Scratch that trial, scrutiny alert, affirmed, follow-up, Braskem-related, and across the pond. It’s all here in the Friday roundup. Scratch That Trial One of the FCPA trials scheduled this Fall (see here for the prior post) involved Frank Chatburn. As highlighted here, in April 2018 Frank Roberto Chatburn Ripalda (a dual United States and Ecuadorian citizen) was criminally charged for conspiring with others for making corrupt payments to PetroEcuador officials in order to obtain and retain contracts…

Companies doing business in the global marketplace engage all types of third parties. Generally, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act compliance tends to focus, with good reason, on third parties such as agents, representatives, distributors and others that assist a company in obtaining or retaining business. However, given the DOJ and SEC’s broad interpretation of that element of the FCPA’s anti-bribery provisions, any third party that has a point of contact with foreign officials – even if…

Prior posts here and here highlighted several Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement actions in which a company received a reduction in the settlement amount based on a claimed inability to pay. In certain instances, it appears as if the DOJ / SEC were duped (see here for example). Thus, yesterday’s release of this non-binding DOJ policy memo titled “Evaluating a Business Organization’s Inability to Pay a Criminal Fine or Criminal Monetary Penalty,” while not FCPA…

At last week’s FCPA Institute – Boston (attended by a diverse group of professionals from leading companies and firms from around the world) a participant asked about any differences between the percentage of U.S. company Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement actions that originate with a voluntary disclosure vs. FCPA enforcement actions against non-U.S. companies that originate with a voluntary disclosure. I responded that U.S. company enforcement actions were much more likely to result from voluntary…