In this issue:
- Enforcement Actions and Strategies
- Perennial Statutory Issues
- Unusual Developments
- Compliance Guidance
- Private Litigation
- Enforcement in the United Kingdom
- Conclusion
- Excerpt from Conclusion:
As a result of the OECD Convention (which encouraged international cooperation) and, perhaps even more significantly, the Sarbanes Oxley Act (which spurred voluntary disclosures and auditor attention to compliance controls), the number of FCPA enforcement actions surged over the past decade. At its peak, the number of U.S. enforcement actions in a single year was twenty, while the annual average over the past ten years has been about ten. These numbers obviously represent a substantial increase over the first decades of FCPA enforcement, where international cooperation was erratic and the incentives for corporation cooperation were less persuasive, and the last two years’ dip in numbers might be viewed as an ebbing of that tide. However, it is highly unlikely that, despite the drop in cases, there is a trend or pattern of less enforcement in the future, particularly given that a number of companies have disclosed investigations over the past year and the authorities have stated that they have a pipeline of cases they intend to resolve in the coming year. Indeed, it would take only a few more cases in 2014 to demonstrate precisely the opposite.
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