FCPAméricas Blog
FBI’s New Miami-Based Corruption Squad Highlights Enforcement Focus on Latin America
5.08.2019
This guest post is from Dawn E. Murphy-Johnson, Counsel at Miller & Chevalier in Washington, DC.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has deployed a new anti-corruption squad in its Miami field office to investigate foreign corruption in the “Magic City” and South America. The task force, known as an International Corruption Squad (ICS), mirrors similar FBI teams operating in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. It will work in conjunction with the Fraud Section and Money Laundering Asset Forfeiture Section of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). According to the FBI... Read more
FCPA Compliance with Community Donations in Latin America
4.30.2019
To give back to local communities in Latin America, companies operating in the region often make charitable donations, sometimes at significant levels. Building a school, funding a health clinic, or providing technical expertise reflect good corporate social responsibility. When doing business near severely underprivileged populations, social projects can also mean the difference between continued operations for the company and roadblocks, hunger strikes, or even violence.
Community support has the potential to generate FCPA compliance issues too. Companies can violate the FCPA if donations are smokescreens for corrupt payments. For publicly-traded companies in the United States with FCPA accounting provision obligations, the lack of sufficient contro... Read more
WhatsApp and FCPA Compliance
4.26.2019
Perhaps in no region in the world is WhatsApp used more frequently than in Latin America. From Mexico to Patagonia, people rely on the application constantly for both personal and professional use. With this new medium of communication, companies operating in Latin America are learning that their approaches to the use of WhatsApp and other instant messaging communication tools are highly relevant to FCPA compliance.
Specifically, these instant messaging platforms can present challenges to FCPA investigators seeking to review employee communications. The applications often do not store communications, or they store them in such a way that communications are not easily accessible to companies or U.S. enforcement agency investigators.
U.S. Government Expectations. Companies want to make sure their practices in this area are consistent with U.S. Government expectations. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has begun describing its compliance expectations for what it calls “ephemeral communic... Read more
