Friday Roundup

Scrutiny alerts, quotable, and for the reading stack.  It’s all here in the Friday roundup.

Scrutiny Alerts

Nortek

Nortek Inc.  recently disclosed:

“As part of our routine internal audit activities, Nortek, Inc. (the “Company” or “we”) discovered certain questionable hospitality, gift and payment practices, and other expenses at the Company’s subsidiary, Linear Electronics (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd. (“Linear China”), which are inconsistent with the Company’s policies and raise concerns under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) and perhaps under other applicable anti-corruption laws. The Company initiated an internal investigation into these practices and payments with the assistance of outside counsel. On January 7, 2015 and January 8, 2015, respectively, we voluntarily contacted the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and the United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) to advise both agencies of our internal investigation. The Company intends to cooperate with any SEC or DOJ investigation into these matters. The Company takes these matters very seriously and is committed to conducting its business in compliance with all applicable laws. Based on information known at this time, we currently believe that the amount of the questionable expenses and payments is not material with respect to the Company’s financial condition or results of operations. However, at this time, we are unable to predict, what, if any, action may be taken by the DOJ or SEC or any penalties or remedial measures these agencies may seek, but intend to cooperate with both agencies. Any determination that our operations or activities are not in compliance with existing laws or regulations could result in the imposition of fines, civil and criminal penalties, and equitable remedies, including disgorgement or injunctive relief. Nortek’s Linear China location manufactures products primarily for our Security and Control Solutions Segment and does not sell products to third parties.”

Sony

Last week’s Friday Roundup highlighted the FCPA scrutiny of Sony and other Hollywood film studies in China.

“Sony Corp.’s entertainment unit investigated its Indian operations for possible legal violations including bidding fraud and kickbacks, according to internal e-mails released by hackers, highlighting challenges the company has faced in the country. Sony enlisted Ernst & Young to look into its businesses in the country and uncovered potential evidence of wrongdoing, according to the e-mails. In one case, investigators found that a joint venture between Sony and Discovery Communications Inc. (DISCA) may have engaged in fraudulent bids, kickbacks and excessive handouts to government officials …”

According to the article, there are various “areas of concern” including: “potential gifts and entertainment of Indian government officials” such as providing tickets to IPL cricket matches to public servants, as well as laptop bags that were requested as gifts for government officials during the Diwali festival.”

“This really shows that Transparency International is not as pure as people think. Transparency International’s own policy forbids accepting money from corrupt companies. Period. Even though the Siemens bribery scandal broke in 2006, the company is still being investigated in more than 20 countries — in Europe, Asia, the Americas, Africa and the Middle East. All over the world, Siemens is still under suspicion.”

In this recent speech, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Sung-Hee Suh spoke “about the Criminal Division’s white-collar criminal enforcement priorities now and in the coming year.” Among other things, Suh stated:  

“The prosecution of individuals—including corporate executives—for criminal wrongdoing continues to be a high priority for the department.  That is not to say that we will be looking to charge individuals to the exclusion of corporations. However, corporations do not act criminally, but for the actions of individuals.  And, the Criminal Division intends to prosecute those individuals, whether they are sitting on a sales desk or in a corporate suite. It is within this framework that we are also seeking to reshape the conversation about corporate cooperation to some extent.  Corporations too often overlook a key consideration that the department has long expressed in our Principles of Federal Prosecution, which guide our prosecutorial decisions:  That is a corporation’s willingness to cooperate in the investigation of its culpable executives. Of course, corporations—like individuals—are not required to cooperate.  A corporation may make a business or strategic decision not to cooperate.  However, if a corporation does elect to cooperate with the department, it should be mindful of the fact that the department does not view voluntary disclosure as true cooperation, if the company avoids identifying the individuals who are criminally responsible for the corporate misconduct. Even the identification of culpable individuals is not true cooperation, if the company intentionally fails to locate and provide facts and evidence at their disposal that implicate those individuals.  The Criminal Division will be looking long and hard at corporations who purport to cooperate, but fail to provide timely and full information about the criminal misconduct of their executives. In the past year, the Criminal Division has demonstrated its continued commitment to the prosecution of individual wrongdoers in the corporate context.  I will highlight a few examples. On the FCPA front, since 2009, we have convicted 50 individuals in FCPA and FCPA-related cases, and resolved criminal cases against 59 companies with penalties and forfeiture of almost $4 billion.  Within the last two years alone, we have charged, resolved by plea, or unsealed cases against 26 individuals, and 14 corporations have resolved FCPA violations with combined penalties and forfeiture of more than $1.6 billion. As just one example, the department unsealed charges against the former co-CEOs and general counsel of PetroTiger Ltd., a BVI oil and gas company with offices in New Jersey, for allegedly paying bribes to an official in Colombia in exchange for assistance in securing approval for an oil services contract worth $39 million. The general counsel and one of the CEOs already pleaded guilty to bribery and fraud charges, and the other former CEO is headed for trial. This case was brought to the attention of the department through voluntary disclosure by PetroTiger, which cooperated with the department’s investigation.  Notably, no charges of any kind were filed against PetroTiger. An example on the flip side is the Alstom case, an FCPA investigation stemming from a widespread scheme involving tens of millions of dollars in bribes spanning the globe, including Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the Bahamas. When the Criminal Division learned of the misconduct and launched an investigation, Alstom opted not to cooperate at the outset.  What ensued was an extensive multi-tool investigation involving recordings, interviews, subpoenas, MLAT requests, the use of cooperating witnesses, and more. As of today, four individual Alstom executives have been charged; three of them have pleaded guilty; Alstom’s consortium partner, Marubeni, was charged and pleaded guilty; and Alstom pleaded guilty and agreed to pay a record $772 million fine.  And that only accounts for the charges in the United States. As I have said, we want corporations to cooperate, and will provide appropriate incentives.  But, we will not rely exclusively upon corporate cooperation to make our cases against the individual wrongdoers.

