FCPAméricas Blog
The Internal Investigations Map (Walking companies through the process)
4.04.2012
FCPAméricas regularly writes about internal corruption investigations. It offered lessons on conducting cost-effective internal investigations. It proposed ten rules for effective internal investigation interviews. Building upon this advice, James McGrath provided additional thoughts on conducting interviews on the Internal Investigations Blog.
In celebration of Compliance Week’s 2012 Annual Conference*, to be held in Washington, DC on June 4-6, in this article we feature the helpful flowchart entitled, “How Should We Conduct Investigations?... Read more
The Biomet Case: Lessons from the latest FCPA settlement involving Latin America
3.30.2012
Earlier this week, a former colleague and skilled attorney, Lisa Prager, offered thoughts on compliance priorities in her article for Forbes entitled, “FCPA Compliance: Don’t Blow Your Budget Just Yet.” She advises companies to implement straightforward compliance programs and to target compliance efforts to the areas of business posing the highest corruption risks.
Companies need go no further than this week’s $22.8 million FCPA settlement with the Indiana medical device maker Biomet Inc. to understand what Lisa is talking about. Had Biomet created a straightforward compliance program and targeted its compliance efforts to the following four key areas in Argentina, Brazil, and China, history would probably be much different:
1. Training. Throughout the SEC’s complaint, it is apparent that, not only was the company engaged in consistent FCPA violations over the span of eight years by making improper payments to public doctors, but multiple people in the company were aware of the activity, participated... Read more
BizJet’s “Sales Manager A”: A Profile of Corruption
3.27.2012
We do not know much about “Sales Manager A,” the “bag man” for BizJet’s corruption scheme that led to an $11.8 million settlement with U.S. authorities for violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. From the settlement documents, however, we know something. And what we know might reveal a common profile of corruption.
A Corrupt Businessperson’s Typical Profile. Corrupt acts often start small. Maybe payments are small. Maybe the payer justifies the payments in his or her head as legitimate business expenses. The tricky thing about corruption is that, once you start paying officials, it is hard to stop. Their requests do not end. Instead, they often get bigger. Over time, payment schemes often become more blatant.
It also becomes easier to pay. The corrupt mind plays tricks on itself, especially when other interests are at stake. When a person’s job is to develop new business and reach aggressive sales targets, the person might blur ethical lines, ignore inconvenient facts, or rationalize certain activities. The person might actually think that they are paying “commissions,” “incent... Read more
