News and commentary about white-collar crime, enforcement, and compliance
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
Russell A. Stamets
Contributing Editor
Richard Bistrong
Contributing Editor
Eric Carlson
Contributing Editor
Call it fragmented supply-side enforcement. It’s where we are now in the historical development of anti-bribery enforcement. If you believe that anti-bribery enforcement should reduce global corruption, then this is a major problem.… Continue Reading
The recently announced BNP sanctions settlement is remarkable in so many ways: the behavior is outrageous, the $9 billion criminal penalty is record-setting, and 13 employees were terminated. However, the most interesting part of the story may be the idea that the DOJ is exploring ways to use the forfeited funds to compensate individuals who may have been harmed by the sanctioned regimes of Sudan, Iran and Cuba.… Continue Reading
BOTA was the first foundation established to restitute assets associated with an FCPA prosecution to victims of corruption. What were its key lessons that could be relevant to future foundations established for the same purpose? … Continue Reading
The BOTA Foundation surpassed most of the expectations that its founders had for it. BOTA was able to efficiently and effectively return more than $115 million (the original $84 million associated with corruption plus accrued interest frozen Pictet and Cie Swiss bank account) to poor children, youth and their families.… Continue Reading
Friends of the FCPA Blog — Sandy Sierck and Nick Diamond, who represent the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project in Nigeria — have another good idea. For years, SERAP has been petitioning the DOJ and SEC to return enforcement revenues to the real victims of overseas corruption: the citizens of the corrupt governments.… Continue Reading
An Irvine, California woman was sentenced Friday to 37 months in federal prison for defrauding a group of Roman Catholic Sisters out of $285,000, which she spent on herself after promising to use the money to help the nuns buy a retirement home.… Continue Reading
Financial crime in its various manifestations is the principal reason many societies around the world remain impoverished and subjected to the most dehumanizing conditions. It seems therefore befitting that those found guilty of financial crimes such as the theft of public resources face the most stringent penal sanctions.… Continue Reading
One of the benefits, apart from the foreign earnings, of London’s court clogging Russian litigation, has been the collation of principles relating to the English civil law of bribery which can be summarized as follows:
… Continue ReadingThe underlying substantive and remedial policies behind protecting a principal against bribes is an agent’s obligation to act in the best interests of its principal and to avoid a real possibility of potential conflict.
We’ve shown in the last two posts (here and here) how the Supplemental Transparency Project retains the punitive and deterrent effect of criminal penalties while still advancing the goals of international commerce.… Continue Reading
The second objection defendant corporations typically have to FCPA enforcement concerns the thorny problem of solicitation. Sure, some companies pay bribes aggressively and unreservedly. But others feel pressured to do it.… Continue Reading
Corporations — those that are subject to FCPA jurisdiction generally, and especially those who have already been named defendants in an enforcement action — commonly have two objections to enforcement. The Supplemental Transparency Project can answer both.… Continue Reading
We’re in the home stretch now on this series, in which we’ve explored how the FCPA can better serve its original purpose of promoting values and building institutions in developing countries.… Continue Reading