Since 2007, regulators and commentators alike have touted each passing year as a record-breaking year for FCPA enforcement. 2010 was no exception. Last year saw an explosion in the number of cases brought by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The last 12 months also brought the imposition of record-breaking corporate fines and prison terms for individual defendants.

In November of last year, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, Criminal Division, DOJ, announced that “[W]e are in a new era of FCPA enforcement.”1 A look back at 2010 confirms Mr. Breuer’s statement—in the history of FCPA enforcement, there has never been a year quite like 2010.