Compliance Resources — India and Nigeria

Signs that the influence of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is felt around the world come today from India and Nigeria.

Pradeep Akkunoor lets us know about a December 16, 2007 FCPA Conference sponsored by Indiaforensic. It’s a non-profit group founded in 2003 by Chartered Accountant Mayur Joshi to raise compliance awareness and bring together the anti-fraud professionals in India. “We call it India’s first organized effort to combat white-collared crime,” says Mr. Akkunoor. “What began as a one-man effort is today a network of over 600 professionals from across India. Indiaforensic conducts research, informs and supports those engaged in fighting fraud around the country.” Messrs. Akkunoor and Joshi also run Indiaforensic Consultancy Services, which specializes in fraud examinations and forensic accounting in India, as well as training and education in bank forensic accounting, anti-money laundering and corporate forensic accounting.

From Nigeria, we hear from ddcheck.com. It does one thing: due diligence checks on Nigerian companies. Run by a group of FCPA-savvy lawyers accredited by the Nigerian Corporate Affairs Commission to conduct public-records searches, it has an interesting approach. No up-front fees, and if the company being searched doesn’t exist, there’s no charge at all. The people at ddcheck.com acknowledge that “Nigerians are frequently considered ‘high risk’ business partners . . . . Until now, international businesses have found it very difficult to obtain urgent and reliable background or due diligence information about Nigerian companies. We solve this problem for you by obtaining all the important information you want from the Nigerian Corporate Affairs Commission and other official sources. We save you significant time, effort and money so that you can easily verify information about Nigerian companies quickly, conveniently and confidentially.” Finally, if the target or its principals don’t look legitimate, ddcheck.com will help their client file reports with appropriate anti-corruption agencies.