All Anti-Bribery articles – Page 7
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Blog
The Greek Culture of Corruption
Envelopes stuffed with cash and entire industries poised to take action against the first sign of whistleblowing are just two of the hallmarks of the endemic corruption that bedevils the entire Greek economy. What can be done when compliance isn’t just absent in a country, but actively avoided as a ...
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ArticleAssessing risks country-by-country
A new Transparency International report examining public sector corruption reveals both good news and bad news: More countries saw their anti-corruption scores improve, rather than decline—but corruption, overall, is still rife globally. Compliance and risk officers can use the benchmark to help reassess where to focus their due diligence and ...
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Blog
SEC Charges SAP With FCPA Violations
Germany-based software manufacturer SAP has agreed to give up $3.7 million in sales profits in a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act when procuring business in Panama.
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Blog
Treasury Moves to Shine a Light on Real Estate Transactions
Recently, the U.S. Treasury Department said it would begin demanding to know the names of folks behind the shell companies, which ultra-wealthy foreigners use to hide behind multimillion-dollar real estate purchases. Efforts by the U.S. Treasury Department to police more closely large cash purchases of real estate as a method ...
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Blog
Sweett Group Closes Middle East Business
Sweett Group, a British property management, construction and surveying company, announced today that the board has resolved to close its Middle East business and exit the region. In December 2015, the U.K. Serious Fraud Office confirmed that Sweett Group admitted to violating the Bribery Act, regarding conduct in the Middle ...
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Blog
February 1 Deadline for Data Transfer Clarity
February 1 is a date that all U.S. and EU compliance practitioners need to circle. It’s the deadline for the U.S. Department of Commerce and the European Commission to reach a deal regarding the transfer of data from EU countries to the United States. As of now, the two still ...
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Blog
SBM Offshore Settles Bribery Case With Brazilian Authorities
Dutch engineering company SBM Offshore announced today that it has accepted an out-of-court settlement with Brazilian authorities to resolve allegations relating to the Petrobras bribery scandal, while emphasizing that the settlement does not involve an admission of guilt.
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Blog
Honduras Forms New International Anti-Corruption Body
The Honduran government recently announced the creation of the Mission to Support the Fight against Corruption and Impunity (MACCIH), an international body backed by the Organization of American States. Its mandate is to investigate and prosecute criminal activities in the country’s political, judicial and security systems, as well as to ...
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Blog
2015 Interactive Timeline: A Year of Transparency
Whether it was the Swiss leaks scandal, the European Parliament’s formal adoption of the 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive, or a movement to require multinational corporations to publicly report financial information on a country-by-country basis, 2015 was a year in which transparency became a watchword across Europe. Take a look at ...
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Blog
Mike Oxley, the FCPA, and the Fight Against Terrorism
When the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act became law years ago, it was never intended to be used as a tool to fight terrorism. But as recent terror activity has illustrated, corruption and terrorism go more than hand in hand; the first helps to create the second. And as we look ...
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Article
Mitigating Cyber-Threats From the Inside Out
As attacks on corporate networks become more common, companies are getting more adept at protecting their most valuable assets against cyber-threats outside the company, but it’s the insider threats that continue to elude many. Inside, we walk through the difficult part of insider-threat programs: not just creating the program and ...
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Blog
U.K. Printing Company to Pay £2.2 Million in Bribery Case
The Southwark Crown Court in London last week ordered U.K. printing company Smith and Ouzman to pay a total of £2.2 million for making corrupt payments. The sentence and conviction followed a four-year investigation by the U.K. Serious Fraud Office.
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Blog
Petrobras Cancels Drilling Services Contract With Ensco
U.K.-based Ensco said this week in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that its customer, Brazil state-owned oil and gas company Petrobras, cancelled its contract for a drilling services contract because of alleged irregularities with respect to contracting prior to the company’s acquisition of Pride International in 2011.
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Article
FCPA Enforcement Trends to Watch in 2016
Image: A recalibrated focus by the government on individual culpability, expanding cross-border cooperation and prosecutions, and hordes of new whistleblower complaints are just a few upcoming enforcement trends that are expected to elicit some big compliance headaches in 2016. “The FCPA Unit, it seems to us, is working as hard ...
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Blog
Some Costs of Corruption
Image: A recent Financial Times article says that non-U.S. corruption scandals have outpaced those which are U.S.-centric and, FT points out, the companies at the heart of these scandals fared pretty badly from their own transgressions. Inside, FCPA blogger Tom Fox examines the cases of Volkswagen, whose emissions fraud has ...
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Blog
Using Social Media to Defend an FCPA Criminal Charge
Image: Social media has certainly changed the way we communicate. Just look at federal securities fraudster Martin Shkreli, known for his extreme social media use, who has continued the practice (not surprisingly) post-arrest. According to the New York Times, Shkreli posts selfie videos “as if the possibility of going to ...
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Blog
Reform Starts at the Top for FIFA
Image: You might think in today’s corporate world “tone at the top” would be so well worn that you need not repeat it. Yet, tone at the top apparently did warrant repeating for former FIFA head Sepp Blatter. Earlier this week, Blatter announced he would fight the eight-year suspension placed ...
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Blog
Two Courts—Two Decisions on Whistleblower Protections
Image: A recent court ruling found that employees who reported suspected illegal conduct to their employers rather than to the SEC are entitled to the Dodd-Frank Act anti-retaliation protections. The decision, however, conflicts with a prior court decision, where the court refused to give weight to the SEC’s interpretation of ...
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Article
Lessons From the SFO’s First Deferred-Prosecution Agreement
The U.K. Serious Fraud Office struck its first-ever deferred-prosecution agreement with Standard Bank in November, giving companies some much-needed guidance on how to disclose misconduct. The SFO’s decision to use DPAs is part of a larger undertaking to put a quick end to corporate criminal cases and encourage cooperation between ...
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Blog
The Legacy of Frederick Bourke Rears Its Head
Sometimes it does not take active bribery or corruption by an individual to violate anti-corruption laws such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. It is one of the few laws which makes illegal consciously avoiding the actual knowledge of the underlying crime.