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
Last Friday in federal court in Manhattan, oil consultant James Giffen, the seven-year target of one of history’s biggest individual FCPA prosecutions, was allowed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor — failing to report a foreign bank account in a 1996 tax return.… Continue Reading
Oil consultant James GiffenBloomberg’s David Glovin is reporting that James Giffen will plead guilty to a tax-related misdemeanor today in federal court in Manhattan.
Giffen has spent more than seven years fighting charges that he bribed government officials in Kazakhstan.… Continue Reading
Judge Denny ChinThe prosecution of James Giffen for violating the FCPA is a ghostlike case. As David Glovin of Bloomberg wrote earlier this month: “Oil consultant Jim Giffen was told by a U.S.… Continue Reading
Andy Spalding, a lawyer on a year-long Fulbright Research Grant in Mumbai, India, writes to us from time to time. Here’s his latest dispatch:
Dear FCPA Blog,
I have just returned from a week in Almaty, Kazakhstan, which your readers know to be an FCPA hot spot.… Continue Reading
Jack Grynberg: “I have been pursuing fraud in the energy industry for the past 15 years.”Colorado-based independent oilman Jack Grynberg filed a 311-page complaint in December with the European Commission.… Continue Reading
Nearly everything in the court’s electronic record of James Giffen’s criminal prosecution is beyond reach. Almost 200 pleadings and orders are in the docket but only a dozen can be viewed or downloaded, and the indictment isn’t one of them.… Continue Reading
In the 1990s, according to the Justice Department, American businessman James Giffen had the title of counselor to the president of Kazakhstan. His job was to help with “priority investment projects relating to the exploration, development, production, transportation, and processing of oil and gas.” That made him hugely important in Kazakhstan and far beyond.… Continue Reading
A lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns. — Mario Puzo
With that street-smart aphorism in mind, we went looking for Foreign Corrupt Practices Act-related cases where lawyers were alleged to be on the wrong side of the law.… Continue Reading
We don’t know how many of the 50 or so disclosed and pending Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigations will be resolved this year. But here are some we’re watching:
Alcoa. In February 2008, government-owned Aluminum Bahrain BSC (Alba) accused its long-time U.S.… Continue Reading
Last week we reported here about the civil suit filed in the U.S. District Court in D.C. by Colorado-based oilman Jack Grynberg, 76, against BP, Statoil and British Gas, along with some of their current or former top executives.… Continue Reading
The British press is reporting (here and here) that oil giant BP and its current and former CEOs, Tony Hayward and Lord Browne, as well as Norway’s Statoil and its CEO, are among the defendants named in a civil lawsuit involving allegations of bribery of government officials in Kazakhstan.… Continue Reading