Standard Bank roundup, recent FCPA sentences, scrutiny alert, and for the reading stack. It’s all here in the Friday roundup.
Standard Bank Roundup
A roundup within the Friday roundup.
The development of the month so far was the U.K. (and related) enforcement action against Standard Bank – a first in two regards.
(i) the first use of Section 7 of the Bribery Act (the so-called failure to prevent bribery offense) in a foreign bribery action; and
(ii) the first use of a deferred prosecution agreement in the U.K..
- This post highlighted “what” was resolved – an alleged violation of Sec. 7 of the Bribery Act for failure to prevent bribery.
- This post highlighted “how” the enforcement action was resolved – the U.K.’s first deferred prosecution agreement.
- This post highlighted the creativity of the SEC in also bringing an enforcement action against Standard Bank.
- This post highlighted the thoughts of others about the enforcement action.
Recent FCPA Sentences
In 2013 and 2014 the DOJ brought FCPA and related charges against various individuals associated with broker dealer Direct Access Partners in connection with alleged improper payments to Maria Gonzalez (V.P. of Finance / Executive Manager of Finance and Funds Administration at Bandes, an alleged Venezuelan state-owned banking entity that acted as the financial agent of the state to finance economic development projects).
Recently, Tomas Clarke and Ernesto Lujan were sentenced after pleading guilty to FCPA and related offenses.
Lujan was sentenced to two years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and consented to a $18.5 million forfeiture “representing the proceeds and property involved in the commission of the offenses alleged.”
Clarke was also sentenced to two years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and consented to a $5.8 million forfeiture “representing the proceeds and property involved in the commission of the offenses alleged.”
Previously, Benito Chinea and Joseph DeMeneses were sentenced to four years in prison and consented to $3.6 million and $2.7 million forfeiture.
Scrutiny Alert
Analogic
The company which has been under FCPA scrutiny since 2011 recently disclosed:
“As initially disclosed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended July 31, 2011, we identified certain transactions involving our Danish subsidiary BK Medical ApS, or BK Medical, and certain of its foreign distributors, with respect to which we have raised questions concerning compliance with law, including Danish law and the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and our business policies. These have included transactions in which the distributors paid BK Medical amounts in excess of amounts owed and BK Medical transferred the excess amounts, at the direction of the distributors, to third parties identified by the distributors. We have terminated the employment of certain BK Medical employees and also terminated our relationships with the BK Medical distributors that were involved in the transactions. We have concluded that the transactions identified to date have been properly accounted for in our reported financial statements in all material respects. However, we have been unable to ascertain with certainty the ultimate beneficiaries or the purpose of these transfers. We have voluntarily disclosed this matter to the Danish Government, the U.S. Department of Justice, or DOJ, and the SEC, and are cooperating with inquiries by the Danish Government, the DOJ and the SEC. We believe that the SEC, DOJ, and Danish Government have substantially completed their investigation into the transactions at issue. We are continuing our discussions with the SEC and have commenced discussions with the DOJ and Danish Government concerning a possible resolution of these matters. During the three months ended July 31, 2015, we accrued a $1.6 million charge in connection with a settlement proposal that we made to the SEC, which proposal was rejected by the SEC. In the first quarter of fiscal 2016, the SEC and DOJ made separate settlement proposals that would include payments in the aggregate amount of approximately $15 million. We are uncertain whether the Danish Government will seek to impose sanctions or penalties against us. We further believe that, under Danish law, amounts paid to the SEC and/or the DOJ would be taken into account in determining penalties that may be sought by the Danish Government. There can be no assurance that we will enter into any settlement with the SEC, the DOJ or the Danish Government, and the cost of any settlements or other resolutions of these matters could materially exceed our accruals. During the three months ended October 31, 2015 and 2014, we incurred inquiry-related costs of approximately $0.03 million and $0.8 million, respectively, in connection with this matter.”
Reading Stack
This Law360 article by Gerry Zack (Managing Director in BDO’s global forensics practice) titled “Implicit Bias – the Hidden Investigation Killer” caught my eye.
“Everyone carries a variety of biases around with them on a daily basis. Yet, many people are confident they can set their biases aside when it comes time to perform a workplace investigation, even referring to the final product as an “unbiased investigation.” But science has repeatedly proven that we aren’t nearly as good at setting our biases aside as we’d like to think …”
The article touches upon affinity bias, confirmation bias, and priming.
Having conducted numerous internal investigations around the world (in the FCPA context and otherwise), I think there is merit to the issues discussed in the article – issues that contribute to the divide between the DOJ and SEC “processing” corporate FCPA internal investigations and the general struggles of the enforcement agencies proving FCPA offenses in the context of an adversarial proceeding.
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From outgoing SEC Commissioner Luis Aguilar – “Commissioner Aguilar’s (Hopefully) Helpful Tips for New SEC Commissioners.”
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A good weekend to all.
