Richard Bistrong | Contributing Editor
Richard Bistrong spent his career as an international sales executive and currently consults, writes and speaks on foreign bribery and compliance issues from that front-line perspective.
He was named to Compliance Week’s list of Top Minds in 2017 and was one of Ethisphere’s 100 Most Influential in Business Ethics in 2015.
Richard was the vice president of international sales for a large, publicly traded defense supplier, which included residing in the UK and extensive overseas travel.
In 2007, as part of a cooperation agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice and subsequent Immunity from Prosecution in the UK, Richard assisted the U.S., UK, and other governments in understanding how FCPA and other bribery and export violations occurred in international sales.
In 2012, after the collapse of the Africa Sting prosecution, Richard was sentenced as part of his own plea agreement, and served fourteen-and-a-half months at a U.S. federal prison camp.
He holds an MA in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia.
Richard writes about current anti-bribery and compliance issues at www.richardbistrong.com. Information about his consulting practice, Front-Line Anti-Bribery LLC, can also be found on that website.
Recent Posts
How Goldman Sachs helped ‘a modern Gatsby’ steal $5 billion
Both the Financial Times and Fortune named Billion Dollar Whale the Best Book of 2018. It’s the story of how Goldman Sachs helped Jho Low steal more than $5 billion from the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, 1MDB.
Management can own honesty or deceit. So pick one
At Fresenius Medical Care, according to a recent post on the FCPA Blog, management owned the graft and senior executives directed the bribery and the global cover up. The failures were both wide and deep, where “legal, compliance, and internal audit functions failed to detect and prevent the bribery,” the company said in an SEC filing.
Thank you, Mastercard, for sharing my story of corruption in a training video
In 2010, I pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to violate the FCPA and served fourteen and a half months at a U.S. federal prison camp. About five years later, I began telling my story in public, to help others understand the compliance risks those on the front lines of business face every day.
Our worthy goal of keeping people successful and safe
Today I write from Berlin, staying in what was old East Berlin. Last week I spoke at an event in Malaysia. Both societies that have experienced and are experiencing (respectively) political, social and economic change that was once unimaginable.
Finding friendship after prison
Dick Cassin, left, and Richard Bistrong discuss the FCPA in NYC in 2016When I was released from prison in December 2013, one of my first digital activities was an on-line search of FCPA reporting in general and the Africa Sting case (where I was the DOJ cooperator) specifically.
My success led to a ‘dangerous silence,’ then to prison
During my decade as an international sales VP, I conspired with an agent to pass $15,000 to a Dutch police official in return for tender specifications tailored to my former employer’s product. That program was for every police officer in Holland, and it lasted for years, with contract extensions and re-fill orders.
Mastercard’s award-winning compliance training film now available
Mastercard took compliance training to a new level when they engaged a production company to depict chapters of my FCPA violations, eventual guilty plea, and sentencing to fourteen and a half months in prison.
The ‘frozen middle’ can make or break a compliance program
Denise Lee Yohn is a go-to expert on brand-building for national media outlets. She’s also a popular speaker and consultant, and an influential writer.
Five years ago, I was walking out of prison
Whenever I hear about an FCPA sentencing that involves time in federal prison, I think of the day in July 2012 when I faced the judge and learned my fate.
Mastercard-produced compliance training film now features foreign-language subtitles
An award-winning anti-bribery training film that’s available for short and long term licensing can now include subtitles in twelve different languages.