The Man From FCPA

Glencore has seen a drop in its share price, which could be related to the Justice Department having issued a subpoena for possible FCPA violations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, and Venezuela.

While President Trump promised condos in North Korea as a part of his negotiations with North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jung Un, it doesn’t mean companies will have an easy time doing business in the country, which ranked as “highly corrupt,” on the 2017 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index.

A recent case involving Autonomy and Hewlett-Packard shows that it is not the bribe receiver’s conduct but the bribe payor’s conduct that matters. 

For any company doing business in South Africa, all your contacts with the African National Congress have FCPA implications; This means all the investigations you might be performing for contracts with the South African government, anything associated with the Gupta family or state-owned enterprises, should be assessed for ANC contacts as well.

Some continue to believe that bribery and corruption that occurs outside the United States does not concern the United States, its laws, or is even worth the time of U.S. law enforcement agencies. This myopic view belies both the inter-connectedness of the world’s economy and the facts on the ground.

Tom Fox explores the ethical implications of hosted hunting trips and specifically the case of Fredrik Lundberg, chairman of Sweden-based Industrivarden, and Anders Borg, the former finance minister of that country, who was given just such a trip by Lundberg.

The Man From FCPA Tom Fox explores a recent article that hopes to answer the question: Why are so many governments around the world collapsing amid corruption scandals?”

What makes a fraudster? And how can a fraudster’s actions lead to larger complications for your corporation’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act policies? Tom Fox sets out to answer these questions.

The Justice Department and SEC have their work cut out for them, says FCPA blogger Tom Fox, as the Monaco-based Unaoil scandal—in which the company used commissions to bribe clients—may be the biggest corruption enforcement action yet.

The FIFA corruption probe has shifted to U.S. corporations that did business with FIFA, regional soccer federations, and national soccer organizations, prompting some companies, including Nike, DirectTV, and Standard Chartered, to start their own internal investigations. The message is quite clear for those U.S. companies with affiliations to soccer regulators: You need to get out ahead of the government probe now by investigating any business dealings you might have had in this arena, says CW’s FCPA blogger Tom Fox.

While Petrobras currently holds the title as the most corrupt national energy company in South America, Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) is a strong contender as well, thanks to ongoing U.S. investigations into possible FCPA violations involving U.S. companies, Swiss banks, and corrupt PDVSA officials.

Hiring the son or daughter of a government official to secure a lucrative business contract is clearly out of bounds. But hiring somebody who was specifically rejected from an interview process as being unfit for the job in question, a scenario recently played out at Qualcomm and its China-based operations … that’s a compliance transgression that practically begs for regulator intervention.

When corruption-plagued Brazilian energy giant Petrobras overpaid for a Houston-area refinery by some $950 million, it raised more than a few eyebrows. And when that refinery suffered a large explosion and fire recently, it showed that failure to practice good safety and failure to practice good business ethics go hand-in-hand.