The FCPA year in 2010 has been quite interesting. As the year is ending I wanted to put forth some of the more significant enforcement actions for the FCPA practitioner to provide lessons learned and perhaps some educational opportunities for all our clients. One of the more frequent criticisms of the Department of Justice regarding the FCPA is that there is very little case law guidance or interpretation. The FCPA Blog has opined that this has led to his Big Lesson which is:

“I know there’s practically no FCPA-related case law, no precedent to follow, no stare decisis to light the way. So the FCPA is pretty much what the enforcement agencies say it is. And that’s what’s so very different and difficult about it.”

However in reviewing the past year, there is a fair amount of information which can be gleaned from FCPA enforcement actions. Additionally, it appears that the DOJ is tacitly responding to this criticism in some of the recent detailed compliance programs set forth in the Deferred Prosecution Agreement and Non-Prosecution Agreements that have been released in the second half of the year. With all of this in mind we submit for your consideration out Top Ten FCPA Enforcement Actions for 2010, Part I.