Posts Tagged ‘FCPA’
Trump Halts FCPA Enforcement
OK, the inevitable has happened. President Trump has issued an executive order directing the Justice Department to halt all enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and devise new enforcement guidelines for future prosecution. Let’s all take a deep breath, and then move on to consider the implications for corporate compliance programs. Is Trump’s anti-anti-corruption…
Read MoreJustice Department Policy Changes, Part II
We now have more clarity on attorney general Pam Bondi’s plan to overhaul Justice Department enforcement priorities — and yes, it’s going to be a big retreat from holding corporations accountable for certain types of misconduct, while the department spends more time prosecuting drug cartels, illegal aliens, and organizations with DEI programs. Bondi first announced…
Read MoreNew AG Signals FCPA Retreat
Well that didn’t take long: on the same day that Pam Bondi was sworn in as the next U.S. attorney general, Bondi issued a flurry of policy memos that will have the practical effect of taking several big steps back from enforcement of corporate misconduct laws. Bondi arrived at the Justice Department on Wednesday afternoon…
Read MoreAAR Settles Intriguing FCPA Case
Here’s a Christmas present for compliance professionals! AAR Corp., an aviation services company, has agreed to pay $55.6 million to settle civil and criminal charges that the company bribed government officials in Nepal and South Africa in the 2010s — and is giving the rest of us some points to ponder on Justice Department credit…
Read MoreDouble Blast of FCPA News
Keep up, compliance officers! A subsidiary of global consulting giant McKinsey agreed today to pay $122.8 million to settle FCPA charges in South Africa; and the Justice Department says it might allow some companies currently under corporate integrity agreements to exit those agreements early. Those are very different news stories, so we’ll take each one…
Read MoreFour Reasons to Watch the Adani Case
Sometimes a tale of corporate corruption comes along that perfectly captures all the issues that ethics and compliance professionals face in our line of work. Such is the case with the Adani Group, and compliance officers everywhere should watch it closely; it could be a hugely telling case for corruption enforcement in 2025. By now…
Read MoreCorporate Enforcement Policy Tweaked Again
The Justice Department is relaxing its approach to corporate criminal enforcement yet again, this time giving companies a bit more breathing room for what counts as “self-disclosure” and “significant profit” — all to further entice companies to step forward and admit legal violations, so that those violations can be resolved more quickly. Nicole Argentieri, deputy…
Read MoreBetting/Bitcoin Biz Settles FCPA Charges
Federal prosecutors have sanctioned a one-time Chinese online lottery business turned bitcoin mining operation for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, where senior executives bribed Japanese lawmakers in the late 2010s to win permissions to open a casino there — and good lord, writing that sentence feels like hitting some sort of corruption risk…
Read MoreTelefónica Pays $85M on FCPA Fails
The Latin American telecom giant Telefónica settled FCPA charges late last week, paying $85 million and reminding everyone that at least for now (and possibly for a good long while yet), the world of corporate compliance and FCPA enforcement continues to turn. Let’s take a look at the lessons we can learn here. The Justice…
Read MoreMore Questions on Trump II and Compliance
Let’s keep talking about what Donald Trump’s return to power means for the corporate compliance profession because, honestly, what else is there to talk about right now? I’ve spoken with compliance officers all week long about Trump’s victory, and most folks were bewildered, dispirited, anxious, or some blend of all three. Their comments are telling.…
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