FCPAméricas Blog
OFAC Gives Guidance to Owners of PDVSA 2020 Bonds
8.03.2018
The following is a guest post from Timothy O’Toole and Brian Fleming, Members at Miller & Chevalier Chartered. The post has not been translated into Spanish or Portuguese.
In the Fall of 2016, Venezuela’s state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), attempted to ease its short-term debt payment crunch by offering to swap $7.1 billion of debt scheduled to mature in 2017 for a new 2020 bond. The swap worked as its new 2020 bond had two key selling points: (1) a coupon of 8.5 percent for the four year period until maturity, and (2) backing by 50.1 percent of shares in PDVSA’s U.S. refinin... Read more
AMLO’s Election and the Future of Mexico’s National Anti-Corruption System
7.30.2018
This is a guest post by Robert Clark, Manager of Legal Research, TRACE International, where he oversees a team of lawyers responsible for the production of analytical content.
Mexico’s new president-elect, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has a wide range of tools to deploy in furtherance of his signature anti-corruption agenda. He has proposed enhancing governmental transparency, both in the contracting and procurement processes and through mandatory financial disclosures by public servants. He has promoted the increased involvement of ordinary citizens through a plan to expand individuals’ ability to initiate criminal charges for corruption. Further measures range f... Read more
Colombia Ramps Up Enforcement of Transnational Bribery Law
7.12.2018
Recent announcements in Colombia indicate that the country is taking seriously its new transnational bribery law. Colombia’s Superintendent for Corporate Entities (“Supersociedades”), the local enforcement body for the new law, sanctioned its first company for a foreign bribery offense involving Ecuador, applying a penalty of about US$1.8 million. Local press... Read more
