The Man From FCPA has long advocated knowing who you are going into business with from the anti-corruption perspective. The FCPA requires a sufficient level of due diligence to initiate a business relationship and then updating the due diligence at regular intervals. These steps are required no matter the type of the business relationship; whether it be sales agent, distributor, joint venture partner or some other type of business relationship.
In addition to the due diligence requirement, a company should have ongoing monitoring of not only who you are doing business with but how your third party conducts that business. Usually this is more critical on the sales side than the supply chain but it is becoming more clear that the supply chain can become a very large source of risk as well. This final point was driven home in a recent article in the New York Times about the trouble Prudential now finds itself in as a result of conduct by Wells Fargo.
