FCPA Professor LLC

Described as “the Wall Street Journal concerning all things FCPA-related,” and "the most authoritative source for those seeking to understand and apply the FCPA," FCPA Professor has been named a Top Law Blog for in-house counsel by Corporate Counsel, a Top 25 Business Law Blog by LexisNexis, and a top 100 Legal Blog by the American Bar Association. FCPA Professor readers include a world-wide audience of attorneys, business and compliance professionals, government agencies, scholars and students, journalists and other interested persons.

Website:http://fcpaprofessor.com/
Follow:

FCPA Professor LLC Blogs

FCPA Professor

Blog Authors

Mike Koehler

Latest from FCPA Professor LLC

BDO2.jpg
Today is Presidents’ Day. This post highlights the roles of the Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and William Clinton administrations in enactment and subsequent development of FCPA legal authority. The article “The Story of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act” also contains a detailed overview of the roles of the Ford and Carter administrations. Ford After watching Congress investigate and hold hearings on the foreign payments problem for approximately nine months, in March…
BDO1-4.jpg
FCPA Professor has been described as “the Wall Street Journal concerning all things FCPA-related,” and “the most authoritative source for those seeking to understand and apply the FCPA.” Set forth below are the topics discussed this week on FCPA Professor. Recently Senator Amy Klobuchar entered the crowded Democratic field for President and this post highlights how she was a leading voice for FCPA reform in connection with the Senate’s 2010 FCPA hearing and aftermath. As highlighted…
BDOIndia-6.jpg
This previous post highlighted the DOJ and SEC’s individual enforcement action against Gordon Coburn and Steven Schwartz (former executives of Cognizant Technology Solutions) in connection with a planning permit in India. This post highlights the SEC’s enforcement action (as well as the DOJ’s so-called declination letter) against the company based on the same core conduct in which the company, without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings, agreed to pay approximately $25 million in disgorgement and…
BDOIndia-5.jpg
In this 2016 post highlighting Cognizant Technology Solutions’s disclosure of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act scrutiny it was also noted that Gordon Coburn resigned from his position as President of Cognizant Technology Solutions. This follow-up post noted that the two disclosures were likely related. Sure enough as today the DOJ announced that Coburn and Steven Schwartz (Executive Vice President, Chief Legal and Corporate Affairs Officer) were criminally charged with FCPA violations. If the defendants choose to put…
BDOMonitor-3.jpg
Never mind that …, “foreign official” charges, scrutiny alert, ISO-37001 related, and ethics inquiry up north. It’s all here in the Friday roundup. Never Mind That … Never mind that Cobalt International – not once, but twice – beat back the government in connection with FCPA scrutiny in Angola (see prior posts here and here as well as this podcast). Nevertheless, a federal court judge recently approved an approximate $175 million settlement of investor class…
BDOBrazil-1-2.gif
As highlighted in this prior post, in July 2017 (after a long trial) a federal jury convicted Ng Lap Seng of two counts of violating the FCPA, one count of paying bribes and gratuities, one count of money laundering and two counts of conspiracy “for his role in a scheme to bribe United Nations ambassadors to obtain support to build a conference center in Macau that would host, among other events, the annual United Nations…
ElkhartLake.jpg
Many people are surprised upon learning that my home base is a small Wisconsin village of approximately 1,000 people. However, when Elkhart Lake is your hometown (as well as that of your wife) life is good. I don’t often go off-topic, but wanted to share this recent profile of FCPA Professor in a local newspaper as well as this recent local radio interview (beginning at the 12 minute mark) in which I discuss my background,…
BDO1-3.jpg
Article 5 of the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions states: “Investigation and prosecution of the bribery of a foreign public official shall be subject to the applicable rules and principles of each Party. They shall not be influenced by considerations of national economic interest, the potential effect upon relations with another State or the identity of the natural or legal persons involved.” As highlighted here and prior…
BDOMonitor-2.jpg
Over the weekend, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) entered the crowded field of Democrats hoping to secure the party’s nomination for President. This post highlights how Senator Klobuchar was a leading voice for FCPA reform in connection with the Senate’s 2010 FCPA hearing and aftermath. (See here for a transcript of the hearing and here for the video). As a participant in the Senate’s 2010 hearing (see here for my testimony), what surprised me most was…
BDO1-2.jpg
FCPA Professor has been described as “the Wall Street Journal concerning all things FCPA-related,” and “the most authoritative source for those seeking to understand and apply the FCPA.” Set forth below are the topics discussed this week on FCPA Professor. As highlighted here, Frank James Lyon, the owner of Lyon Associates Inc. (a privately-held engineering and consulting company headquartered in Hawaii) was recently criminally charged with bribing Micronesian and Hawaiian officials. This post highlights money…