The Latest FCPA Declination

corsa

We have yet another example of the Justice Department trying to put its new corporate misconduct policies into practice, allowing a Pennsylvania coal company to pay only $1.2 million to settle FCPA charges thanks to the company’s voluntary self-disclosure and other cooperative actions. The company in question is Corsa Coal Corp., a company that does…

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Honeywell Pays $160M on FCPA Case

Honeywell

Industrial manufacturing giant Honeywell International has agreed to pay $160 million to settle civil and criminal FCPA charges that the company bribed foreign government officials in Brazil and Algeria.  The case has lingered like a cloud over Honeywell’s head for years. The misconduct itself happened in the early 2010s, and Honeywell first disclosed more than…

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Analyzing ABB’s Third-Time FCPA Case

ABB

Swiss industrial giant ABB settled its third FCPA case on Friday, in an enforcement action that generally offers good news for compliance officers but still upends the assumptions we’ve made lately about recidivist offenders and the punishments they’ll face. ABB agreed to pay $460 million in civil and criminal penalties and accepted a three-year deferred…

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Justice Dept. Rehashes FCPA Efforts

fcpa

All you compliance professionals who like to hang on every word the Justice Department utters, pull up a chair! One of the department’s senior officials delivered a speech in Washington today that recapped all the messages we’ve heard this year. Nicole Argentieri, acting principal deputy assistant attorney general (the APDAAG? Have the acronyms in our…

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Oracle Hit 2nd Time on FCPA Violations

Oracle

The Securities and Exchange Commission has sanctioned Oracle for violations of the FCPA, the software giant’s second such incident in 10 years and one that provides a chance for the rest of us to talk about recidivist FCPA offenders.  What happened? In one sense, the usual. Throughout the 2010s, Oracle subsidiaries in India, Turkey, and…

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FCPA Reminders From Stericycle

Stericycle, the global medical waste giant, has agreed to settle FCPA charges against the company for widespread bribery in Latin America, giving the rest of us another case with lessons about the risks of rapid international growth and poor corporate culture. The settlement was announced Wednesday. Stericycle will pay $84 million in penalties to the…

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KT Pays $6.3M to End FCPA Case

KT

Compliance professionals have quite the FCPA case to consider this week, courtesy of the Securities and Exchange Commission hitting Korea’s largest telecommunications carrier with $6.3 million in penalties and disgorgement for all manner of corrupt practices in the 2010s. The company, KT Corp., has a long history of corruption. KT agreed to settle the SEC…

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Some Tips for Handling FCPA Cases

fcpa

Today we have a few suggestions for how to resolve FCPA cases with the Securities and Exchange Commission, courtesy of a securities enforcement virtual forum that took place Thursday. One point that compliance officers will appreciate hearing: you, rather than defense counsel, should be the ones in the room with the SEC to explain why…

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WPP Pays $19M on FCPA: An Analysis

WPP

Advertising giant WPP has agreed to pay $19 million to settle charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had poor internal accounting controls in the 2010s, which led to bribery through third parties in India and several other emerging markets. The SEC announced the settlement on Friday. It consisted of $11 million in…

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Foster Wheeler’s FCPA Lessons

We have our first FCPA enforcement action of the Biden Administration: a $177 million punch against engineering firm Amec Foster Wheeler, for bribery involving overseas agents to win a contract with Brazilian state-owned oil giant Petrobras. The settlement was announced Friday by U.S. regulators and the parent company of Foster Wheeler, John Wood Group. Wood…

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