Robert Clark | The FCPA Blog

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All posts by Robert Clark

A word of caution on the new Corruption Risk Forecast

Robert Clark May 11, 2022

Last month, the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) and the European Research Centre for Anti-Corruption and State-Building (ERCAS) released their new Corruption Risk Forecast. The Corruption Risk Forecast aspires to provide a set of “[o]bjective corruption and transparency indicators for over 120 countries to diagnose the present, forecast the future, and set policy targets.”… Continue Reading

As international anti-bribery enforcement evolves, is the U.S. losing its place?

Robert Clark April 5, 2021

Anti-corruption enforcement is a slow-moving vehicle. Investigations into business bribery allegations can take years to resolve, even with the application of significant agency resources. Building up enough prosecutorial capacity to handle a reasonable caseload requires its own long-term effort, both institutionally and politically.… Continue Reading

How nuanced are your risk rankings for countries?

Robert Clark January 25, 2021

Several well-known lists rank colleges and universities in the United States. Rankings that take into account diverse factors — class size, teacher-to-student ratio, financial aid, campus social life — are useful as a relative assessment of quality and allow future students to evaluate which schools might be good matches for their own temperaments, needs, resources, and goals.… Continue Reading

What downturn? Global anti-bribery enforcement finds a new normal

Robert Clark April 13, 2020

TRACE recently published its annual Global Enforcement Report, which collects summary data regarding the state of transnational anti-bribery investigations and enforcement actions around the world. One of the standout facts in the report is that the number of companies subject to enforcement actions in 2019 was notably lower than in 2018—a 19 percent drop in U.S.… Continue Reading

How to read the 2019 TRACE Risk Matrix

Robert Clark December 5, 2019

We see it every year: A new edition of a corruption ranking is released, and the first thing people ask is which countries have moved up or down in ranking. It is common knowledge among compliance officers that a country’s position on such an index is just a starting point for a thorough corruption risk assessment, but there is still a danger that nuances will get lost in the high-level presentation of the data.… Continue Reading

TRACE releases 2018 Bribery Risk Matrix

Robert Clark December 7, 2018

Compliance professionals have many factors to consider when assessing the bribery risk of their companies’ proposed investments or engagements globally. Industries have different dynamics, companies have different business models, and business partners and intermediaries have different relationships and backgrounds.… Continue Reading

Robert Clark: Building a better bribery-risk index

Robert Clark July 18, 2018

With a rise in global trade and a focus on international development, the past two decades have seen increased attention to the worldwide problem of corruption. With that attention have come efforts to measure the degree of corruption from one country to another.… Continue Reading

Robert Clark: U.S. enforcement is down, but international enforcement is up

Robert Clark March 22, 2018

The release of TRACE’s Global Enforcement Report 2017 (GER) gives us a chance to reflect on large-scale trends in anti-bribery enforcement.

For the United States, after 2016’s record-setting pace of FCPA settlements, the question wasn’t so much whether there would be a slowdown, but only how slow it would get.… Continue Reading

Robert Clark: Not all corruption indexes are created equal

Robert Clark January 10, 2018

Any company doing business abroad is going to face corruption risk. Businesses have a responsibility to know where those risks are and to decide how to confront them.

One response is simply not to do business in high-risk countries.… Continue Reading

Robert Clark: Will the EU data protection rule block due diligence?

Robert Clark November 13, 2017

Companies minimize the risk of corruption by adequately vetting their prospective representatives — typically by reviewing information about the financial interests and relevant connections of the intermediaries’ owners and key personnel, and screening those individuals for reputational and criminal-history issues.… Continue Reading