All Anti-Bribery articles – Page 9
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What the FBI Brings to an FCPA Investigation
Image: Many of the agencies that investigate Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations are the ones you don’t hear about. They stand apart from the Justice Department, discreetly waiting to leap on the next FCPA violator that crosses their path. The best example is the FBI. “The FBI historically has been ...
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Blog
Bristol-Myers Squibb Settles FCPA Case for $14 Million
Pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb has reached a $14 million settlement with the SEC for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. According to the Commission, the company’s joint venture in China made cash payments and provided other benefits to healthcare providers at state-owned and state-controlled hospitals in exchange for prescription ...
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Scottish Prosecutors Resolve Bribery Case With Brand-Rex for £200,000
Scotland-based company Brand-Rex, a developer of cabling solutions for network infrastructure and industrial applications, last month reached a £212,800 civil settlement with Scottish prosecutors for failing to prevent bribery by a third party in violation of Section 7 of the U.K. Bribery Act. Details inside.
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Kinross Gold: Justice Department and SEC Probing West Africa Payments
Kinross Gold, a Canada-based gold mining company, said last week that it is under investigation by the Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission concerning allegations of improper payments made to government officials and certain internal control deficiencies at its West Africa mining operations. More inside.
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SNC-Lavalin Settles Bribery Case for $1.5 Million; Revamps E&C Program
Engineering business SNC-Lavalin has reached a $1.5 million settlement with the African Development Bank Group to resolve practices by SNC-Lavalin International, a subsidiary of the company, in connection with certain bank-financed contracts in Mozambique and Uganda. The company said it also has signficantly enhanced its ethics and compliance program. More ...
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Hitachi Settles FCPA Charges With SEC for $19 Million
Tokyo-based Hitachi reached a $19 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by inaccurately recording improper payments to South Africa’s ruling political party in connection with contracts to build two multi-billion dollar power plants. More inside.
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FIFA Corruption Scandal: A Business Solution Coming?
Image: The fallout from the FIFA corruption scandal continues across the globe (literally), with FIFA audit committee members suspended and investigations expanded. As the next wave of soccer tournaments reaches the planning stages, however, we might be starting to see FIFA taking business practices seriously. Our Man From FCPA, Tom ...
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Analogic Proposes $1.6 Million FCPA Settlement
Analogic, an airport security and medical-imaging technology provider, said in a quarterly filing this week that it has proposed a $1.6 million settlement to the Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act case.The potential sanctions concern certain questionable transactions involving Analogic’s Danish subsidiary BK Medical and ...
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Despite Progress, Anti-Corruption Risks Continue
Last week KPMG released a report on anti-bribery and corruption programs that will surprise nobody: Compliance challenges are growing, and third parties are harder to manage than ever. After nearly a decade of anti-corruption awareness and compliance programs, then, the real question is: Why is anti-bribery still so hard? Inside, ...
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Blood Is Not Thicker Than FCPA Risk
The SEC has now taken its first enforcement action in a “princeling” case, fining BNY Mellon for offering plum internships to the relatives of foreign officials to win business with their countries’ sovereign wealth funds. Inside, columnist Tom Fox looks at the case (which is probably the first of several) ...
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Investment Advisers Next to Feel AML Scrutiny
Investment advisers have never had to face formal anti-money laundering requirements. That is about to change. A proposed rule by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network adds them to the definition of “financial institutions” and demands comprehensive anti-money laundering programs. That has raised concerns of cost and redundancy and ...
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More ABC Angst in Latest Compliance Survey
Image: Fresh news from the world of surveys: Corruption risks have risen sharply in the last few years, and while compliance officers agree that an anti-corruption risk assessment is critical, many still struggle to perform that task well. So says the latest anti-bribery & corruption survey from KPMG. More findings ...
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Federal Judge Limits Scope of FCPA Liability
A recent decision by U.S. District Judge Janet Arterton for the District of Connecticut has rejected the Department of Justice's "accomplice" theory of liability under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, substantially limiting the reach of the government’s enforcement arm under the FCPA. The ruling in the case, in favor of ...
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Do You Have a Windows 95 FCPA Compliance Program?
I find the world of sports to be a rich source of tutorials on things not to do for the FCPA compliance practitioner; from suspending Tom Brady for events which happened after DeflateGate, to the St. Louis Cardinals hacking the Houston Astros (of all teams) to steal secrets around player ...
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Google Facing Some Intense Heat in Europe
Image: European companies may now find it easier to file potential damages suits against Google, thanks to an independent platform calling on individuals and entities to proffer any civil claims regarding Google’s anticompetitive behavior. The “Google Redress and Integrity Platform” comes at a time when Google is facing several investigations ...
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Global Transparency Failures Endure, Adding Risk
Image: One of the great challenges for U.S. compliance officers as they build global programs is the basic lack of transparency into enforcement information in other countries. Two new reports give a better scope of the problem, even if the picture revealed is not terribly encouraging. “Getting access to information ...
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What’s Behind the Endemic Nature of Bribery: Poverty
Image: For all a company’s efforts to preach anti-corruption compliance worldwide, one ugly fact endures: Too many people in too many countries still need to pay bribes simply to survive. Ethics training has virtually nothing to do with the problem, editor Matt Kelly writes. The real challenge is how we ...
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Naming and Shaming in FCPA Enforcement
One thing that critics of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act constantly flail is the (alleged) lack of individual prosecutions under the law. Perhaps naming and shaming individuals responsible for actual FCPA violations would get word to the business community to take anti-corruption more seriously.
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Podcast: Conducting Internal Investigations in Europe
Image: In light of increased enforcement activities across Europe, particularly increased enforcement cooperation among foreign jurisdictions and around the world, European corporations are subjected to overlapping and often similar—but not identical—regulatory requirements. In our latest podcast, we talk to Tiffany Moseley, partner in Kaye Scholer’s litigation practice, about internal investigations ...
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Holy Orders: Vatican Picks Up Pace in AML Fight
Image: In recent years money laundering has engulfed numerous international institutions, such as the Vatican, which has been roundly criticized by Italian prosecutors for both its failure to carry out appropriate due diligence over its customers and its inability to track suspicious transactions. Those criticisms have led to some dramatic ...