News and commentary about white-collar crime, enforcement, and compliance
Harry Cassin
Publisher and Editor
Andy Spalding
Senior Editor
Jessica Tillipman
Senior Editor
Richard L. Cassin
Editor at Large
Elizabeth K. Spahn
Editor Emeritus
Cody Worthington
Contributing Editor
Julie DiMauro
Contributing Editor
Thomas Fox
Contributing Editor
Marc Alain Bohn
Contributing Editor
Bill Waite
Contributing Editor
Shruti J. Shah
Contributing Editor
Russell A. Stamets
Contributing Editor
Richard Bistrong
Contributing Editor
Eric Carlson
Contributing Editor
Bill Steinman
Contributing Editor
In Uber’s first-ever SEC filing last week, it disclosed a two-year old FCPA investigation in five countries, including Indonesia and Malaysia. What might have gone wrong in those countries? Here are some clues.… Continue Reading
So there are countries around the world that have “gone beyond” the FCPA and prohibited facilitating payments. Good for them. And the United States “lags behind” because it still does not prohibit such payments.… Continue Reading
Delhi recently started enforcing new traffic regulations to reduce pollution levels. In October 2015, the city — properly the National Capital Territory, where 10 million people live — imposed a Green Tax on vehicles.
The Green Tax (formally known as an Economic Compensation Charge) is supposed to be collected by the toll collection agencies at 124 entry points to Delhi.… Continue Reading
Andy Spalding asked in a post on the FCPA Blog why countries that allow facilitating payments seem to have lower levels of corruption? He didn’t find a definitive answer. But I want to offer my own explanation of why countries that permit facilitating payments might have a better record than those that do not.… Continue Reading
In a prior post on the FCPA Blog, we observed a pattern that surprised ourselves and many others: signatories to the OECD Convention that allow facilitating payments have a significantly better average ranking on the Corruption Perceptions Index than those countries that prohibit them.
Several readers, apparently no more comfortable with this statistic than we were, suggested other correlations worth exploring.
My excellent research assistant at the University of Richmond School of Law, Dust Knight, and I tried a few.… Continue Reading
Put 30 anti-corruption professionals from diverse countries in an academic classroom for three days, and the human mind goes to new places. Here’s a question that arose during my recent stint at the International Anti-Corruption Academy which we asked but could not answer.… Continue Reading
The University of Richmond’s Journal of Global Law & Business is proud to announce its annual Corruption Issue. In this series of posts, each co-authored by a UR law student and Professor Andy Spalding, we’ll introduce this year’s articles and invite submissions for next year’s issue.… Continue Reading
The Bribery Act 2010 and Department of Justice guidance require businesses to have anti-bribery controls which reflect the risk they face in conducting business.
The OECD has just published an excellent analysis of the 427 enforcement actions undertaken by the signatories to the 1999 Anti-Bribery Convention which may help.… Continue Reading
This is the final post in my series analyzing IKEA’s charitable contributions in Russia in the 1990s and early 2000s. I haven’t presumed IKEA was subject to the FCPA when the events happened or that any FCPA violations might have occurred.… Continue Reading
A few countries — including Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and the U.S. — allow grease payments that happen overseas. But the small bribes are still risky and potentially damaging.
They’re almost always illegal under local law.… Continue Reading
Federal district judge Keith B. Ellison denied motions for summary judgments filed by the SEC, and by former Noble executives Mark Jackson and James Ruehlen.
Jackson, Noble’s former CEO, and Ruehlen, the head of Noble’s Nigeria unit, asked Judge Ellison to rule that the SEC didn’t have enough evidence in the civil suit against them for a jury to decide they violated the FCPA.… Continue Reading
Nicola Bonucci and Patrick Moulette recently posted a discussion of the OECD’s position on facilitation payments. I admire the work of the OECD greatly, and I personally support its position on these payments. I’m no critic of either. But in seeking to garner further support for the OECD’s position, their post employs a couple rhetorical devices that might be just a little confusing.… Continue Reading