assistant attorney general

2010: Another Record-Breaking Year for FCPA Enforcement, Confirming “New Era” | Morrison & Foerster LLP – JDSupra

January 13, 2011 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

Since 2007, regulators and commentators alike have touted each passing year as a record-breaking year for FCPA enforcement. 2010 was no exception. Last year saw an explosion in the number of cases brought by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The last 12 months also brought the imposition of record-breaking corporate fines and prison terms for individual defendants.

In November of last year, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, Criminal Division, DOJ, announced that “[W]e are in a new era of FCPA enforcement.”1 A look back at 2010 confirms Mr. Breuer’s statement—in the history of FCPA enforcement, there has never been a year quite like 2010.

via 2010: Another Record-Breaking Year for FCPA Enforcement, Confirming “New Era” | Morrison & Foerster LLP – JDSupra.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: assistant attorney general, enforcement, exception, JDSupra, lanny breuer, LLP, New, securities and exchange commission

TransPerfect Legal Solutions Hosts Panel Discussion on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) | Business Wire

December 21, 2010 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

TransPerfect Legal Solutions (TLS), the world’s leading provider of global legal support service, hosted a panel discussion in New York to address current trends and best practices associated with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The panel featured industry experts and was attended by approximately 100 representatives from leading Fortune 500 companies and firms nationwide.

“The DOJ’s FCPA Crackdown on the Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Industry.”

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 is a United States federal law that makes it unlawful for US corporations to make payments to foreign government officials for the purpose of obtaining or keeping business.¹ The FCPA also requires companies whose securities are listed in the United States to devise and maintain an adequate system of internal accounting controls that accurately and fairly reflect the transactions of the corporation.²

The current number of active FCPA investigations in the Department of Justice (DOJ) pipeline stands at more than 120—a single-year record since its enactment. The overall dollar volume in fines in 2010 alone has exceeded all previous years combined. Furthermore, Lanny Breuer, the U.S. Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, has made a point to root out widespread bribery in the pharmaceutical sector, and as a result, cases are picking up steam globally.³

According to TLS Senior Vice President of Global Sales, Brooke Christian, “With FCPA investigations taking such a drastic upswing in 2010, many companies are taking a fresh look at their compliance programs and wondering what more they can do to protect themselves. Our goal for this panel was to arm attendees with best-practice strategies that they could immediately implement across their organizations.”

The discussion featured the following panel of experts:

Barry Sabin – Partner, Latham & Watkins LLP

David Stanton – Partner, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

Elizabeth Zechenter – Senior Counsel, GlaxoSmithKline

Joseph Lee – Partner, Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP

Noreen M. Fierro – Vice President, AML/FCPA Compliance Officer, Prudential Financial Inc.

Sharie Brown – Partner, DLA Piper

via TransPerfect Legal Solutions Hosts Panel Discussion on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) | Business Wire.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: Act, assistant attorney general, Business, discussion, foreign government officials, fortune 500 companies, Legal, LLP, medical devices industry

Is DOJ Doing Too Much, or Not Enough, to Combat Foreign Bribery? – Law Blog – WSJ

December 1, 2010 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

The FCPA was all the rage in the Beltway today as the Senate took a hard look at DOJ’s enforcement practices.

One question from Arlen Specter, the FCPA blog points out, is why no one is going to jail for the biggest cases of overseas bribery, such as the massive Siemens scandal. No one has been indicted in the U.S. in the Siemens case, despite the fact that DOJ uses it as its poster child for its ramp up in cracking down on foreign corruption. (Click here for prior LB coverage of the case.)

“Criminal fines are added to the costs of doing business,” Specter said. “Going to jail is what works to deter crime.”

On the flip side, defense lawyers told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that U.S. companies are spending too much money worrying they might unintentionally flout the FCPA, according to this report in the LegalTimes’s BLT blog.

Mayer Brown partner Michael Volkov and Jenner & Block partner Andrew Weissmann said companies get too little credit for trying to comply with the law. They asked that the law be amended.

LegalTimes said Weissmann proposed that Congress create a defense under the FCPA for companies whose employees violate established anticorruption policies and have compliance programs in place.

For his part Greg Andres, an acting deputy assistant attorney general, said self-disclosure and cooperation don’t merit immunity.

“We don’t believe that immunity is appropriate, just as we believe immunity is not appropriate for a bank robber who discloses that he robbed a bank,” Andres said.

via Is DOJ Doing Too Much, or Not Enough, to Combat Foreign Bribery? – Law Blog – WSJ.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: andrew weissmann, assistant attorney general, bribery law, Defense, DOJ, Jail, senate judiciary committee, Siemens

Fraud Files: U.S. FCPA Rules Against Foreign Bribery Hit Companies in the Wallet – DailyFinance

November 28, 2010 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

One major worry for American companies doing business overseas is the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), a 1977 federal law that prohibits the bribing of foreign officials. Those familiar with this regulation know it has many pitfalls, and even the most careful companies can run afoul of the law due to the actions of their employees.

