I sometimes read certain FCPA commentators and just shake my head in disbelief. Does the author have any regard for facts and/or any interest in conducting basic research to discover the facts?
For instance, in this recent post a commentator states:
“Until now, the Justice Department has not brought a criminal circumvention of internal controls case. If the Justice Department brings such a case, it will be subject to scrutiny. The Justice Department has been very careful when conducting enforcement actions against individuals under the FCPA, and I am sure they will look for the “right set of facts” to bring such a precedent setting case. A criminal prosecution of internal controls and books and records violations will raise the stakes on the wisdom and applicability of the provisions. It is one thing to bring a civil action – it is quite another to bring a criminal action, especially against individuals for violating so-called internal rules and regulations.”
The notion that the DOJ has never brought a criminal enforcement action involving books and records and internal controls violations is just plain false.
The DOJ’s first criminal books and records enforcement action occurred in 1983 (see here for the prior post) and its first books and records and internal controls enforcement action occurred in 1989 (see here for the prior post).
Including these two enforcement actions, up to the present the DOJ has brought 62 corporate enforcement actions that involve criminal books and records and/or internal control violations. (Note: 16 of these enforcement actions were resolved via non-prosecution agreements and thus technically did not involve any actual criminal charges. Nevertheless, the NPA references books and records and/or internal controls violations).
The DOJ has also brought criminal books and records and/or internal controls cases against numerous individuals as well. Since 1989 when the DOJ first brought a criminal case of this type, 20 individuals in 9 core enforcement actions have been criminally charged with books and records and/or internal controls violations.
If you would like to learn more about these DOJ criminal books and records and internal controls enforcement actions, as well as numerous other FCPA statistics, well that is what FCPAnalytics is all about.
