FCPAméricas Blog
Gifts and Hospitality in FCPA Compliance: Four cases for your back pocket
9.21.2012
Every now and then it is good to refresh one’s memory on important FCPA enforcement actions. For example, lawyers need to remind their clients and Chief Compliance Officers need to remind management that bribes under the FCPA are not limited to bags of cash and transfers to offshore bank accounts. Certain gifts, travel, and entertainment can also create liability (FCPAméricas has previously discussed compliance policies in this area here).
On the eve of the release of the DOJ’s FCPA guidance, which will likely include a discussion of gifts and hospitality, FCPAméricas offers a few important cases to have in your back pocket.
Diageo (2011): The British spirits company that makes Johnnie Walker and Windsor Scotch whiskeys paid more than $16 million to settled FCPA charges with the SEC for, in part, its gift-giving practices. The company spent approximately $64,184 on rice cakes (customary and traditional gifts in Korean culture) and other gifts for the South Korean milita... Read more
How Local Laws in Latin America Affect FCPA Compliance Programs
9.19.2012
Extending an anti-corruption compliance program to subsidiaries in Latin America might seem like a straightforward proposition. A U.S. company must simply export its program, right? But this is not necessarily the case.
To make a program effective locally, companies must consider local laws too, as highlighted in a recent webinar presented by Latin American law firms Cariola Diez Perez Cotapos (Chile), Berreta Godoy (Argentina), Rodrigo Elias y Medrano (Peru), and others. Here are examples of things that companies will want to address with local counsel when expanding FCPA compliance programs into Latin American.
Policy Validity. Companies should ensure that their programs are valid in the eyes of local authorities. This will be important in the event that a company must defend its policy-based decisions before a local court, for example, in an employment dispute. To help ensure validity, in some jurisdictions policies must explicitly link their relevance to the company’s purpose. Thus, policies should invoke the company’s Code of Conduct or ethics charter. In some countries, policy provisions will only be considered relevant if they are proportional to their importance.
Reporting Mechanisms. Several Latin America... Read more
A National Anti-Corruption Commission in Mexico? What to Make of the President-Elect’s Proposal
9.14.2012
A new President’s first proposal matters. It sets the tone and send a message to citizens and markets. It signals priorities, which means the proposal usually has a better chance of becoming law than those put forth when few are paying attention.
In Mexico, the President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto just announced his first set of proposals since being elected on July 1st. They focus on corruption.
This is particularly relevant given that Peña Nieto’s political party, the oddly-named Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), ruled Mexico for 71 years up until 2000, during a period known largely for institutionalized corruption.
According to the press, Mr. Peña Nieto plans to launch a National Anti-Corruption Commission whose purpose is to investigate large corruption cases that so far have escaped judicial action. He also proposes a constitutional reform that will give people greater access to government information. These proposals follow another positive development in Mexico – a new anti-corruption law for public procurements, discussed here.
Could thes... Read more
