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Category Archives: Anti-Bribery and Corruption

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Anti-Bribery and Corruption, Securities and Commodities

SEC ‘Broken Windows’ Enforcement Policy Is Showing FCPA Results

In October 2013, SEC Chairwoman Mary Jo White announced a broken windows enforcement policy to “pursue even the smallest infractions” of U.S. securities laws, including the FCPA, as a means of deterrence. As White stated in announcing the policy, “minor violations” that a company fails to address “feed bigger ones, and, perhaps more importantly, can… Continue Reading
Anti-Bribery and Corruption, Anti-Money Laundering, Compliance

SEC and FinCEN Delivering One-Two Punch to Private Equity

Starting in January, it was widely reported that the SEC had upped its FCPA scrutiny of private equity funds required to register as investment advisers under Dodd-Frank, with requests for information being issued to a number of funds in connection with their courting of sovereign wealth funds. For many newly-regulated funds, this was likely viewed… Continue Reading
Anti-Bribery and Corruption, Compliance, Enforcement and Prosecution Policy and Trends

Anti-Corruption Enforcement in Brazil is in High Gear

Headlines of Brazil’s push to fight corruption are everywhere. The Petrobras scandal involves contracts worth billions of dollars, and prosecutors have uncovered a U.S. connection. The public is outraged and has called for President Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment, as the speaker of Brazil’s lower house of Congress and a former president of Brazil face recently filed… Continue Reading
Anti-Bribery and Corruption, Compliance, Enforcement and Prosecution Policy and Trends, Financial Institution Regulation, Fraud, Deception and False Claims

Making Bankers Accountable

The Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulatory Authority have recently been showing signs of gearing up for the new regime which is intended to have the effect of making senior bankers and other financial services managers accountable for failings within their institutions. The intention, of course, is to avoid the kind of meltdown we all… Continue Reading
Anti-Bribery and Corruption, Compliance, Securities and Commodities

China’s Focus on Combatting Commercial Bribery Is a Wake-Up Call

Earlier this month, six former employees of Tencent Holdings (Tencent), including Liu Chunning, a now high-level executive of Alibaba Group, were detained by Chinese authorities as part of a bribery investigation relating to payments made by online video content providers to employees of Tencent, including Liu. In addition to showcasing the continued fight against graft… Continue Reading
Anti-Bribery and Corruption, Compliance, Enforcement and Prosecution Policy and Trends, Fraud, Deception and False Claims

DOJ Criminal Division Chief Provides Guidance on Corporate Charging Decisions

On April 17, 2015, Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell provided helpful guidance regarding the Justice Department’s approach to corporate charging decisions in remarks that she delivered at New York University Law School’s Program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement. Ms. Caldwell explained that her remarks furthered the Criminal Division’s efforts to increase transparency regarding corporate prosecutions,… Continue Reading
Anti-Bribery and Corruption, Enforcement and Prosecution Policy and Trends, Financial Institution Regulation, Fraud, Deception and False Claims

An Eerie Silence

There’s an eerie silence in the world of fraud prosecutions in the UK. A Libor trial is about to start, a FCA land banking prosecution is on trial at Southwark, but with reporting restrictions, and a couple of weeks ago David Dixon, author of a Ponzi Scheme, pleaded guilty; and Julian Rifat, having entered a… Continue Reading
Anti-Bribery and Corruption, Compliance, Enforcement and Prosecution Policy and Trends, Financial Institution Regulation, Fraud, Deception and False Claims, Securities and Commodities

Biomet FCPA Announcement Highlights Distributor-Related Risks

Last week, Biomet Inc. announced in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that instead of its 2012 deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) regarding violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) expiring this week, the company would be monitored under it for an additional year.… Continue Reading
Anti-Bribery and Corruption, Compliance

The FCPA Implications of China’s Plan to Consolidate State-Owned Enterprises

China’s recently announced plan to restructure and consolidate its state-owned enterprises (SOEs) focuses on bolstering the private sector of its economy and creating economies of scale to allow Chinese companies to better compete internationally. It also may implicate companies’ efforts to comply with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), in positive and negative ways.… Continue Reading
Anti-Bribery and Corruption, Compliance

DOJ, SEC Inquiry into Och-Ziff Capital “Placement Fee” Payment Highlights Continuing FCPA Scrutiny

