FCPAméricas Blog
The Top Three Bribery Risks in Latin America
2.27.2014
Latin America is a region of great diversity, from the food to the languages to the cultures and the people. This also means that the forms of bribery in the region can be extremely diverse too. Nonetheless, there are some common threats that FCPA practitioners in the region tend to confront time and time again.
Corruption risk in Latin America often arises from three sources: the police, regulatory uncertainty, and family-owned businesses. To learn more, watch this complimentary video from the TRACE Anti-Bribery Training Vignettes collection:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3jCRwpKpVI&w=470&h=286]
The complete collection of these high-level training videos is available through the member-only T... Read more
How Can I Control My Third Parties?
2.26.2014
Anti-corruption compliance is an increasingly important topic in Latin America, and companies in the region are starting to ask the question – how can I control my third parties? Sometimes, for FCPA practitioners, it is good to go back to basics.
Under the FCPA, liability can be created when companies or their officials make payments indirectly to foreign officials through agents, consultants, distributors, lawyers, accountants, customs brokers, or any other intermediary. Liability arises if the company or individual knows that the third party will make the payment, authorizes the third party to do so, consciously disregards red flags suggesting the ... Read more
FCPA Opinion Procedure Releases – An Oft-Forgotten Resource
2.21.2014
At the end of 2013, the DOJ issued its only Opinion Procedure Release of the year. A law firm partner used the opinion process to ask whether he or she would violate the FCPA by paying the medical expenses of the daughter of a foreign official of a country that his firm represented. The official’s daughter had a severe medical condition that could not be treated in her own country.
The request specified that payments would be made directly to the hospital and that both the lawyer and the official had disclosed the payments to their respective empl... Read more