Compliance officers looking for the latest guidance on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act might want to read a sweeping joint settlement reached earlier this month—which was bad news for the seven companies involved, but drops plenty of strong hints about what the Justice Department wants to see in an FCPA compliance program.
The settlement was reached with global freight forwarding company Panalpina World Transport and six of its customers, including Shell, Transocean, GlobalSantaFe, Tidewater, Pride International, and Noble Corp. In total the group agreed to pay $236.5 million to the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission (Panalpina paid the most, $81.5 million) for various FCPA violations from 2002 through 2007.
