2022 Corruption Perceptions Index

bribery

Transparency International has released its annual ranking of corruption levels in countries around the world, with Scandinavia and New Zealand leading as usual while the United States place a rather underwhelming 24th. TI publishes its Corruption Perceptions Index at the start of every year, and the index has become a standard reference work that compliance…

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A View on Corruption From Ukraine

Ukraine

Earlier this week I recorded our usual Compliance Into the Weeds podcast with my friend and colleague Tom Fox, plus a special guest: Timur Khasanov-Batirov, a compliance officer and anti-corruption officer in Ukraine. Given the importance of the war in Ukraine, our conversation with Khasanov-Batirov deserves its own written post as well. Several points are…

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Biden Admin Unveils Anti-Corruption Strategy

anti-corruption

The Biden Administration has released its strategy on countering corruption around the world, with lots of talk about cross-border collaboration, data collection, and tougher U.S. enforcement; but relatively little about new legislation that might add fresh burdens to anti-corruption compliance programs.  The White House released the strategy document, 38 pages long, on Monday morning. It…

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China’s New Anti-Corruption Maneuver

anti-corruption

It seems that China is revising its anti-corruption rules to give it a stronger hand in prosecuting overseas corporations that bribe government officials, in case you need yet another headache in your compliance officer life.  We don’t know the exact details of the new rules or even have a copy of them available to the…

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Anti-Bribery Law Update!

bribery

A bipartisan group in Congress has revived legislation that would make it a crime for foreign government officials to demand or accept a bribe from a U.S. company, to serve as a statutory counterpoint to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and its ban on offering bribes. The Foreign Extortion Prevention Act, known as FEPA, has…

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FirstEnergy and Domestic Corruption Woes

FirstEnergy

Compliance professionals are already well-acquainted with the seedy mechanics of overseas bribery. Now FirstEnergy Corp. in Ohio has given us a full frontal view of how domestic corruption happens right here in the United States, too.  You might recall the case from last year. Larry Householder, the now-former speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives,…

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Biden Puts Anti-Corruption Centerstage

anti-corruption

President Biden issued a policy memo Thursday vowing to make anti-corruption a pillar of U.S. national security — with numerous potential implications for corporate compliance programs that we can barely begin to understand right now.  First, we should be clear about exactly what the president did here. He did not issue an executive order, which…

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Domestic Corrupt Practices & Compliance

bribery

Compliance professionals got a lucky break this week. Twice in a matter of days, we saw major scandals break involving corporate misconduct and corrupt domestic government officials here in the United States — demonstrating, yet again, that tying corporate compliance on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act alone is tremendously short-sighted.  First we had a case…

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New Zealand Tops TRACE Anti-Bribery List

rankings

TRACE International has posted its latest annual ranking of bribery risk in countries around the world, and good news if you’re working in New Zealand — Kiwi Country poses the lowest risk that government officials there will hit your company with a shakedown. Every year TRACE publishes the TRACE Bribery Matrix, a ranking of 200…

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Report: 2016 Was Good Year for Anti-Corruption

corruption

TRACE International has published its latest review of global anti-corruption enforcement, touting a dramatic increase in enforcement last year, led by U.S. authorities. Enforcement activity essentially doubled last year, according to the organization’s annual Global Enforcement Report. There were 255 investigations into bribery of foreign officials conducted by 29 countries as of Dec. 31, 2016.…

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