expenses to continue through the rest of the year.”  Later in the call, the following was said.  “We also expect to incur approximately $35 to $40 million in expenses for the review of matters relating to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act during each of the remaining quarters for this fiscal year.”

In other news, on the civil litigation front, as noted in this Reuters article “an Indiana union pension fund that owns shares in Wal-Mart Stores Inc has sued the company to gain access to thousands of internal documents related to allegations that a Wal-Mart subsidiary bribed Mexican government officials.”  According to the report, the lawsuit, filed in Delaware’s Chancery Court, alleges the “company had made a ‘woefully deficient’ production of documents following an earlier out-of-court demand and that hat documents were produced were ‘so heavily redacted,’ or blacked out, they were nearly worthless.”

Turning to Capital Hill, several prior posts have chronicled efforts by Representative Elijah Cummings and Henry Waxman to conduct a shadow investigation of Wal-Mart in the aftermath of the New York Times article (see here for the previous post).  As indicated in this recent press release and this recent letter the lawmakers are growing impatient.  In pertinent part, the letter to Wal-Mart CEO Michael Duke stated as follows.

“We are writing to give you a final opportunity to respond to our requests for information about allegations that your company violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Although you have stated on multiple occasions that you intend to cooperate with our investigation, you have failed to provide the documents we requested, and you continue to deny us access to key witnesses. Your actions are preventing us from assessing the thoroughness of your internal investigation and from identifying potential remedial actions.

During the course of our investigation, we have learned that Wal-Mart’s concerns about potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act are not limited to operations in Mexico, but are global in nature. Your outside counsel informed us that, before allegations of bribery in Mexico became public, Wal-Mart retained attorneys to conduct a broad review of the company’s anti-corruption policies. This review identified five “first tier” countries “where risk was the greatest.” Wal-Mart then conducted a worldwide assessment of the company’s anti-corruption policies, culminating in a series of recommendations and policy changes based on those findings.

In addition, we have obtained internal company documents, including internal audit reports, from other sources suggesting that Wal-Mart may have had compliance issues relating not only to bribery, but also to “questionable financial behavior” including tax evasion and money laundering in Mexico.”

Pipeline Report

Add NCR Corporation and Expro International to the list of companies under FCPA scrutiny.

NCR

Global technology company NCR Corp. recently disclosed here as follows.

This previous post regarding the recent Pfizer enforcement action raised the following question(s).

Does anyone truly believe that the only reason Chinese doctors prescribed Pfizer products was because under the “point programs” the physician would receive a tea set?  Does anyone truly believe that the only reason Czech doctors prescribed Pfizer products was because the company sponsored educational weekend took place at an Austrian ski resort?  Does anyone truly believe that the only reason Pakistani doctors offered Wyeth nutritional products to new mothers was because the company provided office equipment to the physicians?

The questions were asked in the context of disgorgement remedies, but can also be asked in the context of product safety.  One can safely assume that if the enforcement agencies had any evidence to suggest that the products at issue jeopardized public safety, the enforcement agencies would have alleged such facts, as they occasionally do in FCPA enforcement actions (see Innospec for instance).

The absence of such allegations make this recent article by Online Pharmacy Safety foolishly speculative.  The article states as follows.

“[The conduct at issue in the enforcement action] puts the safety of consumers at risk.   If large companies are able to bribe their way to getting more business, and anticipate government officials to turn a blind eye, the wrong products could be getting into the hands of consumers worldwide.  The Pfizer products approved by foreign governments and prescribed by doctors may not have been the best product available, which could endanger consumers. Doctors put selfishness at the expense of patients, and the company was putting profits ahead of its public safety.”

Harvey Silverglate (author of Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent) hit the ball out of the park with this recent Wall Street Jouranl op-ed.  Referring to the recent Gibson Guitar Lacey Act enforcement action and how the resolution documents muzzle the company (as is typical in FCPA NPAs and DPAs), Silverglate wrote as follows.

“Through these and myriad other techniques, federal investigator and prosecutors create an alternative reality that favors their own institutional interests, regardless of the truth or of justce.  All citizens and companies become subject to the Justice Department’s essentially unfettered power.  Remedying this problem cannot be left to the victims of this governmental extortion, because their risks are too high if they fight; nor will their lawyers likely blow the whistle, since the bar makes a tidy living by playing the game.  It is up to the rest of civil society to let the Justice Department emperor know that we see he is not wearing clothes.”

*****

A good weekend to all.

Potpourri

Retail Industry Sweep

This previous post discussed the Wal-Mart effect, how Wal-Mart is clearly not the only company subject to the FCPA that needs licenses, permits and the like when doing business in Mexico, and that it is likely that Wal-Mart’s potential FCPA exposure has caused sleepless nights for many company executives doing business in Mexico and the general region.

Sure enough.

Aruna Viswanatha reports in this Reuters story that “retailers have been reviewing their international operations in light of a bribery scandal at Wal-Mart’s operations in Mexico that is the subject of investigations by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission.”  According to the story, “other retail companies have also since reported to U.S. agencies suspicions of their own potential violations, which in turn has the Justice Department and SEC considering a sweep of the entire industry.”  For more on industry sweeps, see this previous post.

Barclays Dealings With Sovereign-Wealth Funds Scrutinized

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday (here) that Barclays PLC’s “chief financial officer is under investigation by British authorities related to the bank’s 2008 fundraising activities with Middle Eastern investors.”  According to the story, the “probe is focused at least in part on how Barclays wooed Qatar’s sovereign-wealth fund to pump billions of pounds into the bank as the financial crisis intensified.”  According to this Wall Street Journal article, Barclays previously disclosed “£240 million of payments made to Qatar Holding and Abu Dhabi’s Sheik Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan related to its £7.3 billion capital raise in 2008.”

Barclays has ADRs traded on the New York Stock Exchange and, according to the article, the SEC “is aware of the probe” and will be updated on its progress.  As the article notes, the SEC is currently conducting an expansive investigation of various financial institutions concerning relationships with sovereign-wealth funds.

Halliburton’s Latest Disclosure

Halliburton previously disclosed potential FCPA issues concerning the use of an Angolan vendor.  Last week in this quarterly report, the company provided an update on that investigation as well as new investigations concerning additional conduct in Angola as well as Iraq.  The disclosure states as follows.