International Law

Stuck In The Middle

Posted on September 24, 2009
Evan Osnos's latest Letter from China in the New Yorker (here) describes what he calls the gift-imperative -- the constant cultural pressure to give gifts and accept them in business and professional settings. Our most harrowing encounter with the gift-imperative happened not in China but in Southeast Asia...

Found In Translation

Posted on September 23, 2009
As posted yesterday on the wrageblog here, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is now available in Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Arabic. The translations come from the U.S. Department of Commerce through a project headed by Senior Counsel Kathryn Nickerson...

The Fugitive Files, Part III

Posted on September 22, 2009
When Suleiman A. Nassar was indicted in 1994 for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, he was a regional vice president of Lockheed International living near Geneva, Switzerland. His territory for Lockheed included Egypt, and in the late 1980s he landed a nice sale there -- three C-130 military cargo planes worth $79 million...

The Flesh-And-Blood Bond

Posted on September 21, 2009
The Chinese Communist Party's latest anti-corruption initiative will force officials to declare their assets and those of close family members. The new rules were announced at the close of the annual meeting of the party's watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection...

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Dmitry Anatolyevich Has A Dream

Posted on September 20, 2009
The U.K. Guardian reported last week (here) that Russian President Medvedev (left) invoked the memory of Martin Luther King when he announced his intention to clean up corruption. "We are not used to saying 'we have a dream' in my country . . . but this is my political vision...

We Get It

Posted on September 17, 2009
Lawyers are trained to quibble and criminal defense lawyers do it best. After all, their job is to create reasonable doubt. So it's no surprise that when talking about the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, they say how complicated the law is, how technically challenging and obscure, how poorly drafted and badly organized it is...

The Bongo System

Posted on September 16, 2009
The New York Times' Adam Nossiter has written a terrific article about kleptocracy and corruption in Gabon (here). Here's how his account begins:LIBREVILLE, Gabon ? In the airport duty-free store, the wine is upward of $400. The service at the fancy French restaurants in the chic Louis district is immaculate, and at the luxury hotel on the sea the call girls dress like fashion models...

The Press v. Corruption

Posted on September 15, 2009
In its landmark 2002 study, The right to tell: The role of mass media in economic development (here), the World Bank said a free press contributes to cleaner governments, and also to better education, improved public health, lower infant mortality rates, and higher incomes...

Greens Found Guilty

Posted on September 14, 2009
Here's the text of the Government's press release:Issued on Monday, September 14 at 10:10 a.m. PDTLOS ANGELES ? Two West Hollywood film executives have been found guilty of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in relation to a sophisticated bribery scheme that enabled the defendants to obtain a series of Thai government contracts, including valuable contracts to manage and operate Thailand's yearly film festival...

No Hollywood Ending

Posted on September 14, 2009
An LA jury needed not days but hours to convict the husband-and-wife movie producers of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. They were also found guilty on related charges, including conspiracy, money laundering, and tax cheating. Now they're facing what amounts to life in prison...

The Greens, BAE And More

Posted on September 13, 2009
A seven-man, five-woman federal jury in LA on Friday began deliberating the fate of the husband-and-wife movie producers accused of bribing a Thai official. Gerald Green, 77, and his wife Patricia, 54, were tried for conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and violating the FCPA...

Corruption Hits The Road

Posted on September 10, 2009
An AP story this week (here) quoted Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov as saying, "We'll never solve the problem of traffic under [Moscow mayor Yuri] Luzhkov, no matter how much money is allocated for road construction. The exorbitant prices are directly linked to corruption and ties between road builders and authorities...

Another Alba-Related Investigation

Posted on September 09, 2009
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday (here) that the Justice Department is "investigating payments that Bahraini prosecutors allege were made by units of Japanese commodities-trading giant Sojitz Group to employees of an aluminum producer in Bahrain...

The Face Of A Fugitive

Posted on September 08, 2009
He's the only FCPA fugitive with his own wanted poster. That's how we know Frerik Pluimers is a big guy -- six three, two hundred thirty-five pounds. Brown hair, brown eyes. Born September 30, 1946. Netherlands passport number W118268941. Indicted in April 1998, when he was president and CEO of New Jersey-based Saybolt International -- charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Travel Act, aiding and abetting and conspiracy...

Friends And Neighbors

Posted on September 07, 2009
These are good days for FCPA junkies like us. More is written now about enforcement and compliance in a week than used to appear in a year. And a lot of it is original and well outside the conventional wisdom. Among the people producing work in that category (and who have appeared on the FCPA Blog before) are:David Hess, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan's business school...