Och-Ziff Capital Management (Och-Ziff), a publicly traded hedge fund, hasdisclosed that it is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The inquiry focuses on a “placement fee” Och-Ziff paid in 2007 to a London middleman − Lebanese businessman Mohamad Ali Ajami − to… Continue Reading
Anti-Bribery and Corruption, Compliance, Enforcement and Prosecution Policy and Trends

Update on Brazil: Embraer SA and Anti-Corruption Progress

Imagine you are a compliance officer for a multinational company with securities listed on a U.S. stock market. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) falls squarely within your purview, but other anti-corruption regimes seem less relevant because of a lack of enforcement (with the exception, perhaps, of the UK Bribery Act). Until recently, Brazil may… Continue Reading
Anti-Bribery and Corruption, Fraud, Deception and False Claims

Civil fraud damages claims begin in the UK following a corruption prosecution by the SFO and the DOJ against Innospec and others

In a recent decision of Mr Justice Flaux in the case Jalal Bezee Mejel Al-Gaood & Partner v Innospec Limited and Others, the Claimants sued for damages which they claimed arose as a result of the Defendants having bribed the Iraqi Ministry of Oil (“MOO”) to purchase their chemical products, TEL.  The claim for damages… Continue Reading
Anti-Bribery and Corruption, Enforcement and Prosecution Policy and Trends, Financial Institution Regulation, Securities and Commodities

Going Inside for Insider Trading

It is always assumed that sentences in the US for any crime are significantly higher than they are in the UK, but nowhere is this more starkly exemplified than in white collar crime.  The recent sentence of 9 years in prison for Mathew Martoma for insider trading is the latest proof of the truth of… Continue Reading
Anti-Bribery and Corruption, Enforcement and Prosecution Policy and Trends, Fraud, Deception and False Claims

Welcome to The Fraud Board, a new blog site for UK fraud and related regulatory issues

Welcome to the new McGuireWoods London LLP fraud blog: The Fraud Board, which has taken over from our highly rated Bribery Library site.  There are various reasons for the change, but the main rationale is that while the subject of Bribery remains very important in the economic crime landscape, and will continue to feature strongly… Continue Reading
Anti-Bribery and Corruption, Enforcement and Prosecution Policy and Trends, Fraud, Deception and False Claims

The Director of the SFO criticises corporations which commission internal investigations before self-reporting

The engagement of external lawyers by corporations is still the safest and best option as those external law firms not only have their own firm's professional brand reputation to protect in giving full honest and fair reports, but the lawyers who form those organisations all owe personal duties to the court not to mislead it. Their report would have been prepared in the knowledge that, if disclosed to the SFO as part of a self-reporting procedure, it could end up being scrutinised by the court.… Continue Reading
Anti-Bribery and Corruption, Enforcement and Prosecution Policy and Trends, Financial Institution Regulation

The Long Arm of British Anti-Corruption Laws and the impact on individual defendants

The inference to be made from this court order is that the crime of corruption really doesn't pay, especially for board level directors, and that individuals who get involved in (or permit existing arrangements to continue unabated) international corruption are at risk of being prosecuted in one or more jurisdictions around the world and are liable to lengthy terms of imprisonment as well as very substantial penalties and orders for disgorgement of payments… Continue Reading
Anti-Bribery and Corruption, Compliance, Enforcement and Prosecution Policy and Trends, Fraud, Deception and False Claims

UK Government’s Response to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills “Whistleblowing Framework: Call For Evidence”

Crucially businesses should be confident that reprisals against whistle-blowers are not an issue for them, and that their organisation understands and trusts any whistleblowing policy and procedure they have in place. Deficiencies in these areas may very well lead to a Regulator challenging the overall effectiveness and adequacy of an organisations compliance programme.… Continue Reading
Anti-Bribery and Corruption, Enforcement and Prosecution Policy and Trends

“The FCPA Does Not Define the Term ‘Instrumentality,’ and this Court Has Not Either.” The 11th Circuit Issues a Decision “Defining” Instrumentality

On May 16, 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled in U.S. v. Esquenazi that the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act’s (FCPA’s) “instrumentality” provision could include state-owned businesses. Joel Esquernazi and Carlos Rodriquez co-owned Terra Communications (Terra). In 2011, a jury convicted Esquernazi and Rodriquez on 21 counts related to their business… Continue Reading

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