All FCPA articles – Page 26
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Blog
Novartis to pay $25 million in FCPA case
Switzerland pharmaceutical giant Novartis yesterday reached a $25 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for violating the books and records and internal accounting controls provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act concerning its operations in China.
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Blog
Alere receives subpoena in foreign bribery probe
Alere, a global diagnostic device and service provider, said yesterday a filing the Securities and Exchange Commission that it received a grand jury subpoena from the Department of Justice requiring the production of documents relating to its sales practices in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
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Article
Scrutinizing hiring practices for FCPA violations
Through recent investigations and enforcement actions, the Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice have been warning companies to proceed with caution when hiring the relatives of foreign government officials, lest they run afoul of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
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Blog
VimpelCom and the conscious indifference of a board under the FCPA
Image: The joint Justice Dept., SEC settlement with telecom giant VimpelCom resolving a longstanding FCPA violation will cost the company more than $795 million, say reports. But there’s a bright side, says CW Columnist Tom Fox. The multiple bribery schemes seem to have been supported by top management and will ...
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Blog
Platform Specialty Products self-reports FCPA probe
Platform Specialty Products, a chemical-products company, said in a regulatory filing this week that it is conducting an internal investigation to determine whether certain payments made by a recently acquired subsidiary to third-party agents in West Africa violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
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Blog
Customers and corruption risks
What is the cost of corruption? How much due diligence must you perform with those entities that are your customers? Does doing business with companies that have a propensity for corruption put your company at risk? In light of the scandals at Petrobras and Houston-based ENSCO, companies might want to ...
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BlogHow Qualcomm’s FCPA blunder involved rank incompetency
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 ...
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Blog
Report: Europe makes up majority of U.S. bribery investigations
The majority of U.S. investigations and enforcement actions concerning alleged bribery of foreign officials conducted against non-U.S. companies and individuals involved companies or individuals from Europe, according to a new report issued by anti-bribery group TRACE International. Companies or individuals from Europe made up approximately 71 percent of U.S. bribery ...
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Blog
DOJ's Patrick Stokes promoted, Daniel Kahn named acting head of FCPA unit
The current head of the DOJ's FCPA unit, Patrick Stokes, has been named Senior Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. Daniel S. Kahn, Assistant Chief of the FCPA unit since 2013, will now serve as Acting Head of the FCPA unit.
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Blog
Nordion to Pay SEC $375,000 for books and records violations of FCPA
Canada-based global life sciences company Nordion last week agreed to pay a $375,000 civil penalty to the Securities and Exchange Commission for violating the books and records and internal accounting controls provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The case offers numerous lessons for compliance officers responsible for accurate books ...
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Blog
Petrobras refinery explosion reveals poor compliance of a different kind
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.
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Blog
Mondelez International faces FCPA probe
Mondelez International, the U.S. parent of Mondelez India, recently disclosed in a securities filing that is being investigated by the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice for potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act related to its operations in India.
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Blog
Nortek FCPA investigation costs reach $2.3 million
Nortek, a maker of home security and thermostat systems, said this week in a securities filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it has incurred $2.3 million in legal and other professional services costs relating to potential improper payments made by its Chinese manufacturing unit.
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Blog
Qualcomm to pay SEC $7.5 million for hiring practices
Digital telecommunications maker Qualcomm this week reached a $7.5 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by hiring relatives of Chinese government officials. These officials were in positions to decide whether to select Qualcomm’s mobile technology products amid ...
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Blog
Another bank under FCPA scrutiny for its hiring practices
Financial services providers face unique corruption risks when seeking to win business in international markets. This includes a traditional form of back-scratching: the hiring of children or other close family members of prominent foreign officials. Only now the SEC has made it clear that such practices can and will invite ...
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Article
Compliance lessons from VimpelCom
Image: Ethics, compliance, and audit executives have yet another real-life bribery case to add to their growing library of epic anti-corruption compliance failures—this one resulting in the sixth largest Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action of all time. “This case demonstrates a failure of internal controls at every turn,” says ...
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Blog
Olympus to pay $623.2 million for kickback scheme
Olympus Corporation of the Americas, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japan-based Olympus, will pay $623.2 million to resolve criminal charges and civil claims relating to a scheme to pay kickbacks to doctors and hospitals—the largest total amount paid in U.S. history for violations involving the Anti-Kickback Statute by a medical device ...
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Blog
FIFA dribbles up the pitch toward reform
As FIFA continues to battle its landmark corruption scandal, it has elected a new President and passed a series of structural and process reforms to bring the organization into the 21st century and demonstrate to U.S. authorities that it really is going to change from its prior culture. But is ...
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Blog
SEC probing hiring practices of HSBC and many other banks
London-based HSBC said in an earnings release last week that it is one of several banks being investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for its hiring practices in Asia. Hiring a family member or friend of a government official violates the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act if the intent ...
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Blog
When are campaign contributions FCPA violations?
A recent article in the Financial Times by Simon Kuper, titled “How to buy a foreign election” reminded me that the FCPA specifically makes illegal more than simply bribing a foreign government official or some employed by a state owned enterprise to secure an improper advantage. The FCPA also makes ...