Knox to FCPA Inc., DOJ response brief filed, SFO speeches, and asset recovery. It’s all here in the Friday roundup.
Knox to FCPA Inc.
As highlighted in this prior post, over the summer Jeffrey Knox (DOJ Fraud Section Chief) followed the same tired script on a number of FCPA issues. It will be interesting to hear / read of Knox’s positions in the future as – following a well-traveled career path for DOJ FCPA enforcement attorneys – he is leaving government service for the private sector to provide FCPA investigative and compliance services to business organizations subject to the current era of FCPA enforcement. (See here from the Washington Post, here from the Wall Street Journal, and here from the New York Times).
Knox is headed to Simpson Thatcher (also home to former SEC FCPA Unit Chief Cheryl Scarboro – see here for the prior post). This Simpson Thatcher release states in pertinent part:
“Mr. Knox will be a partner based in the Firm’s Washington, D.C. office and a member of the Firm’s Government and Internal Investigations Practice. During his tenure at the DOJ, Mr. Knox served as the Chief and, before then, the second-ranking official of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, which has responsibility for some of the nation’s most significant fraud cases, including … Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) criminal investigations and prosecutions in the United States.”
[…]
“We are pleased to welcome Jeff back to the Firm,” said Bill Dougherty, Chairman of Simpson Thacher’s Executive Committee. “His deep experience in overseeing high-stakes government investigations and enforcement actions will be a significant asset to our clients as they navigate an increasingly complex enforcement landscape.” “We are very excited that Jeff is joining our Government and Internal Investigations team here at Simpson Thacher. As Chief of the Fraud Section, Jeff has presided over many of the most significant financial fraud, healthcare fraud, and FCPA investigations in recent years, and we know that he is greatly respected within both the DOJ and the white collar bar. His experience and insight will provide substantial value to our clients,” added Mark J. Stein, Head of the Firm’s Government and Internal Investigations Practice.”
The release further states: “[Knox] was a contributor to the DOJ and SEC’s A Resource Guide to the FCPA, published in 2012.”
As I have done in all previous instances of high-ranking DOJ or SEC FCPA enforcement attorneys leaving government services for lucrative FCPA related jobs in the private sector (see here for instance), I will restate my position.
As to DOJ and SEC FCPA enforcement attorneys who have supervisory and discretionary positions and articulate government FCPA policies, it is in the public interest that such individuals be prohibited, upon leaving government service, from providing FCPA defense or compliance services in the private sector for a five-year period.
DOJ Response Brief Filed
This previous post highlighted the motion to dismiss filed by former Alstom executive Lawrence Hoskins in the criminal FCPA action against him. In short, the motion to dismiss stated that the DOJ’s indictment “charges stale and time-barred conduct that occurred more than a decade ago; it asserts violations of U.S. law by a British citizen who never stepped foot on U.S. soil during the relevant time period; and, it distorts the definition of the time-worn legal concept of agency beyond recognition.” As noted in the prior post, much of Hoskins’s brief focuses on the issue of whether he withdrew from the alleged criminal conspiracy involving alleged improper payments at the Tarahan power plant project in Indonesia.
Earlier this week, the DOJ filed this response brief. In pertinent part, the DOJ’s brief states:
“The defendant seeks to have the Court take the extraordinary step of dismissing the Indictment against him at this pretrial phase based on his interpretation of the legal import of certain allegations contained in the Indictment, supplemented by his own selective version of events contained in an affidavit attached to his motion. The Indictment, however, sets forth more than sufficient facts to support the charged crimes. Moreover, at trial the Government expects to present substantial additional evidence supporting the charges, including facts that bear directly on the arguments raised by the defendant in his motion. The defendant’s motion thus represents a novel effort to – in effect – invent and obtain summary judgment in the criminal process based on the claim that he has established the factual basis for his defenses. For good reason, the law provides that only after the Government has presented its case should a judge and jury grapple with the legal and factual sufficiency of that evidence. Thus, the defendant’s motion should be denied. Even addressing the merits of his arguments at this premature stage, however, the defendant’s motion should fail.
In particular, the defendant’s motion fails because: (1) the issue of withdrawal is necessarily a factual one to be decided by a jury and, nonetheless, the defendant did not withdraw from the charged conspiracies; (2) the Indictment has adequately alleged, and the Government will prove at trial, that the defendant was an “agent” of a domestic concern under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”), the charged conduct is domestic (not extraterritorial), and Congress has not specially excepted the defendant from prosecution under the FCPA and, thus, he can be liable for causing, aiding and abetting, or conspiring to commit an FCPA violation even if he is not guilty as a principal; and (3) the Indictment alleges continuing transactions (the bribe payments) that were initiated from Connecticut and alleges that the defendant aided and abetted the transactions through acts in Connecticut, and thus the money laundering charges are properly venued in the District of Connecticut.”
SFO Speeches
David Green’s (Director of the U.K. Serious Fraud Office) recent speech regarding a “cross-section of SFO cases” included the following in the foreign bribery space:
- Barclays/Qatar: is an investigation, begun in 2012, into the circumstances surrounding Barclays’ £8bn recapitalisation in 2008.
- Rolls Royce: concerns allegations of bribery carried out by local agents in return for orders in various markets, touching several divisions of Rolls Royce business activity.
- GlaxoSmithKline: this is an investigation into allegations that bribes were paid in order to increase business in several jurisdictions.
- GPT: this investigation concerns a subsidiary’s business relationship with the Saudi National Guard.
- Alstom: this is an ongoing investigation into the use of British subsidiaries of a major French multinational to dispense bribes in several jurisdictions in order to secure large infrastructure contracts. Charges have already been laid against a subsidiary.
- The Sweett Group: this investigation concerns allegations of bribes paid in return for building contracts in North Africa.
For another recent speech by Alun Milford (General Counsel of the SFO) on cooperation and disclosure, see here.
Asset Recovery
In news related to the DOJ’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative (under which prosecutors in the DOJ Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section work in partnership with federal law enforcement agencies to forfeit the proceeds of foreign official corruption – see this 2009 post highlighting Attorney General Holder’s announcement of the program), the DOJ announced:
“The Department of Justice has seized approximately $500,000 in assets traceable to corruption proceeds accumulated by Chun Doo Hwan, the former president of the Republic of Korea. This seizure brings the total value of seized corruption proceeds of President Chun to more than $1.2 million. […] Chun Doo Hwan orchestrated a vast campaign of corruption while serving as Korea’s president,” said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell. “President Chun amassed more than $200 million in bribes while in office, and he and his relatives systematically laundered these funds through a complex web of transactions in the United States and Korea. Today’s seizure underscores how the Criminal Division’s Kleptocracy Initiative – working in close collaboration with our law enforcement partners across the globe – will use every available means to deny corrupt foreign officials and their relatives safe haven for their assets in the United States.”
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A good weekend to all.