In this 2009 post, the issue was raised whether the DOJ’s “foreign official” interpretation would become so broad that employees of Citgo Petroleum (a Delaware corporation with headquarters in Houston) would be considered “foreign officials” under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act because Citgo is a subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA). In this little noticed FCPA enforcement from February 2020 against Tulio Anibal Farias-Perez in the sprawling PDVSA related actions, the DOJ did…

A guest post today from Hughes Hubbard & Reed attorneys Kevin Abikoff and Aline Osorio. In connection with the 2018 consolidated anti-corruption resolution with Petrobras, the Brazilian prosecutors as part of the settlement with Petrobras sought and obtained approval to allow payment of $682 million from the settlement to benefit education and the environment in Brazil. On March 19, 2020, the Brazilian prosecutor general applied to the Brazilian Supreme Court to redirect the unspent portion…

This post provides a summary of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement activity and related developments from the first quarter of 2020. In many respects, the first quarter (and foreseeable future) is divided into a pre-COVID-19 environment and post-COVID-19 environment (circa March 10th). DOJ Enforcement (Corporate) The DOJ brought one corporate FCPA enforcement action in the first quarter. DOJ actual recovery in this action was $294 million. Airbus (Jan. 31) See here and here for prior posts.…

[This post is part of a periodic series regarding “old” FCPA enforcement actions] In 2005,  the DOJ and SEC brought a coordinated enforcement action against Diagnostic Products Corp. (DPC – a California-based company which provided immunodiagnostic systems and immunochemistry kits) and its wholly-owned subsidiary DPC (Tianjin) Co. Ltd. (See here and here). The conduct at issue focused on DPC Tianjin making cash commission payments to laboratory personnel and doctors employed by hospitals owned by…

If a government enforcement agency makes an allegation in a bribery enforcement action and a risk averse corporation agrees to resolve the enforcement action in the absence of any meaningful judicial scrutiny, does that mean the allegations are true? Not necessarily. As highlighted in this prior post, a portion of the U.K. enforcement action against Airbus concerned a sports sponsorship in Malaysia. As alleged by the Serious Fraud Office: “Between 1 July 2011 and…

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, Stanley Sporkin died. As head of SEC enforcement in the mid-1970’s, Sporkin played a role in development of the FCPA’s books and records and internal controls provisions and thereafter advocated for…

Monitor costs, scrutiny alert, quotable, and survey says. It’s all here in the Friday roundup. Monitor Costs As highlighted in prior posts here and here, in late 2019 Ericsson resolved a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action and the $1.06 billion settlement amount was the largest net FCPA settlement amount in history. As a condition of settlement, Ericsson was required to engage an independent compliance monitor for a three-year period. Recently, Ericsson disclosed “a provision…