Global enforcement targets people too

Here’s some non-U.S. news from the past year about anti-corruption enforcement against individuals:

GSK’s former head of China operations, Mark Reilly, a UK national, was given a three-year prison sentence. China authorities suspended his sentence and ordered him deported.

A German court convicted two former employees of Sanofi-Aventis on bribery charges and fined the Paris-based pharma €28 million ($39 million).

An Ottawa judge sentenced a former security systems executive to three years in prison. Nazir Karigar, the first person jailed under Canada’s anti-bribery law, was sentenced for his role in a bribery conspiracy that tried  to win work from Air India.

Bruce Allen Hall, an Australian, was jailed in the UK for 16 months for taking bribes when he served as CEO of state-owned Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba).

Austria prosecuted the former deputy governor of its central bank and eight other defendants for allegedly bribing officials in Azerbaijan and Syria to win banknote contracts. Wolfgang Duchatczek and the others were accused of paying bribes of €14 million ($19 million).

During the trial in Vienna, Michael Wolf and Johannes Miller pleaded guilty. They were given two-year suspended jail sentences.

Also in Austria, police arrested a pro-Russia Ukrainian energy oligarch at the request of the United States following an FBI investigation. Dmytro Firtash was one of Ukraine’s most powerful figures under the country’s deposed President Viktor Yanukovych. Firtash was charged with bribery.

Prosecutors in Brazil filed a criminal action against eight Embraer SA employees for an alleged $3.5 million bribe to an official in the Dominican Republic in return for a $92 million contract for attack planes.

A court in Oman sentenced the CEO of state-owned Oman Oil Company to 23 years in jail for taking $8 million in bribes from a senior official at a South Korean company, LGI. Ahmad al-Wahaibi was also convicted by the court in Muscat of abusing his office and money laundering. One of his former aides was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

And last week, two executives from a UK-based printing company were sentenced for bribing public officials to win contracts in Kenya and Mauritania. Smith and Ouzman Ltd marketing director Nicholas Smith was jailed for three years. His father, chairman Christopher Smith, was given an 18-month suspended sentence.

We could go on . . .

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Yesterday we talked about global corporate enforcement actions during the past year.

The 2015 FCPA Docket of pending enforcement against individuals is here.

Our 2014 FCPA Enforcement Index is here.

Coming up: Evidence from surprising sources that anti-corruption enforcement (and compliance) is spreading fast.

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Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog. He can be contacted here.