This year, many US companies have been on a bumpy rollercoaster ride with the DoJ and SEC when it comes to the four dreaded words: ‘Foreign Corrupt Practices Act’ (FCPA).

With increasing international trade and attractive cross-border deals, the FCPA has leapt from a seldom enforced, broadly written statute to one of the highest law enforcement priorities today.

‘Companies should know what the FCPA prohibits, what it requires and what are their responsibilities under the law,’ warns Richard Cassin, a lawyer and creator of the FCPA Blog, a site that provides practical information about the FCPA and compliance. ‘The basic prohibitions in the antibribery provisions are that no one subject to the FCPA should corruptly give or promise to give anything of value to a foreign official, directly or indirectly, to obtain or retain business or gain an unfair advantage.’

Unfortunately, not every company understands the scope or the scale of the FCPA. Last week, California-based Lindsey Manufacturing, makers of electrical transmission towers, got a taste of the act when the company’s president, its CFO, and a Mexican sales agent were convicted by a federal jury in Los Angeles for bribing Mexican officials at a state-owned operation, Comisión Federal de Electricidad, through its sales agents during the period 2002-2009.

How did it end? It wasn’t pretty.

After a five-week trial the jury handed down guilty verdicts and the company’s high-powered execs now face a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of at least $250,000 on the FCPA conspiracy charge, together with a further $100,000 for each of five additional FCPA counts.

via FCPA Got You Shaking In Your boots?.