I came across this JD Supra article titled Top Ten International Anti-Corruption Developments for October 2016 written by Charles Duross and James Koukios of Morrison & Foerster LLP. Great insights on recent alleged and confirmed misconduct in October. Here is a quick summary of their top 10:
- The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) published ISO 37001 as a requirements standard and establishes measures to prevent, detect, and address bribery. By adopting anti-bribery policies with a trained overseer, ISO 37001 certification is deemed effective best practices to help companies reduce risk.
- The DOJ and SEC announced Brazilian based Embraer S.A. agreed to $205 million global settlement on charges of FCPA violation allegations connected to sales in the Dominican Republic, Saudi Arabia, Mozambique, and India. In total, the DOJ & SEC thanked a total of seven countries for assistance in the investigation where former employees were either confirmed and/or reportedly arrested to have accepted bribes.
- For the second time since November 2012, Spain-based Grifols S.A. disclosed a DOJ declination in a securities filing. The DOJ acknowledged the October investigation had the full cooperation of the company focusing on sales in certain Central and Eastern European companies.
- Demonstrating the importance of Switzerland and U.S. alliance in anti-corruption matters, Swiss authorities stated nearly half of the $118 million in frozen assets was transferred to the U.S. following investigation of bribes to Venezuela oil company Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. Roberto Rincon and Abraham Shiera are two owners of U.S. energy companies who plead guilty to allegations of bribing Pertoleos to secure lucrative energy subsidiaries.
- Latin America is expected to represent a rise in FCPA enforcement actions, already indicated by Embraer and Petroleos. There are also potential corporate enforcement actions of alleged bribery against Brazilian oil company Petrobras.
- Former general counsel of Bio-Rad Laboratories. Sanford Wadler, alleged his firing came after raising concerns of suspected bribery with China. Bio-Rad’s motion to dismiss on the basis of privileged information was denied.
- Ireland and Russia’s laws combating international bribery urgently need reform per the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Working Group on Bribery. Both countries have failed to make changes aligning with the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. After a peer review process, several shortcomings include not consolidating bribery offenses (Ireland) and strengthening corporate liability laws (Russia).
- There were two guilty pleas in October involving the Fédération Internationale de Football Association: Eduardo Li (former president of the Costa Rican soccer federation) pled guilty to racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud, and receiving bribes; Aaron Davidson (president of Traffic Sports USA) pled guilty to racketeering conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy. Both men face 20-year maximum imprisonment and fines.
- Brazil’s former house speaker Eduardo Cunha was arrested for allegedly accepting $5 million in bribes from a company that won contracts from Petrobras; earlier in 2016 Cunha was also charged with corruption and money laundering. Additionally, former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva saw charges of allegation to corruption, money laundering, and influence trafficking.
- The UK House of Commons introduced the Criminal Finances Bill. This new legislation is designed to “tackle money laundering and corruption, recover the proceeds of crime and counter terrorist financing” according to a press release.
This is just a further reminder that even if you your organization is not taking fraud prevention seriously, those with the power to imprison and fine are. Empowering your employees to say something if they see something is your critical next step.