Many commentators view persons who violate the FCPA as just bad actors, rotten apples, or the eponymous rogue employees. One reason that companies use this type of language is to try and move liability off themselves, claiming the responsibility is on the employee to not only know the law but follow it. But as Casius said the Brutus, in Shakespeare’s Julius Ceasar, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.” For if a company can decouple a person’s acts from any institutional responsibility it is better not only for the company but also the managers above the recalcitrant employee who looked the other way.
