One of the key responses by U.S. businesses to the upsurge in FCPA enforcement beginning in 2004 and continuing up to this day has been what The Man From FCPA terms a business response to a legal issue. Put another way, U.S. businesses have moved from facile paper compliance programs under anti-corruption laws such as the FCPA and U.K. Bribery Act to doing compliance. This business response has provided a legal defense to allegations of FCPA violations and made companies operate in a more efficient, integrated approach to the scourge of global corruption. Now we see companies in other countries going through an increase in bribery and corruption enforcement take this approach.
Reports now show companies in Brazil are taking this approach in response to the country’s more aggressive enforcement against endemic corruption in commercial businesses. This is partly in response to the allegations and investigations brought forward by Operation Car Wash and the attendant Odebrecht anti-corruption enforcement action. Jorge Abrahão, president of Brazil’s Ethos Institute, a corporate social responsibility organization said “We are witnessing a big change in Brazil—there is an understanding in society now that whoever doesn’t take the issues of corruption and transparency seriously will not have a place in the market in the future.
