If you are a Russian company that is subject to the U.S. החוץ Practices Act מושחתים (FCPA) or U.K. שוחד חוק (BA), now is an excellent time to switch from being merely FCPA or BA-curious to FCPA or BA-compliant.

There are a number of solid reasons for this. On the one hand there is the increased level of FCPA enforcement with an almost exponentially growing number of staff at the U.S. Department of Justice (משרד המשפטים) looking at Russia ever more closely. On the other hand, as if this were not enough, beginning this summer companies and individuals alike must now also contend with BA enforcement.

What does being compliant mean? It certainly does not mean you should attempt to structure business operations to avoid these two laws. The laws are statutes with long-arm jurisdictions and, בתור שכזה, cast their nets far and wide. משמעות הדבר היא כי, if you are an international company with a presence and/or a public listing in the United States and the United Kingdom, it is more likely than not that both the FCPA and the BA will apply to you. יתר על כן, I would not trust the statement in the Official Guidance to the Bribery Act that a listing by itself will not constitute carrying out business or part of business in the United Kingdom. במקום, I would urge following what the SFO has said, which is that a listing by itself may be just enough to trigger BA jurisdiction.

Being compliant means you should have a proper compliance program in place. It is as “simple” as that.

Your compliance program should cover both the FCPA and BA. Careful analysis and review of existing enforcement practice indicate that, despite textual differences, the two laws are about similar prohibitions. For instance, it is true that the BA does not contain an exception for facilitation or “grease” payments, whereas the FCPA does. פתק, עם זאת, that U.S. enforcement has rendered this FCPA exception practically obsolete. Commercial bribery is another example. The BA expressly prohibits commercial bribery, whereas the FCPA does not. בכל זאת, the DoJ has charged companies for commercial bribery in the past under the so-called books and records provisions of the FCPA, and with the help of jurisdictional mechanisms available under the U.S. Travel Act.

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