News and commentary about white-collar crime, enforcement, and compliance
Harry Cassin
Publisher and Editor
Andy Spalding
Senior Editor
Jessica Tillipman
Senior Editor
Bill Steinman
Senior Editor
Richard L. Cassin
Editor at Large
Elizabeth K. Spahn
Editor Emeritus
Cody Worthington
Contributing Editor
Julie DiMauro
Contributing Editor
Thomas Fox
Contributing Editor
Marc Alain Bohn
Contributing Editor
Bill Waite
Contributing Editor
Russell A. Stamets
Contributing Editor
Richard Bistrong
Contributing Editor
Eric Carlson
Contributing Editor
The United States fights foreign kleptocrats through Proclamation 7750, by denying them and their families U.S. visas. And through Section 314(a) of the Patriot Act, which it can use to reach out to more than 25,000 financial institutions to find accounts and transactions of anyone who may be involved in laundering kleptocratic assets.… Continue Reading
A new Nigeria-based publication called Next has just posted an article (here) naming some of the officials who took bribes from KBR and its TSKJ joint venture for the $6 billion Bonny Island LNG development project.… Continue Reading
Last week, while we were looking into ways the U.S. fights foreign kleptocrats, we heard about Presidential Proclamation 7750. It was issued in 2004 and, by 2006, a high State Department official was calling it a “key tool” in America’s anti-corruption arsenal.… Continue Reading
Britain’s Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, unveiled a draft bill on March 25 that will completely overhaul the country’s antibribery laws. He called the old laws anachronistic, inconsistent, unclear, and difficult for the public to understand and for prosecutors and the courts to apply.… Continue Reading
Marc Ona Essangui is from Gabon — a West African country with lots of oil, about a million and a half people, and just two presidents since independence from France in 1960.… Continue Reading
We don’t know how many of the 50 or so disclosed and pending Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigations will be resolved this year. But here are some we’re watching:
Alcoa. In February 2008, government-owned Aluminum Bahrain BSC (Alba) accused its long-time U.S.… Continue Reading
Bloomberg’s David Glovin filed a story Friday (here) reporting that Frederic Bourke will argue that he didn’t violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act because there were no corrupt payments to foreign officials.… Continue Reading
Only bribe-payers can be prosecuted under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act; bribe-takers are excluded. Congress wrote the FCPA that way because it believed “the efforts expended in resolving the diplomatic, jurisdictional, and enforcement difficulties that would arise upon the prosecution of foreign officials was not worth the minimal deterrent value of such prosecutions.”… Continue Reading
The U.K. government is in the process of assuming direct rule over its Caribbean dependency, the Turks and Caicos Islands. A U.K. Commission of Inquiry found “clear signs of political amorality and immaturity” in the government there.… Continue Reading
We’re trying to stay calm today but it’s not easy. We just learned why France — the largest country by area in the European Union and second largest by population, possessor of the world’s fifth biggest economy, a founding member of the European Union and the United Nations, a permanent member of the Security Council and member of the G8, NATO, and the Latin Union (whatever that is) — why that France, isn’t prosecuting any foreign public bribery.… Continue Reading
The pressure these days to comply with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other anti-corruption laws is coming from several directions at once. Last week we mentioned whistleblower hotlines as one example.… Continue Reading
Earlier this week, we mentioned the importance of whistleblower hotlines (here). How much are they used for bribery and corruption complaints? We haven’t found any recent statistics. But we think the numbers must be significant (judging by the number of open investigations everywhere).… Continue Reading