The announcement could not be more timely. Yesterday, we learned that the government of Scotland has reached an agreement with the Aberdeen-based Abbot Group, setting aside £2 million of a £5.6 million bribery settlement to build rugby and soccer fields in impoverished communities.
We’ve been talking in this series about how FCPA proceeds could do more — should do more — to help the real victims of bribery. The Wal-Mart case may provide an historic opportunity to do this very thing. And now Scotland has taught us an important lesson. It can be done.
Abbot is the first Scottish company to enter a civil settlement with the Crown Office under the new anti-bribery law. And what a precedent they’ve set.
Is something brewing here? Soccer fields in Scotland. An NGO in Kazakhstan focusing on health, education, and poverty reduction. A $2.4 billion fund for community restoration around the Gulf of Mexico. I sense an idea gaining momentum.
This could change the world. Really, it could. And we’ll talk about how in the next post.
Wal-Mart’s Victim’s Part I can be viewed here, II here, III here, IV here, V here, VI here , VII here, VIII here, IX here, X here, XI here, XII here, XIII here and XIV here.
_________
Andy Spalding is a senior editor of the FCPA Blog.
Comments are closed for this article!