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
Agricultural equipment-maker AGCO Corporation will pay nearly $20 million in criminal and civil penalties to resolve charges related to kickbacks it paid under the U.N. oil for food program. Under its plea deal with the Justice Department, the Duluth, Ga.-based… Continue Reading
British firm Mabey & Johnson Ltd was sentenced last week by an English court for overseas corruption and violations of the U.N.’s oil-for-food program. The bridge-building specialist will pay £6.6 million in criminal fines and related assessments.… Continue Reading
The 2008 Bribe Payers Index (BPI) from Transparency International attempts to measure how much corruption the major economies export to other countries. TI hired Gallup International to survey 2,742 executives from 26 countries (at least 100 interviews per country) between 5 August and 29 October 2008.… Continue Reading
Should the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act be used to punish nations that don’t behave the way the United States wants them to? Michael Jacobson (left) from the Washington Institute thinks so.… Continue Reading
Evan Osnos’s latest Letter from China in the New Yorker (here) describes what he calls the gift-imperative — the constant cultural pressure to give gifts and accept them in business and professional settings.… Continue Reading
As posted yesterday on the wrageblog here, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is now available in Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Arabic. The translations come from the U.S.… Continue Reading
When Suleiman A. Nassar was indicted in 1994 for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, he was a regional vice president of Lockheed International living near Geneva, Switzerland. His territory for Lockheed included Egypt, and in the late 1980s he landed a nice sale there — three C-130 military cargo planes worth $79 million.… Continue Reading
The Chinese Communist Party’s latest anti-corruption initiative will force officials to declare their assets and those of close family members. The new rules were announced at the close of the annual meeting of the party’s watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.… Continue Reading
The U.K. Guardian reported last week (here) that Russian President Medvedev (left) invoked the memory of Martin Luther King when he announced his intention to clean up corruption. “We are not used to saying ‘we have a dream’ in my country .… Continue Reading
Lawyers are trained to quibble and criminal defense lawyers do it best. After all, their job is to create reasonable doubt. So it’s no surprise that when talking about the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, they say it’s complicated, technically challenging and obscure, poorly drafted and badly organized.… Continue Reading
The New York Times’ Adam Nossiter has written a terrific article about kleptocracy and corruption in Gabon (here). Here’s how his account begins:
… Continue ReadingLIBREVILLE, Gabon — In the airport duty-free store, the wine is upward of $400.
In its landmark 2002 study, The right to tell: The role of mass media in economic development (here), the World Bank said a free press contributes to cleaner governments — and to better education, improved public health, lower infant mortality rates, and higher incomes.… Continue Reading