Anti-Bribery

Image: Companies under investigation for possible violations of the FCPA have more than enforcement action to worry about; they must be prepared to fend off shareholder lawsuits as well. That requires some careful strategy about how to investigate FCPA allegations and document them. “I can’t tell you how often I have pointed to something in resolution papers to help me out in derivative litigation,” says Sam Cooper, with law firm Paul Hastings.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Working Group on Bribery this week said it has “serious concerns” about Iceland’s lack of progress in both combating the bribery of foreign public officials. Out of 17 recommendations made by the Working Group in 2010, just two of the recommendations had been fully implemented. Details inside.

France has drawn international attention amid a string of scandals that engulfed some of the country’s largest companies. When compared to the United States, experts believe that French authorities are more lenient on wrongdoing. The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development is “seriously concerned” by the country’s “lackluster response” toward corporate misconduct. Details inside.

German-based engineering company Bilfinger said that an internal investigation has uncovered potential bribery payments made to government officials in Brazil for contracts related to the 2014 World Cup. After launching an internal investigation into the allegations last year, “suspicions have now been substantiated,” Bilfinger said. Details inside.

The risk of Greek companies bribing foreign officials is substantial, and yet Greece has not given the same priority to fighting foreign bribery as it has to domestic corruption, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Phase 3bis Report on Greece.” The repor examines issues that the Working Group was unable to fully assess in the previous Phase 3 evaluation in 2012. Details inside.

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) is currently conducting nine investigations in the Petrobras case and has issued an order freezing USD$400 million in assets deposited in Switzerland in connection with the

The Department of Justice will extend for an additional year a deferred-prosecution agreement reached in 2012 with Biomet, after the medical device maker self-reported additional potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The three-year DPA, which would have expired March 26, 2015, will now expire on March 26, 2016. Details inside.

Image: Suddenly anti-corruption enforcement seems to be serious in Brazil—to the point that businesses working there might want to pay more heed to enforcement risks from Brazilian regulators themselves. The catalyst is the sweeping investigation into state-owned oil company Petrobras, riveting Brazil this month. “We can expect much more enforcement going forward,” says Salim Saud Neto, a partner in the Rio de Janeiro office of Tauil & Chequer.

Image: From remarks last week at a conference in Washington D.C., SEC Director of Enforcement Andrew Ceresney highlighted three types of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act misconduct that most often arise in the pharmaceutical industry: pay-to-prescribe, formulary drugs, and charitable contributions. More of Ceresney’s observations are inside.