Harry Cassin
Publisher and Editor
Andy Spalding
Senior Editor
Jessica Tillipman
Senior Editor
Bill Steinman
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
Two compliance-related facts have emerged since the start of 2021, and they must be related. First, the DOJ’s enforcement priority has shifted to individuals who commit white-collar “corporate” crimes and away from the corporations themselves.… Continue Reading
As Salomé Lemasson’s excellent post earlier this week reported, a new level of corporate accountability for overseas bribery and ESG is breaking out across Europe. That’s welcome news, especially to those of us who once wondered if corporations there would ever face the music.… Continue Reading
The SEC guards the integrity of U.S. markets and protects investors by requiring issuers to disclose material information about themselves and their directors and officers. However, the SEC doesn’t tell anyone what to say or how to say it.… Continue Reading
The upcoming German Corporate Sanctions Act (Verbandssanktionsgesetz aka VerSanG) draft represents a major change for businesses. Originally drafted by the German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection in 2019, it introduces the idea of non-natural persons being subject to criminal liability, which is a firmly established concept in many other jurisdictions.… Continue Reading
Earlier this year the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control published A Framework for OFAC Compliance Commitments. It describes essential components of a sanctions compliance program (management commitment, risk assessment, internal controls, testing and auditing, and training).… Continue Reading
The best primary source material for creating and maintaining an anti-corruption compliance program is still Chapter 8 of the U.S. Federal Sentencing Guidelines.
It describes the elements of an “effective compliance program” — a legal term of art with the specific meaning assigned to it by the Sentencing Guidelines.… Continue Reading
Peru welcomed the new year by enacting into force Law 30424, which introduces corporate criminal liability applicable to bribery.
Peruvian law now recognizes the independent criminal liability of a legal person for local and foreign bribery, imposing sanctions ranging from fines, debarment from government contracting to dissolution of the legal entity.… Continue Reading
Privately-held Lindsey Manufacturing is the only corporation to ever face a full jury trial for alleged FCPA offenses.
It lost at trial but eventually won a dismissal because of prosecutorial misconduct.… Continue Reading
President Elect Trump’s pick to lead the SEC is Jay Clayton. He wrote in a 2011 NYC Bar Association paper about the FCPA. The paper addressed the “lasting harm to the competitiveness of U.S.… Continue Reading
Judge Jed Rakoff above, Prof Brandon Garrett belowIn the February 19 edition of the New York Review of Books, federal judge Jed Rakoff of the southern district of New York reviews Brandon Garrett’s book, Too Big to Jail: How Prosecutors Compromise with Corporations.… Continue Reading
On Friday, I wrote about how the director of the Serious Fraud Office proposed an amendment to the UK Bribery Act that would expand the law’s coverage and lead to the possible blacklisting of companies.… Continue Reading
Preston Tull Eldridge of the Arkansas Law Review argued in a recent article that FCPA enforcement practices are “a lose-lose situation for corporate compliance programs.”
The problem, he said, is that deferred- and non-prosecution agreements, however useful they may be, coupled with respondeat superior, increase prosecutors’ leverage over corporations.… Continue Reading