FCPA enforcement isn’t new, but in recent years, such corporate misbehavior is receiving more attention and increased enforcement, which is making executives nervous. Violations can mean both civil and criminal penalties for companies and their executives, and the monetary costs can be huge. Beyond the price of defending itself against a government investigation, a company with FCPA violations will pay penalties and incur ongoing costs for remediation and monitoring of activities.

It’s not a stretch to suggest that the federal government may have increased its vigilance on the corporate bribery front lately due to the possibility of bringing in billions of dollars through FCPA enforcement. Or perhaps the Obama administration is just more interested in ensuring good, clean business operations by U.S. companies. Either way, Lanny Breuer, assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division of the Justice Department, has declared publicly that FCPA enforcement is a priority.

via Fraud Files: U.S. FCPA Rules Against Foreign Bribery Hit Companies in the Wallet – DailyFinance.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: Act, assistant attorney general, corporate bribery, enforcement, fcpa violations, fraud, law

Congress To Look At FCPA Enforcement – Corruption Currents – WSJ

November 18, 2010 By Global EDD Group 1 Comment

The witness list is out, and by the looks of it, there’s going to be lots of FCPA-bashing.

The Justice Department will be represented in the first panel by Deputy Assistant Attorney General Greg Andres.

A second panel will include Butler University business law professor Mike Koehler, who writes the FCPA Professor blog and recently published a scathing critique of U.S. FCPA enforcement; Jenner & Block LLP partner Andrew Weissmann, who co-authored the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s recent proposal for reforms to the FCPA; and Mayer Brown LLP partner Michael Volkov, who was written extensively on the FCPA and has represented scores of clients in foreign bribery cases.

***

With increased enforcement comes increased scrutiny. The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing entitled “Examining Enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act” for Nov. 30.

Enforcement of the antibribery law is at an all-time high, with criminal penalties in the past 12 months exceeding $1 billion. Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission, which shares enforcement of the FCPA with the Justice Department, hauled in $404 million in disgorgement and civil penalties in the first 9 months of 2010.

via Congress To Look At FCPA Enforcement – Corruption Currents – WSJ.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: andrew weissmann, assistant attorney general, Congress, corrupt practices act, enforcement, law, LLP, Mike Koehler, panel, senate judiciary committee

FCPA: Strong and Getting Stronger, Breuer Says – Law Blog – WSJ

November 17, 2010 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

The FCPA is here to stay. That was the message today from Lanny Breuer, Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the Justice Department. (Breuer also has the rare distinction of seeing his name in back to back LB headlines!)

In his speech to the luminaries of the FCPA bar at the 24th National Conference on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Breuer laid out the fact that in the past year, Justice has imposed the most criminal penalties in FCPA-related cases in any single 12-month period, ever. That’s more than $1 billion worth of penalties.

Last year and this year combined, DOJ has charged over 50 individuals and collected nearly $2 billion. Currently roughly 35 defendants are awaiting trial on FCPA charges in the U.S.

“I’m proud to say that our FCPA enforcement is stronger than it’s ever been – and getting stronger,” he said, according to his prepared remarks.

But Breuer also spent considerable time defending DOJ’s hard-charging enforcement campaign, which has endured a fair amount of FCPA-bashing in recent months.

To those who say the FCPA is bad for business…”To me, this is a little like saying that our public corruption prosecutions are ‘bad for government.’ It’s exactly upside down,” Breuer said.

Bribery in international transactions weakens economic development, undermines confidence in the marketplace and distorts competition, he said.

And for those who say the FCPA puts U.S. companies at a competitive disadvantage, Breuer noted that more than half of DOJ’s corporate FCPA resolutions have involved foreign companies or U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies.

via FCPA: Strong and Getting Stronger, Breuer Says – Law Blog – WSJ.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: assistant attorney general, corrupt practices act, lanny breuer, public corruption

DOJ Strengthening Its Fraud Section, Wiretap Unit – Corruption Currents – WSJ

November 9, 2010 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

The use of wiretaps in the Galleon insider-trading case and the FBI’s undercover work in the “Shot Show Takedown” this year threw into sharp relief the Justice Department’s willingness to apply the same gritty investigatory techniques it uses to fight mobsters to combat white-collar crime.

The government’s investigation of Raj Rajaratnam, the co-founder of the hedge fund Galleon Group, marked the first time the department used a wiretap in an insider-trading case. (Rajaratnam is fighting to keep the wiretap evidence out of court, saying the department obtained the warrants through misdirection.)

