In the world of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, defense lawyers labor over every detail of settlement agreements, looking for subtle markers laid down by the Justice Department and the SEC.
It’s not like they have any case law to lean on. Bribery cases against companies settle. That’s a fact. If you want to know where the line between legitimate business expense and bribe falls, good luck finding it. What’s a facilitation payment? Who knows. When is a company “controlled” by a foreign government? Depends. Who qualifies as a foreign official? Factual question.
Companies don’t know how to comply with the law — which bars bribery of foreign officials, in the simplest terms — because the government won’t tell them.
OK, that’s an argument the defense bar has been making for years. And, honestly, Law Blog thinks it’s a bit much, but there is no doubt that more guidance is better. Which brings us, finally, to today’s news.
The Justice Department is planning to release “detailed new guidance on the Act’s criminal and civil enforcement provisions” in 2012, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer said Tuesday at the National Conference on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. in Washington, D.C., according to these prepared remarks.
Breuer (pictured) said he hoped the guidance would amount to “a useful and transparent aid.” He gave no further details, but the announcement by itself is likely to cause a stir.
“This is a big step,” Homer Moyer, a partner at the law firm Miller Chevalier who is chairing the conference, told WSJ’s Corruption Currents.
