FCPAméricas Blog
Cross-Debarment and Conflict of Laws: The next big challenge for World Bank and MDB sanctions
10.09.2012
Today the World Bank hosts a colloquium on suspension and debarment joined by several multilateral development banks (MDBs). It is a fitting time to highlight the next big challenge facing their coordinated efforts to sanction the companies and individuals found to have committed corruption, fraud, and collusion in development projects – potential conflict of laws in cross-debarment.
In April 2010, the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the Inter-American Development Bank agreed to cross-debar firms and individuals found to have engaged in wrongdoing in MDB-financed development projects. According to the agreement, “Each Participating Institution will enforce debarment decisions made by another Participating Institution.” In essence, if you steal from one, you will be debarred by all. The mechanism gives teeth to the sanctions program. Learn more here.
But what happens if the legal theories on which one MDB reaches a finding of ... Read more
Views from Brazil on the Fight Against Corruption
10.05.2012
With the permission of the author, FCPAméricas offers excerpts from a recent article by attorney Leonardo Machado of Machado Meyer Sendacz Opice law firm in Brazil.
“Many important achievements have been made with the arrival of the 21st Century [in Brazil]. Among them, the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games represent a vote of confidence from the international community, showing it believes that Brazil is capable of delivering a global event. These events will be real tests in measuring to what extent the country is prepared to leave the status of an emerging and supporting nation to take on a more important role on the global stage.”
“Brazilians are making things happen. We are asserting our presence worldwide, as major businesspeople, scientists, and politicians; it has been a long time since the only Brazilians of international recognition were famous soccer players.”
“There is only one problem that can prevent this long awaited future, the future that we hope for, from materialising. In fact, it is much more than a problem, because generally there is no solution for it. Nobody has invented a definite... Read more
Why Tyco Got Off Easy
10.03.2012
We do not know for sure why Tyco received only a non-prosecution agreement (NPA) instead of a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA), or how it avoided a monitor. But the treatment is notable.
Even the FCPA Professor, often critical of the approach of FCPA enforcement, appears to have found the results commendable. He calls the action an FCPA practitioner’s “new best friend,” explaining that, “against this backdrop of an injunction being violated and widespread misconduct in approximately 25 countries, Tyco was offered a non-prosecution agreement by the DOJ and the government did not require an imposition of a corporate monitor.”
Tyco’s activity certainly seems egregious. Significant bribery kept occurring in its operations well after the 2006 settlement with the SEC for FCPA violations and other misconduct. The company’s German subsidiary paid or promised to pay third parties to secure contracts or avoid penalties or fines in eight countries related to projects that continued until 2009, for a benefit of almost $5 million. Its French subsidiary made impro... Read more