The FBI’s arrest in January of 22 men in the military and police equipment on suspicion of violating foreign bribery law represented the first sting operation, with undercover agents and a government informant, in a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigation. (Some of the defendants have indicated they will argue entrapment.)

Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, head of Criminal Division, promised Thursday that these techniques would be commonplace in white-collar cases going forward.

The department, he said, has “substantially increased” the number of lawyers who work in the division’s Office of Enforcement Operations, the unit that reviews and approves applications for federal wiretaps around the country.

“As a result, the number of wiretaps we authorize – in all types of cases – has gone up,” Breuer said Thursday during a speech at the Practising Law Institute in New York City, according to his prepared remarks.

via DOJ Strengthening Its Fraud Section, Wiretap Unit – Corruption Currents – WSJ.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: assistant attorney general, bribery law, corrupt practices act, corruption, DOJ, fraud, lanny breuer, unit

Does Voluntary Disclosure of WhiteCollar Crimes Really Help? -Wisconsin Law Journal

August 20, 2010 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

The Federal government wields a big stick when it comes to business-related crimes. Violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), fraud in the delivery of health care services or in the receipt of federal money for those services, and other whitecollar crimes can open up companies and their executives to harsh penalties under the United States Sentencing Guidelines.

Companies and executives can get reduced sentences if certain mitigating factors have been identified. One of those mitigating factors is having an effective compliance and ethics function within the company that attempts to prevent fraud and proactively identify criminal activities.

An additional way that companies have sought to mitigate their sentences is through confessing their violations of law to federal prosecutors.

Indeed, just a few months ago Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer and Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler spoke at a compliance conference about the Department’s ability to give “meaningful credit” when companies self-report and cooperate with the authorities in FCPA investigations. Self-reporting saves the government time, effort and money, as the bulk of the investigative work is often completed by the company itself and on the company’s dime. The government receives a full report of the violation or violations, and is able to proceed with prosecuting the bad actors with far less effort than if the government had to seek out and investigate the crimes themselves.

The government touts this “meaningful credit” in handing down sentences, but the reality about whether or not self-reporting helps mitigate sentences might show something different.

via Wisconsin Law Journal – Article.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: assistant attorney general, compliance, deputy attorney general, effort, fraud, lanny breuer, law journal article

Acquisition May Create Headaches for Merck in Foreign Corruption Probe | BNET

August 13, 2010 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

Merck (MRK) disclosed in its quarterly 10-Q filing that it is the subject of an investigation by the Department of Justice and the SEC for possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (which prohibits paying bribes to do business in foreign countries). The investigation comes with a bit of unspoken history — and some potential risk created by Merck’s recent acquisition of Schering-Plough.

Merck says “this inquiry is part of a broader review of pharmaceutical industry practice.” That’s true: at least 10 other companies are suspected of doing the same thing, and an 11th — SciClone (SCLN.O) popped up Tuesday.

However, the fuller context is that the letters are more serious than a “review.” A DOJ assistant attorney general warned an assemblage of pharma industry lawyers last year that DOJ “will be intensely focused on rooting out foreign bribery in your industry.” A similar criminal investigation has already led to the imprisonment of one executive at Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) in the U.K., and J&J admitted in its most recent 10-Q that it had violated anti-corruption laws and that investigations are under way in several nations, including the United States.

via Acquisition May Create Headaches for Merck in Foreign Corruption Probe | BNET.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: assistant attorney general, corrupt practices act, corruption, DOJ, filing, headaches, probe, schering plough

Outsourcing to India Draws Western Lawyers – NYTimes.com

August 4, 2010 By Global EDD Group 1 Comment

As an assistant attorney general for New York State, Christopher Wheeler used to spend most of his time arguing in courtrooms in New York City.

Today, he works in a sprawling, unfinished planned suburb of New Delhi, where office buildings are sprouting from empty lots and dirt roads are fringed with fresh juice stalls and construction rubble. At Pangea3, a legal outsourcing firm, Mr. Wheeler manages a team of 110 Indian lawyers who do the grunt work traditionally assigned to young lawyers in the United States — at a fraction of the cost.

India’s legal outsourcing industry has grown in recent years from an experimental endeavor to a small but mainstream part of the global business of law. Cash-conscious Wall Street banks, mining giants, insurance firms and industrial conglomerates are hiring lawyers in India for document review, due diligence, contract management and more.

Now, to win new clients and take on more sophisticated work, legal outsourcing firms in India are actively recruiting experienced lawyers from the West. And American and British lawyers — who might once have turned up their noses at the idea of moving to India, or harbored an outright hostility to outsourcing legal work in principle — are re-evaluating the sector.

via Outsourcing to India Draws Western Lawyers – NYTimes.com.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: assistant attorney general, com, Draws, lawyers in india, office, Outsourcing, wall street banks, work