Anti-Bribery

For nearly three years, HSBC Holdings, a grande dame of international banking, has come under fire for a litany of regulatory problems and compliance failures: money laundering, sanctions, violations, and abetting tax evasion to name just a few. How does a good bank fall into such dire straits? The problem, experts say, is the perilous intersection of rapid growth and faltering internal controls.

Akamai Technologies disclosed in its annual report with the SEC that it is conducting an internal investigation related to potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The cloud services provider said it voluntarily reported the internal investigation to the SEC and Department of Justice last month. Details inside.

General Cable said this week in a regulatory filing that it has set aside an estimated charge of $24 million that it believes the Securities and Exchange Commission likely will disgorge from profits derived from sales tainted by improper payments made in Angola. In September, the maker of copper, aluminum, and fiber optic wire and cable products disclosed that it was investigating “certain commission payments involving sales to customers of our subsidiary in Angola.” Details inside.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. has reached a $16 million settlement with the SEC to resolve charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act when its subsidiaries paid bribes to land tire sales in Kenya and Angola. Goodyear neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s findings. Details inside.

Deloitte Transactions and Business Analytics has named John Wagner as a managing director in its anti-money laundering and sanctions consulting practice. After 32 years with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Wagner was one of the OCC’s most senior AML officials at the time of his retirement in May. Details inside.

Eli Lilly announced in a regulatory filing last week that the Department of Justice has closed its Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigation without bringing any charges. The parallel investigation followed a $29.4 million civil settlement that the drug company reached with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2012 for FCPA violations. Details inside.

Image: Anyone curious about where attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch stands on enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act now has a lot of reading material. Lynch answered a host of written questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee, giving her views on the Justice Department’s current level of transparency, the length of time to resolve FCPA investigations, FCPA reform, and more. Details inside.

Flowserve said this week in a securities filing that it has discovered potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The developer of valves and pumps said that it has uncovered actions involving an employee based in an overseas subsidiary that violated its Code of Business Conduct, and may have violated the FCPA. Details inside.

Canada has filed corruption and fraud charges against construction company SNC-Lavalin Group and two of its subsidiaries for possible misconduct in Libya—and the company has roundly rebutted them as baseless. “SNC-Lavalin firmly considers that the charges are without merit and will vigorously defend itself and plead not guilty,” the company stated. More inside.

Chinese regulators are stepping up enforcement of antitrust laws, resulting in more investigations of U.S. companies. “Foreign companies doing business in China need to know that Chinese antitrust authorities have far-reaching enforcement powers, and that the procedural safeguards are not the same as those which may apply in the United States,” says Maxime Vanhollebeke of the law firm Norton Rose. Inside, some Dos and Don’ts for responding to an investigation.