The Department of Justice released a rare Foreign Corrupt Practices Act opinion letter in response to an inquiry from a company, highlighting an avenue of communication where companies can get answers to compliance concerns for planned future actions. The inquiry asked whether a prospective fee paid to a foreign subsidiary […]
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged a consumer loan company $21.7 million to resolve charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FPCA). The SEC says that a former Mexican subsidiary of World Acceptance Corporation (WAC), a South Carolina-based consumer loan company, paid more than $4 million from at […]
The Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission released the second edition of the Resource Guide to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act on July 3, its first update in eight years. The resource guide details the government’s expectations for an internal control system, highlighting that it should “take […]
Japan-based electronics company Panasonic will pay more than $143 million to settle charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and engaging in accounting fraud involving its global avionics business. It further charged the company of having insufficient internal controls, which has become […]
Dun & Bradstreet Corp. has agreed to pay more than $9 million to resolve Foreign Corrupt Practices Act charges arising from improper payments made by two Chinese subsidiaries, according to a statement from the Securities and Exchange Commission issued this week. The business data company also announced that it had […]
Last week, Canada-based gold mining company, Kinross Gold, settled a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act case with the Securities and Exchange Commission by agreeing to pay just shy of $1 million. While the SEC did not pursue the case on evidence of actual bribery, it did hit Kinross with charges of […]
On Wednesday, November 29, 2017, United States Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein announced a new Justice Department FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy. The policy is intended to improve upon and make permanent the FCPA Pilot Program, that was announced on April 5, 2016, to enable DOJ to efficiently identify and […]
The 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released this week by Transparency International shows that corruption levels remain at a standstill worldwide, with 86 percent of countries making little to no progress in the last 10 years. Nearly two-thirds of nations scored below 50 on the 100-point scale this year. The […]
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Big Four firm Ernst & Young, one of its partners, and two of its former partners with improper professional conduct for violating auditor independence rules in trying to become the auditor of Sealed Air, a publicly held company with close to $5 billion in […]
Last October, the Securities and Exchange Commission sent a clear message to companies with significant operations overseas: ensure that a robust anti-bribery program is in place and functioning properly or pay the price. The SEC sent that message via a $10 million fine against Sussex, Wisconsin-based printing and marketing company […]
