On January 21, 2010, the United States Sentencing Commission (USSC) proposed amendments to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. These proposed changes included several which are used as the basis for the consideration of penalties for companies which violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The proposed amendments can be found at http://www.ussc.gov/2010guid/20100121_Reader_Friendly_Proposed_Amendments.pdf

These proposed changes could require serious re-evaluations by companies of their FCPA ethics and compliance policies. They should be monitored closely by companies as they represent significant amendments to the Sentencing Guidelines. It appears that the Department of Justice is moving to force companies to place compliance and ethics in a higher profile within their organizations and not simply to pay lip service, along the lines of “we have a code of ethics and act responsibly”.