Siemens: The Clean-up Crew

Here are some important corrections and clarifications to earlier posts about Siemens:

1. Wednesday’s post indicates that Schnitzer Steel pleaded guilty to books and records and internal controls violations. In fact, it was Schnitzer’s subsidiary that pleaded guilty, and those charges included antibribery and books and records charges, but not internal controls charges. The Siemens Information included the first ever criminal internal controls charge brought by the Justice Department. Although the SEC routinely includes internal controls charges in its civil resolutions, the DOJ has never done so.

2. The same post implies that Bristow Group Inc. settled an FCPA case with DOJ. That never happened. Bristow settled only with the SEC.

3. Friday’s post mentions the 1998 amendments and implies that only after that did the FCPA apply to foreign companies, but the FCPA has applied to foreign issuers (like Siemens and some of the other companies mentioned in the post) since its enactment in 1977. The amendments only broadened the scope to include foreign individuals and foreign companies that were not issuers when they act unlawfully while within the territory of the U.S. The list of companies includes both issuers and non-issuers, but the post makes it seem as though none of them could have been prosecuted under the FCPA before 1998, which is not true.
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Our thanks to those who provided their help in setting the record straight.

The relevant posts have also been corrected to prevent the spread of errors.

Enjoy the weekend.
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