Episode 66 -- Gifts and Hospitality Compliance and Best Practices
Day 11 of One Month to More Effective Internal Controls-Internal Controls for Gifts, Travel and Entertainment
FCPA Compliance and Ethics Report-Episode 165-BHP FCPA Enforcement and Lessons Learned for the Compliance Practitioner
Companies should identify and, where appropriate, manage risk associated with gifts and entertainment by incorporating a clear policy into their overall corporate compliance strategy. On September 11, 2020, the French...more
Herbalife’s FCPA settlement is another one for books – the wreckage left includes two criminal indictments for Chinese officials who may never be apprehended, along with $123 million in penalties....more
Innovation in compliance can come in many forms. One such form was described by Vincent M. Walden, Managing Director at Alvarez and Marsal Holdings, LLC (A&M), in his article entitled “Profit & Loss-of-One”(P&L-of-One). In...more
On December 6, 2019, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) agreed to resolve allegations that multinational telecommunications company Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (Ericsson or...more
Ericsson’s FCPA settlement is in the books (not the books and records). But it casts a significant shadow across the FCPA landscape. A pervasive and systemic culture of bribery is defined to reflect senior executive...more
Last week, DOJ announced the indictment of two former Herbalife executives in China for participating in a bribery scheme over a ten-year period. Herbalife, a multi-level marketing company, was not charged and its...more
China continues to be a high-risk location for US companies to do business. While the current administration has laid numerous tariffs on Chinese goods, the fact that it holds 6 billion potential consumers will continue to...more
Juniper Networks agreed to pay the SEC $11.7 million to settle FCPA violations for conduct occurring in Russia and China. Under the settlement, Juniper Networks agreed to disgorgement of $4 million, a $6.5 million civil...more
The Microsoft FCPA settlement, while not significant in the total penalty of approximately $25 million, provides some important instructions concerning distributor and re-seller risks and mitigation strategies. ...more
This is the third in a series of articles in which members of BCLP’s White Collar team review the recent report of the House of Lords Select Committee’s, entitled “The Bribery Act 2010: post-legislative scrutiny”. Here we...more
When you read through the United Technologies SEC FCPA enforcement action, you cannot help but shake your head – the level of abuse and participation by senior managers in the UT companies – Pratt & Whitney and Otis Elevator...more
I have finished up my week in Brazil and I wanted to end this week’s Brazil focused blog posts with some final thoughts and observations on the country’s burgeoning compliance scene....more
The first thing to remember about bribery schemes is that the money to fund the bribes must come from somewhere. Deep Throat was right when he told Woodward and Bernstein to ‘follow the money’ during their Watergate...more
The laundry list of companies that have been prosecuted for FCPA violations surrounding gifts, meals, entertainment and travel expenditures is lengthy....more
It certainly did not take long for companies to see the benefit of the Department of Justice (DOJ) Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) Pilot Program around FCPA enforcement as this week there where two public declinations...more
PTC, a Massachusetts software company, reached settlements with the SEC and DOJ last week for FCPA violations for a total of $28 million. Interestingly, the SEC announced a DPA with a PTC official who assisted in the...more
I have been exploring the PTC Inc. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) settlement this week. It included a Non-Prosecution Agreement (NPA) from the Department of Justice (DOJ) with two Chinese subsidiaries and a Cease and...more
The Commission filed two settled FCPA cases this week. On was resolved with the payment of almost $800 million to the SEC, DOJ and Dutch regulators where about $114 million in bribes were paid. The other centered on the...more
Yesterday I began a (now) three-part series on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) enforcement actions involving PTC Inc. (PTC), Parametric Technology (Shanghai) Software Co. Ltd. and Parametric Technology (Hong Kong)...more
Sometimes you have to wonder just how long it will take before US companies realize (1) there is a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and (2) it applies in China as yesterday both the Department of Justice (DOJ) and...more
In planning that trip to promote your products and to qualify under the FCPA affirmative defense of reasonable and bona fide expenditures, whatever you do, DO NOT take any foreign officials to Disneyland. On February 4, 2016,...more
On this week in 1975, Bob Dylan’s 15th studio album, Blood on the Tracks, reached the Number 1 album slot on the Billboard charts. This was in spite of no song rising above the 31st slot on the single charts. It came out in...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission continues its steady march as the prominent FCPA enforcement agency against corporations. The Justice Department has not brought any enforcement actions this year and continues to...more
Corruption risks follow the money. If a company has effective controls over money, then the company has a good chance of mitigating corruption risks. A key indicator of a company’s internal controls is to ask if the...more
I have to confess – I love the show Shark Tank. Mr. Wonderful, Kevin O’Leary, is my favorite Shark. Mr. Wonderful often reminds the contestants and other Sharks that the central issue in considering business proposals is –...more