Richard Bistrong.
Most people likely associate his name with the manufactured Africa Sting FCPA enforcement action. The Africa Sting action involved a purported deal to purchase equipment for the presidential guard of an African Government with FBI agents posing as African Government officials and Bistrong working as an undercover informant.
The Africa Sting enforcement action resulted in criminal charges against 22 individuals. After extensive motions practice and two trials, all charges against all defendants were ultimately dismissed by the DOJ and the action ended with Judge Richard Leon (D.D.C.) calling the entire case a “long and sad chapter in the annals of white collar criminal enforcement.” (See here).
Bistrong was not charged in the Africa Sting case, but previously pleaded guilty to “real-world” Foreign Corrupt Practices Act conduct, including conspiring with others to bribe United Nations officials, Dutch officials, and Nigeria officials. (See here and here). This charge stemmed from Bistrong’s work as the international sales vice president for a large, successful and publicly traded multi-national corporation. Bistrong started to cooperate with the DOJ in June 2007 and Judge Leon ultimately credited Bistrong’s extensive cooperation at sentencing. (See here).
FCPA Professor seeks to highlight a wide range of voices on FCPA issues. With this goal in mind, I requested to communicate with Bistrong with the permission of his attorney. Bistrong’s attorney, Brady Toensing (diGenova & Toensing) would not allow his client to discuss questions about the Africa Sting case.
At present, Bistrong is out of prison but still serving the supervised release portion of his sentence.
In this detailed Q&A, Bistrong describes: the circumstances that put him in a position to violate the FCPA; what made him think he could get away with it; his thought process when he realized he was caught; and how he spent his time in federal prison. In the Q&A Bistrong not only looks back, but forward as well and shares what he learned from his experience and what he hopes to accomplish in the future, including through his recently launched blog.
