By Porter Wright on The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced Tuesday that Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon) had agreed to pay $14.8 million dollars to settle Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations. The agreement arose out of BNY Mellon providing internships to relatives of officials linked to a Middle Eastern Sovereign Wealth Fund. The settlement, in … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on High ranking officials in the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on March 12 that companies that fail to self-report overseas bribes will face tougher Foreign Criminal Practices Act (FCPA) fines. While speaking at the Georgetown Law Center Corporate Counsel Institute in Washington, Patrick Stokes, deputy chief of the DOJ’s FCPA … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The head of the Department of Justice (DOJ) Criminal Division warned Friday that Foreign Criminal Practices Act (FCPA) prosecutions will increasingly target individuals wrongdoers, rather than corporations. Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell, speaking at the American Conference Institute’s National Conference on the Foreign Criminal Practices Act, outlined a two-prong approach to attack foreign corruption: Bring … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to review the first Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) case appealed to the highest Court. The appeal sought to limit the scope of the FCPA by narrowing the law’s definition of the term “foreign official.” Joel Esquenazi and Carlos Rodriguez, former executives of Terra Telecommunications Corp., had challenged … Continue Reading
By Bob Tannous on On November 14, 2012, the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and the Department of Justice ("DOJ") released A Resource Guide to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The Resource Guide provides an analysis of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA") and reviews how the SEC and DOJ approach FCPA enforcement. The Resource Guide covers … Continue Reading
By Bob Tannous on On August 16, 2012, in a Complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) charged Oracle Corporation with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”). The Complaint alleges that, from 2005 to 2007, employees of an Indian subsidiary of Redwood Shores, a California-based enterprise systems … Continue Reading
By Bob Tannous on On Monday, June 18, 2012, DOJ announced that it had entered into a two-year Deferred Prosecution Agreement with Data Systems & Solutions LLC (“DS&S”), a company that provides design, installation, maintenance and other services at nuclear and fossil fuel power plants, to resolve violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The company, which is based … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On June 14, 2012, David Edmonds, the sole remaining U.S. defendant in the Carson FCPA case entered into a plea agreement. He will plead guilty to a one-count indictment alleging a violation of the FCPA. The case has been closely watched because of a number of the interesting arguments raised the defendants, but as those … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On May 29, 2012, Florida Federal Judge Jose E. Martinez granted a Government Motion to reduce the sentence of Robert Antoine, the former director of international relations for Telecommunications D’Haiti S.A.M. ("Haiti Teleco"), the Haitian state-owned telecommunications company, from 48 months to 18 months, based on his cooperation with the Government’s FCPA investigation into the … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Back on December 1, 2011, when Judge A. Howard Matz entered an order vacating the convictions and dismissing the Superseding Indictment against Lindsey Manufacturing Company, Keith Lindsey, Steve Lee in the criminal FCPA case, he noted that "Dr. Lindsey and Mr. Lee were put through a severe ordeal. … The financial costs of the investigation … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On Monday, May 21, 2012, Florida Federal Judge Jose E. Martinez sentenced Jean Rene Duperval, the former director of international relations for Telecommunications D’Haiti S.A.M. ("Haiti Teleco"), the Haitian state-owned telecommunications company, to nine years in prison for his role in a scheme to launder bribes paid to him by two Miami-based telecommunications companies. The … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on In connection with a May 14, 2012 hearing, Judge James Selna has prepared Tentative Minute Orders which deny two motions in the Carson FCPA cases. In a Motion to Suppress and a Motion to Dismiss, the defendants raised issues regarding DOJ’s relationship with Control Components, Inc. ("CCI"), the employer of defendants, who cooperated with the … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On Monday, April 30, 2012, two of the remaining defendants in the Carson FCPA case submitted Reply Briefs in support of motions that raise significant issues about the impact on the employees when a corporation conducts an internal investigation and ultimately cooperates with the Government. The briefs argued that: (1) certain statements should be suppressed … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On Wednesday, April 25, 2012, DOJ announced that Garth Peterson, a former managing director for Morgan Stanley’s real estate business in China, pled guilty in federal court in Brooklyn, New York for participating in a conspiracy to evade the internal accounting controls which the company was required to maintain under the FCPA. Because Morgan Stanley … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on In a Brief filed on April 2, 2012, the Government argued that the statements by defendants in an FCPA case that were given to their employer during an internal investigation should not be suppressed because the employer’s "actions were not the result of any pressure or influence from the government sufficient to convert the Company’s … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On Tuesday, March 27, 2012, the Government filed a motion in the FCPA Sting Case to dismiss the charges against Jonathan M. Spiller, Haim Geri, and Daniel Alvirez, the three defendants who had previously pled guilty to conspiracy charges in the case and were awaiting sentencing. This unusual event occurred after the Court had dismissed … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On Monday, March 12, 2012, a federal jury in Florida convicted Jean Rene Duperval on two counts of conspiracy to commit money laundering and 19 counts of money laundering related to an FCPA scheme involving Telecommunications D’Haiti S.A.M. ("Haiti Teleco"), the Haitian state-owned telecommunications company. Following a week-long trial, the jury took only three hours … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On Monday, March 5, 2012, several of the defendants in the Carson FCPA case in California filed a Motion to Dismiss and a Motion to Suppress, raising a new set of interesting issues in a case where the corporation has already settled with the Government and individual employees face charges. In both motions, the defendants … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on At an in Chambers hearing on February 16, 2012, Judge James Selna issued an Order in U.S. v. Carson, addressing the jury instructions regarding the terms "foreign official" and "instrumentality." In doing so, Judge Selna rejected a number of the proposed instructions submitted by the defendants, sticking closing to the list of non-exclusive factors he identified … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Another chapter ended in the series of FCPA criminal prosecutions arising out of the TSKJ Joint Venture this week, when Texas federal Judge Keith P. Ellison sentenced three men for their role in the portion of the case involving Kellogg Brown & Root. On Thursday, February 23, 2012, former KBR executive, Albert "Jack" Stanley was … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on In a Motion filed this morning, the Government moved to dismiss with prejudice the Superseding Indictment against the remaining defendants in the FCPA Sting Case. In doing so, the Government cited the two mistrials, as well as the acquittal of three defendants, and other rulings in the case.… Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On Thursday, February 9 2012, prosecutors filed a motion in federal court in Texas requesting that the remaining charges against John O’Shea be dismissed. On January 16, 2012, the Court dismissed the FCPA charges against Mr. O’Shea, leaving one count of conspiring to violate the FCPA, four counts of money laundering and one count of … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on A story from the Blog of the Legal Times states that prosecutors "are considering whether to abandon" the charges in the FCPA Sting Case in federal court in Washington, DC. Mike Scarcella’s blog entry (available here) states that prosecutor Joey Lipton reported to Judge Richard Leon at a February 7, 2012 status conference that "Assistant … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On Monday, February 6, 2012, the SEC and DOJ resolved their respective investigations with a medical device company and its subsidiary by entering into settlements stemming from alleged bribes paid to doctors in Greece for more than a decade. The U.S. subsidiary, Smith & Nephew Inc., agreed to pay a $16.8 million fine as part … Continue Reading