Shearman & Sterling has just released the latest edition of its bi-annual ‘Recent Trends and Patterns in the Enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.’
If you’ve read earlier versions, you know it’s packed with useful data and insightful analysis. If you haven’t read an earlier version, you’re in for a great discovery and a real treat.
The latest ‘Recent Trends and Patterns’ covers the first half of 2012 — the important statistics, legal developments, and latest legislative and regulatory trends in anti-bribery enforcement in the U.S. and the U.K.
Here’s what it says, for example, about corporate penalties:
[T]he corporate penalties assessed in 2012 are consistent with those imposed in previous years. Altogether, the government collected $129,748,231 in financial penalties (fines, DPA/NPA penalties, disgorgement, and pre-judgment interest) from corporations thus far in 2012. This equates to an average of $18.5 million per corporation with a range of $2 million (NORDAM) to $54.6 million (Marubeni). Marubeni’s penalty is over twice that of any of the other companies, and it was part of the TSKJ cases, which have yielded over $1 billion in total fines to date. NORDAM received a significant discount on the basis of potential insolvency. Therefore, a more accurate average, with those outliers removed, is $14.6 million. Both of these numbers, in fact, compare favorably with previous years. For example, using the same criteria, the averages in 2011 were considerably greater, at $33.8 million (total average) and $22.1 million (average with high and low outliers removed).
Partner Philip Urofsky heads the editing and writing team for Shearman’s FCPA publications. He was assistant chief of the DOJ’s Fraud Section and supervised or participated in every FCPA investigation and prosecution during his tenure. He was also a member of the United States’ delegation to the OECD Working Group on Corruption and a designated expert in U.S. anti-corruption law and compliance for the Group’s peer review process.
Shearman & Sterling’s outstanding FCPA site is here, or download the July 2012 edition of ‘Recent Trends and Patterns’ here.
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Shearman & Sterling is a premium-listed law firm on ethiXbase, the world’s largest database of anti-corruption legislation, gift-giving regulations, investigations, and enforcement actions.
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