A lot happened at Albemarle Corp. just before Andrew McBride accepted the chemical company’s offer to become its first chief compliance officer in 2018.
A month prior, the company’s board decided to revamp the way it conducted business in its catalysts division by firing all its sales agents. The reason it did that, McBride would soon discover, was that the company was planning to disclose to the Department of Justice (DOJ) that it appeared to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) regarding payments sales agents made to obtain business in three countries from 2009-17.
