The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)

Guidance on Bribery Act Still Disappoints

October 12, 2010

The British government has begun to provide specific guidance on how companies can avoid prosecution under the country’s tough new anti-bribery laws, but it will be little comfort to compliance executives—especially those at U.S. companies, still unclear when they might face prosecution.
 

Dodd-Frank Causes New Oil & Gas Pains

August 24, 2010

A broad new disclosure provision tucked into the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is poised to cause plenty of consternation for those in the energy industry.
 

How to Size Up, and Manage, FCPA Investigation Costs

August 17, 2010

Corporations worried about compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act—which would be, like, all of them—have a few more glimpses into the costs of investigating and settling FCPA probes that might prove to be useful benchmarks.
 

Podcast: FCPA and Charitable Donations

August 06, 2010

We talk with Tom Fox, an independent FCPA compliance consultant and lawyer, about the Justice Department’s latest advisory opinion on the legality of “compelled giving” to charities overseas.
 

Editorial: SOX Gets Defeated, and That’s It?

August 01, 2010

Many years ago, T.S. Eliot closed his poem “The Hollow Men” with this famous, haunting stanza: “This is the way the world ends/This is the way the world ends/This is the way the world ends/Not with a bang but a whimper.”
 

Audit Committee Checklist: Good Disclosure

July 20, 2010

Confession is good for the soul, and likewise, disclosure is good for the audit committee. And unfortunately, knowing exactly what to say can be difficult for both.
 

Audit Committee Checklist: FCPA Compliance

July 13, 2010

Audit committees have many concerns on their plates these days. But none, it seems, are as vexing and consequential as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
 

SEC Bounty Program May Complicate Whistleblowing

July 07, 2010

As compliance officers spend the summer poring over the 2,000-plus pages of Congress’ regulatory reform bill, they might want to pay particular attention to one provision about whistleblowing that could become a big deal for all public companies.
 

When the CCO Should Report to the General Counsel

Soriano, Guest Columnist John June 29, 2010

Can the chief ethics and compliance officer maintain the true independence and clout necessary to be effective while reporting to the general counsel—or to anyone else other than the CEO or the board of directors? The consensus of compliance experts and practitioners is decidedly indefinite. Basically, they all say, it depends.
 

Aerospace, Defense Sectors Take Up Ethics Effort

June 29, 2010

Aerospace and defense companies are launching a new, transnational effort to improve ethical business conduct and fight corruption.
 

More Proof of Global Anti-Bribery Crackdown

June 22, 2010

Enforcement officials have been hammering home the message for more than a year, but if any global corporations still want proof: A new report has more hard evidence that enforcement of anti-bribery laws is increasing, albeit slowly, around the world.
 

Managing, Mitigating Third-Party Risks

June 08, 2010

For most companies these days, working with third parties is critical to doing business. But at a time when anti-corruption enforcement has never been more stringent, those third parties can also pose huge risks.
 

White-Collar Crime Enforcement 101

June 02, 2010

A squadron of Justice Department officials appeared at the Compliance Week 2010 conference last week to talk about effective compliance programs, and they all drilled home one message: They have declared war on “paper programs.”
 

DoJ Warns on Heightened Fraud Enforcement

June 02, 2010

As the Justice Department ramps up its efforts to combat all forms of fraud, two of its top officials gave corporate compliance, legal, and risk professionals the straight dope on what they must do to keep their companies out of trouble.
 

Chipping Away at Effective Anti-Corruption Programs

June 02, 2010

Attendees at the Compliance Week 2010 conference last week got a refresher course in the compliance challenges and litigation risks stemming from bribery and corruption—and given the fast-changing regulatory landscape around corruption, Corporate America needs the extra help.
 

Shop Talk: Managing Third-Party Risks

May 11, 2010

On April 22, 2010, Compliance Week and SAI Global presented an exclusive editorial roundtable about strategies for managing third-party risks. The roundtable, held at the Jefferson Hotel in Washington D.C., was moderated by Compliance Week Editor Matt Kelly and Christine Mills, senior vice president of SAI Global. Panelists included executives from Hewlett-Packard, Johnson Controls, Aramark Corp., among others. The following article provides readers with an in-depth look at their discussion.
 

Shop Talk: Compliance in Life Sciences

April 13, 2010

Corporate compliance in the life sciences industry can be quite the headache these days.
 

Innospec Settlement Shows Latest FCPA Thinking

April 06, 2010

Ethics and compliance officers might want to pay special attention to the Justice Department’s recent settlement of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act charges against chemical company Innospec, which is emerging as the latest cautionary tale about overseas bribery, self-disclosure, and global anti-corruption enforcement.
 

OECD Anti-Bribery Guide as Path to FCPA Compliance

March 30, 2010

The compliance community is perking up to new anti-bribery guidance recently published by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development that could serve as a blueprint for stronger compliance with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
 

Proposals for Sentencing Guidelines Win Mostly Praise

March 23, 2010

Proposed changes to the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, guidelines widely viewed as the de facto blueprint for corporate ethics and compliance programs, are drawing mixed reviews from the compliance community.
 

U.K. Bribery Bill Poses Daunting Compliance Challenges

March 16, 2010

British lawmakers are poised to approve the most sweeping reforms of anti-bribery law in the United Kingdom in more than a century, creating a new anti-corruption regime that many believe will be sterner than even the United States’ dreaded Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
 

Podcast: Improving FCPA Compliance Programs

March 16, 2010

In this week’s podcast, Compliance Week editor Matt Kelly talks with Russ Berland of the law firm Stinson Morrison & Hecker about new guidance from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development that could be a blueprint for stronger FCPA compliance.
 

DoJ and SEC Go All Out to Stop Fraud

March 09, 2010

When Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer was recently asked to comment on enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in 2009, he minced no words: “One can say without exaggeration that this past year was probably the most dynamic single year in the more than 30 years since the FCPA was enacted.”
 

Internal Audit’s Role in Preventing FCPA Violations

March 02, 2010

It seems like old news, but no matter how often Corporate America says it knows what to do, we just keep hearing about high-profile cases of violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
 

DoJ Tells Pharma to Brace for FCPA

March 02, 2010

The Department of Justice has issued a strong warning in recent months to those in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries: find a way to deter fraud and other corporate corruption, or face hefty consequences.
 

Editorial: Hope, Compliance Spring Eternal

March 01, 2010

Every spring I write an editorial announcing the lineup of our annual Compliance Week lineup. As you might imagine, last year’s conference, in the shadow of recession and financial crisis, had a touch of gallows humor to the whole affair.
 

Podcast: Review of Latest FCPA Sting

January 22, 2010

Compliance Week editor Matt Kelly chats with Tom Fox, an independent lawyer and FCPA compliance consultant, about last week’s massive FCPA sting by the Justice Department.
 

Podcast: Big Pharma and FCPA

December 04, 2009

In this week’s podcast, Compliance Week editor Matt Kelly talks with Jonathan Halpern of the law firm Bracewell and Giuliani, about a possible new crackdown on FCPA compliance in the pharmaceutical industry.
 

Survey: How Mature Is Your Compliance Function?

November 10, 2009

Chief compliance officers apparently still have lots of work ahead to turn their compliance efforts into strong, mature programs that can handle the broad range of risks corporations face.
 

Editorial: Anatomy of an FCPA Violation

November 01, 2009

So I may have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act while I was on vacation recently.
 

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Survey of the Week


Deloitte is conducting their annual Look Before You Leap: Managing Risks in Global Investments survey to better understand the approaches companies are taking to address compliance and integrity-related risks in emerging markets. 

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