The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday announced charges against a former Goldman Sachs executive for violating the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for orchestrating a bribery scheme to help a client win a power-plant contract in the Republic of Ghana, but the firm was not charged in the case because of the due diligence measures it took.

Jaclyn Jaeger is a freelance contributor to Compliance Week after working for the company for 15 years. She writes on a wide variety of topics, including ethics and compliance, risk management, legal,...