All Anti-Bribery articles – Page 43
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Blog
Weekends are for ... fraud?
The recent $101M heist from the Central Bank of Bangladesh would have been impossible had it not occurred over a weekend, and had weekends themselves not been observed on different days of the week in Bangladesh than they are in the United States. One thing’s for sure: Whenever the weekend ...
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Blog
Alere receives subpoena in foreign bribery probe
Alere, a global diagnostic device and service provider, said yesterday a filing the Securities and Exchange Commission that it received a grand jury subpoena from the Department of Justice requiring the production of documents relating to its sales practices in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
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Blog
NGOs to OECD: global standards needed for foreign bribery settlements
A group of non-governmental organizations has written a letter to the OECD Working Group on Bribery urging it to develop global standards for corporate settlements based on best practice. Corruption Watch, Global Witness, Transparency International, and the UNCAC Coalition asked the OECD to address “urgently” whether the use of settlements ...
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Petrobras fallout into the private sector continues
A 19-year prison sentence handed down in connection with Brazil’s widening “Car Wash” scandal is a wake-up call for any company that has done business with Odebrecht SA, the largest construction company in Brazil and, indeed, South America. The scandal, which began with energy firm Petrobras, should enforce that it’s ...
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Article
Scrutinizing hiring practices for FCPA violations
Through recent investigations and enforcement actions, the Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice have been warning companies to proceed with caution when hiring the relatives of foreign government officials, lest they run afoul of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
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VimpelCom and the conscious indifference of a board under the FCPA
Image: The joint Justice Dept., SEC settlement with telecom giant VimpelCom resolving a longstanding FCPA violation will cost the company more than $795 million, say reports. But there’s a bright side, says CW Columnist Tom Fox. The multiple bribery schemes seem to have been supported by top management and will ...
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Platform Specialty Products self-reports FCPA probe
Platform Specialty Products, a chemical-products company, said in a regulatory filing this week that it is conducting an internal investigation to determine whether certain payments made by a recently acquired subsidiary to third-party agents in West Africa violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
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Customers and corruption risks
What is the cost of corruption? How much due diligence must you perform with those entities that are your customers? Does doing business with companies that have a propensity for corruption put your company at risk? In light of the scandals at Petrobras and Houston-based ENSCO, companies might want to ...
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Blog
Are anti-bribery experts focusing on the wrong numbers?
To be sure, enforcement data is an important tool for companies to understand their anti-bribery regulatory risks. But relying solely on U.S. enforcement statistics reveals only part of the increasingly complex and multi-layered regulatory landscape that multinationals are facing today. Inside, a look at what can be accomplished when the ...
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BlogHow Qualcomm’s FCPA blunder involved rank incompetency
Hiring the son or daughter of a government official to secure a lucrative business contract is clearly out of bounds. But hiring somebody who was specifically rejected from an interview process as being unfit for the job in question, a scenario recently played out at Qualcomm and its China-based operations ...
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Blog
Report: Europe makes up majority of U.S. bribery investigations
The majority of U.S. investigations and enforcement actions concerning alleged bribery of foreign officials conducted against non-U.S. companies and individuals involved companies or individuals from Europe, according to a new report issued by anti-bribery group TRACE International. Companies or individuals from Europe made up approximately 71 percent of U.S. bribery ...
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Blog
Sweett Group to pay £2.25 million for Bribery Act violations
The U.K. Serious Fraud Office last month sentenced and ordered the Sweett Group to pay £2.25 million ($3.21 million) to resolve an SFO investigation into the company’s activities in the United Arab Emirates. The conviction and punishment represents the first under Section 7 of the Bribery Act and offers many ...
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Blog
Nordion to Pay SEC $375,000 for books and records violations of FCPA
Canada-based global life sciences company Nordion last week agreed to pay a $375,000 civil penalty to the Securities and Exchange Commission for violating the books and records and internal accounting controls provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The case offers numerous lessons for compliance officers responsible for accurate books ...
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Petrobras refinery explosion reveals poor compliance of a different kind
When corruption-plagued Brazilian energy giant Petrobras overpaid for a Houston-area refinery by some $950 million, it raised more than a few eyebrows. And when that refinery suffered a large explosion and fire recently, it showed that failure to practice good safety and failure to practice good business ethics go hand-in-hand.
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Mondelez International faces FCPA probe
Mondelez International, the U.S. parent of Mondelez India, recently disclosed in a securities filing that is being investigated by the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice for potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act related to its operations in India.
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Nortek FCPA investigation costs reach $2.3 million
Nortek, a maker of home security and thermostat systems, said this week in a securities filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it has incurred $2.3 million in legal and other professional services costs relating to potential improper payments made by its Chinese manufacturing unit.
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Qualcomm to pay SEC $7.5 million for hiring practices
Digital telecommunications maker Qualcomm this week reached a $7.5 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by hiring relatives of Chinese government officials. These officials were in positions to decide whether to select Qualcomm’s mobile technology products amid ...
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Blog
Another bank under FCPA scrutiny for its hiring practices
Financial services providers face unique corruption risks when seeking to win business in international markets. This includes a traditional form of back-scratching: the hiring of children or other close family members of prominent foreign officials. Only now the SEC has made it clear that such practices can and will invite ...
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Article
Compliance lessons from VimpelCom
Image: Ethics, compliance, and audit executives have yet another real-life bribery case to add to their growing library of epic anti-corruption compliance failures—this one resulting in the sixth largest Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action of all time. “This case demonstrates a failure of internal controls at every turn,” says ...
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Blog
Olympus to pay $623.2 million for kickback scheme
Olympus Corporation of the Americas, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japan-based Olympus, will pay $623.2 million to resolve criminal charges and civil claims relating to a scheme to pay kickbacks to doctors and hospitals—the largest total amount paid in U.S. history for violations involving the Anti-Kickback Statute by a medical device ...