Guilty Plea In UK Bribe Case

Posted on September 03, 2009
The former director of sales and marketing for Pacific Consolidated Industries (PCI) admitted yesterday that he bribed an official from the U.K. Ministry of Defense (MOD) in return for equipment orders. Leo Winston Smith, 73, pleaded guilty in the U.S...

Pfizer, Pharmas And The FCPA

Posted on September 02, 2009
Will drug makers be the target of the next industry-wide Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigation, following in the footsteps of the oil and gas services companies and orthopedic device makers? It's possible. Their sales practices are in the news a lot these days...

The FCPA's Most Wanted

Posted on September 01, 2009
People charged with a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act-related offense either cop a plea or fight the case in court. Except for those who choose the third option. They run. If they're living outside the U.S. when indicted, they might plan to never come back...

Ehud Olmert And The FCPA

Posted on August 31, 2009
Will the American businessman implicated in Israel's political corruption scandal be charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act? Morris Talansky has said that over nearly a decade he gave Israel's former prime minister, Ehud Olmert (left), envelopes stuffed with cash that was used to fund political campaigns and pay for personal expenses...

Former Faro Salesman Settles With SEC

Posted on August 30, 2009
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a settled enforcement action Friday against Oscar H. Meza, the former sales director in Asia for Faro Technologies, Inc. Florida-based Faro designs, develops, and markets software and portable computerized measurement devices...

Greed, Corruption And Deceit, Feds Say

Posted on August 27, 2009
The trial of the husband-and-wife movie producers accused of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act opened this week in LA. Gerald Green, 77, and his wife Patricia, 54, have pleaded not guilty to all 22 counts of a second superseding indictment. They're charged with conspiracy to violate the FCPA and with substantive FCPA offenses...

People Without Laws

Posted on August 26, 2009
The following was sent to us by an active-duty officer in the U.S. military:One of the conceits of the corrupt is that they'll be able to manage the day of their own reckoning. Lies can be covered with more lies. Blame can be shifted to others. The public will forgive us for our good intentions...

Indicted: Taking Aim At Individuals

Posted on August 25, 2009
It's not just about corporations anymore. FCPA enforcement is now about individuals too -- and in a big way. Here's this year's FCPA roll call of real people: Gerald and Patricia Green, whose Foreign Corrupt Practices Act trial opened in LA this week...

Helping Doctors Cheat

Posted on August 24, 2009
From an August 19 AP story: Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline used a sophisticated ghostwriting program to promote its antidepressant Paxil, allowing doctors to take credit for medical journal articles mainly written by company consultants, according to court documents obtained by the Associated Press...

FCPA Liability Keeps Growing

Posted on August 23, 2009
In late July, the SEC filed a settled enforcement action against Nature's Sunshine Products Inc. (NSP), its Chief Executive Officer Douglas Faggioli. 54, and its former Chief Financial Officer Craig D. Huff, 53. The charges involved bribes by NSP's Brazilian subsidiary to customs officials and false accounting to conceal the payments...

Tinseltown, Bourke Again, And Margaritaville

Posted on August 20, 2009
More on the Greens. In February 2008 we said: "We're not privy to the Greens' defense, of course, but they appear to have a tough legal battle ahead of them." Their trial was postponed this week as it was about to begin. According to the AP, the Justice Department blamed the one-week delay on "the availability of a prosecution witness...

The SEC Spreads The Love

Posted on August 19, 2009
Millipore's announcement last week was unusual. The Massachusetts-based life science firm said in its 10-Q that the SEC won't bring an enforcement action for potential Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations the company self-reported in 2006. "By its letter on May 14, 2009," Millipore said, "the Securities and Exchange Commission notified us that its investigation has been completed and it will not pursue any enforcement action on this matter...

Top Eyes On Russian Graft

Posted on August 18, 2009
When they met in July, Presidents Obama and Medvedev not only dressed alike, they created a Bilateral Presidential Commission. They'll chair it and Secretary of State Clinton and Foreign Minister Lavrov will act as coordinators. Working groups under the commission's umbrella will include energy, security, environment, arms control, counter-terrorism, cultural exchanges, and -- the reason we're talking about it -- business development...

The Feds Should Take A Meeting

Posted on August 17, 2009
Husband-and-wife movie producers Gerald and Patricia Green are now on trial in LA for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Prosecutors allege they paid more than $1.8 million in bribes to Juthamas Siriwan, a former governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, in return for $14 million in contracts to stage the Bangkok Film Festival...

China's Execs In The Crosshairs

Posted on August 16, 2009
Offering or paying bribes to Chinese officials and local employees puts the hosts at enormous risk. A case in point may be Control Components Inc. (CCI). When it pleaded guilty in late July to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the Travel Act, it admitted bribing employees from at least six Chinese state-owned companies: Jiangsu Nuclear Power Corp...

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