Readers’ Choice

Based on total page views, here are the top five posts from the FCPA Blog so far in 2008:

1. Feeling the Heat Overseas, June 9, 2008

Foreign companies can’t be blamed for wondering if they’re being singled out under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The names in the FCPA-related headlines alone are enough to cause high anxiety. ABB, Siemens, BAE, DaimlerChrysler, AstraZeneca and many more. But are U.S. prosecutors really focusing too much attention on U.K., European and other foreign companies instead of American firms? Probably not, at least according to the numbers. Here’s the situation. . . .

2. Why We Keep Plugging, July 17, 2008

It’s a familiar and unwelcome moment. Those on the other side of the table spot the FCPA compliance language for the first time:

The joint venture and all its personnel shall comply in all respects with the requirements of the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Faces darken. The mood in the room goes sour. . . .

3. Grynberg v. BP et al, April 15, 2008

Last week we reported here about the civil suit filed in the U.S. District Court in D.C. by Colorado-based oilman Jack Grynberg, 76, against BP, Statoil and British Gas, along with some of their current or former top executives. The core allegation is that the defendants, without Grynberg’s knowledge and using some of his money, bribed officials in Kazakhstan in order to win oil rights for joint ventures in which Grynberg had an interest. . . .

4. The FCPA Is No Private Matter, March 3, 2008

Last week we heard that Alba — not the movie star Jessica but the smelter Aluminum Bahrain BSC — had sued Alcoa for bribing Bahraini officials in exchange for supply contracts. The allegations sounded exactly like an offense under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Alba’s federal lawsuit, however, is based not on the FCPA but on common law fraud and RICO — the Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organizations Act found at 18 U.S.C. §§1961-68. So what happened to the FCPA? . . .

5. Scandal Hits The Compliance Monitors, January 19, 2008

. . . No matter how you spin it — and Messrs. Christie and Ashcroft have been doing plenty of that — the appointments have the appearance of impropriety. Peel away the PR and the best you can say is that there was some obvious cronyism going on. The worst you can say is that the DOJ created a scheme by which U.S. Attorneys can extract millions of dollars from wrongdoers and funnel the money to former bosses, friends and political allies. We don’t buy the sinister version for a second, but lots of people will take it as gospel. . . .

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