[…]

To do these complex, international investigations, we are increasingly coordinating with domestic and foreign regulators and law enforcement counterparts, some of whom are on this panel today. In working with our foreign counterparts, we have developed growing sophistication and experience in a variety of areas, including analyzing foreign data privacy laws and corporations’ claims that overseas documents cannot be provided to investigators in the United States. We are also building and relying upon on our relationships with our foreign counterparts to gather evidence, locate individuals overseas, conduct parallel investigations of similar conduct, and, when appropriate, coordinate the timing and scope of resolutions. Yes, just as we are coordinating our investigations, we are likewise willing to coordinate our resolutions, including accounting for the corporate monetary penalties paid in other jurisdictions when appropriate. This is all to say that you should expect to see these meaningful, multinational investigations and prosecutions of corporations and individuals to continue.”

*****

These pages have frequently highlighted how the root cause of bribery and corruption is often foreign trade barriers and distortions.

Jeremy Douglas (who leads the United Nation’s regional Office on Drugs and Crime for Southeast Asia and the Pacific) was thus spot-on in this recent Q&A.

“Q: How do western companies get themselves into trouble in the region?

A: … What we see in the region is that bureaucracies and government structures tend to be highly personalized. People are ensconced in key positions i.e. government procurement positions, or people in the position to give government contracts, let’s say building a power plant. [These officials] are in powerful positions to ease up administrative procedures and accelerate red tape and issue licenses. So companies can be drawn into scenarios where they are paying facilitation fees or their intermediaries are paying facilitation fees. [Much of] Southeast Asia doesn’t have a lot of the regulatory structure–the checks and balances you have in the [U.S. or Canada] so companies come in and run into very powerful persons in those structures, and they know if they can influence these officials, they can get what they need to win business.”

Reading Stack

“Transparency International pioneered the corruption index in the early 1990s. They rank countries from most corrupt to the least corrupt. And they are based on public perception – perception of business people and experts from outside the country. They come up with these numbers that are attractive to the press. And it has put Transparency International on the map. They are simple minded surveys. But they don’t really mean a lot. The idea of corruption in these surveys is simple bribery — cash changing hands. It’s the proverbial cash in the piano or the freezer. Corruption is reduced to bribery. In fact, today’s most savvy power brokers are engaged in a kind of corruption that is much more subtle and more difficult to detect. Today’s most corrupt players, at least in the West, don’t need this quid pro quo corruption. They are far beyond that. That’s for the little players. That’s for the small fry. That’s a key point of Unaccountable.”

*****

This Op-Ed about Chinese law enforcement (in the corruption space and otherwise) states: “China’s leaders must realize that even the perception that they are targeting foreign businesses disproportionately can create great harm.”  Against this backdrop, is the following fact.  8 of the top 10 FCPA enforcement actions (in terms of settlement amounts) have been against foreign companies and are often based on sparse jurisdictional allegations.

*****

From the Singapore Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau

“Public Officers Rejecting Bribe Offers