FCPAméricas Blog
What a Top Brazilian Federal Judge Wants You to Know about Corruption There
11.29.2012
Fausto De Sanctis is a federal appellate court judge in Brazil. His court is responsible for Sao Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul states, which represent more than 50% of all federal cases in Brazil. Before that appointment, he served for years on a specialized court for money laundering and financial crimes, which included corruption cases. He has presided over many of Brazil’s largest corruption proceedings, including the Satiagraha case and the Castelo de Areia case. Mr. De Sanctis recently sat down with FCPAméricas to tell us what he thinks U.S. businesses need to know about corruption in Brazil.
How would you describe corruption in Brazil?
Corruption is like a bus. You can stay inside the bus and be part of it. You can sit beside the bus, close your eyes, ignore that corruption exists, and not say anything. Or you can stand in front of the bus. But, in a place like Brazil, the bus is very hard to stop because you don’t have much institutional support. Judges, prosecutors, and the police are not always independent.
Corruption is systemic in Brazil. It is common at all levels. The powerful business elite bribe politicians with money and things like cars, real estate, and services. Public procurements are the sou... Read more
The Government’s Response to the Proposed Affirmative FCPA Compliance Defense
11.27.2012
At the recent ACI 2012 National Conference on the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the U.S. Government provided a direct response to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s affirmative compliance defense proposal. Over the last two years, since the Chamber issued its proposed amendments to the FCPA, the Chamber has advocated for “a defense that would permit companies to fight the imposition of criminal liability for FCPA violations[] if the individual employees or agents had circumvented compliance measures that were otherwise reasonable in identifying and preventing such violations.” The government’s response was direct and succinct.
Lanny Breuer, the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, provided three reasons for why a compliance defense is not warranted.
1. Compliance is already taken into account in enforcement decisions. Mr. Breuer said that, pursuant to the Principles of Federal Prosecution of Business Organizations, there are nine factors that the government takes into account when determin... Read more
What FCPA Enforcement is Thinking in 2012
11.19.2012
A year ago, FCPAméricas provided an overview of FCPA enforcement officials’ thinking at the time based on their comments at the 2011 National Conference on the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practice Act, hosted by American Conference Institute (ACI). Last week, ACI held its 2012 national conference. Once again, FCPA enforcement officials shared their current thinking. Here are highlights. (Note that they stated that these were their own views and not the official views of their respective agencies.)
Expect reasonableness when companies voluntarily disclose. Such was the assertion of Charles Duross, the Deputy Chief of the Fraud Section of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Given that the recent FCPA Guidance puts a premium on self-reporting, it made sense for Mr. Duross to address the topic. He cited Morgan Stanley and BizJet as examples of fair treatment. Morgan Stanley got a declina... Read more
