While compliance professionals struggle to balance developing, implementing and monitoring effective compliance programs with the reality of shrinking resources and budgets, the risks involved in non-compliance are higher than ever.
Client Alert | January 25, 2011
Gibson Dunn partner Benno Schwarz and associate Michael Diamant participate in Securities Docket's webcast, "Global Anti-Corruption Enforcement and Compliance -- 2010 Year in Review," which features Nina Gross, Director, Forensic & Dispute Services at Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP. Topics include:Recent DOJ and SEC FCPA enforcement activity and trends The latest global anti-corruption enforcement developments The implementation and reach of the U.K.
Client Alert | January 24, 2011
Printable PDFOn December 6, 2010, Richard Alderman, Director of the UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) visited Gibson Dunn's Washington, D.C. offices for an intimate discussion with our attorneys and a small group of clients.
Client Alert | January 11, 2011
Printable PDF"FCPA enforcement is stronger than it's ever been -- and getting stronger." So declared Assistant Attorney General Lanny A.
Client Alert | January 3, 2011
Transparency International (TI) recently released its annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) (available here), spurring a flurry of fanfare in the press about various countries' shifts up and down in the rankings. But it is unclear how much of this attention is warranted. As TI repeatedly acknowledges, the CPI only measures perceptions of corruption, not corruption itself. Further, changes in TI's perceived corruption scores can be misleading--even to the extent they mirror actual corruption--as adjustments in TI's methodology from year to year may move countries up or down the ranking despite no real change in how that country is viewed. Yet TI's CPI remains the benchmark indicator of corruption worldwide. Warranted or not, the rankings attain real signifi
Client Alert | November 16, 2010
On July 26, 2010, the Senior Staff of the UK's Serious Fraud Office ("SFO") hosted attorneys from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Kingsley Napley at the SFO's Offices in London for a discussion about the recently enacted UK Bribery Act ("Act"). The SFO Senior Staff (or "Staff") present were: Richard Alderman (Director); Robert Amaee (Head of Anti-Corruption, Proceeds of Crime and International Assistance); and Charles Monteith (Head of Assurance (Legal)). Present from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher were Joel M.
Client Alert | September 7, 2010
San Francisco partner Michael Li-Ming Wong and associate Brent Jones are the authors of “The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and Pharma in the Chinese Market: United States Law Enforcement Pursues Corruption Crackdown Across Entire Industry” [PDF] that was published by GBI in the September 2010 issue of the CPB Review.
Client Alert | September 1, 2010
Los Angeles partner Debra Wong Yang is the author of "FCPA Challenges from Across the Pacific" [PDF] published in the August 12, 2010 issue of the Daily Journal.
Client Alert | August 12, 2010
Gibson Dunn New York partner Lee Dunst, London partner Philip Rocher, London senior counsel Charles Falconer and New York associate Elizabeth Goergen are the authors of "The Long Arms of UK and US Law," which is an extract from Latin Lawyer Magazine, Volume 9, Issue 6.
Client Alert | July 12, 2010
On January 18, 2010, hundreds of law enforcement agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and City of London Police launched a coordinated, bi-continental strike, executing twenty-one search warrants and arresting twenty-two people in what Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer described as "the largest action ever undertaken by the Justice Department against individuals for FCPA violations." Thus began the year in Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement, a juggernaut that each annum surpasses the record heights set the year before. This client update provides an overview of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA") and a survey of FCPA enforcement activities during the first half of 2010. It also analyzes recent enforcement trends and offer
Client Alert | July 8, 2010
New York partner Joel M. Cohen and associate Adam P. Wolf are the authors of "Narrow, Don’t Abolish, FCPA Facilitating Payments Exception" [PDF] which appeared in the July 8, 2010 issue of New York Law Journal.
Client Alert | July 8, 2010
Washington, D.C. partner F. Joseph Warin and associates Michael Diamant and Jill M. Pfenning are the authors of "FCPA Compliance In China and the Gifts and Hospitality Challenge" [PDF] published in the Spring 2010 issue of Virginia Law & Business Review.The article is also posted online at http://www.virginialawbusrev.org/
Client Alert | May 19, 2010
The United Kingdom has just enacted into law a new Bribery Act, which cleared the final stages of the Parliamentary process at an accelerated pace today.
Client Alert | April 8, 2010
"One can say without exaggeration that this past year was probably the most dynamic single year in the more than thirty years since the FCPA was enacted." So began Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer in a recent recap of 2009 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA") enforcement. Indeed, for the fourth time in the last five years, the Department of Justice ("DOJ") and Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), the statute's dual enforcers, set a record by bringing more FCPA prosecutions than in any prior year in the FCPA's history. Foreign anti-corruption prosecutions also have reached unprecedented levels. Once an erratic enforcement priority, combating international corruption has now garnered attention at the highest leve
Client Alert | January 4, 2010
Washington, D.C. associate Michael S. Diamant is co-author of "Corruption Crackdown: The FCPA and Recent Enforcement Trends" a presentation made at the Global Economic Crime Survey & Anti-Corruption/FCPA Seminar on November 24, 2009.
Client Alert | November 24, 2009
Orange County partner Nicola T. Hanna and associate Scot J. Kennedy are the authors of "Corporate Officers Beware: SEC Fines U.S. "Control Persons" for FCPA Violations of Foreign Subsidiary" [PDF] published in the November 2009 issue of the Orange County Business Journal.
Client Alert | November 4, 2009
As the inauguration of Barack Obama in January 2009 ushered in a new U.S.
Client Alert | July 7, 2009
Washington, D.C. partner David P. Burns and associate Erin K. Sullivan are the authors of "Navigating the FCPA's Complex Scienter Requirements" [PDF] published in the April 1, 2009 issue of Bloomberg Finance L.P.
Client Alert | April 1, 2009
Our Program:This complimentary briefing addresses the latest challenges in-house counsel, directors and senior executives face in developing, implementing and monitoring effective compliance programs in the current environment of financial crisis coupled with a change of administration and the shift in programs and priorities that are sure to follow.
Client Alert | February 3, 2009
By any measure, 2008 was a monster year in Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA") enforcement. With thirty-three enforcement actions between the Department of Justice ("DOJ") and Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), the statute's dual enforcers, 2008 was the second busiest numerical year on the books, trailing only 2007. But beyond the numbers (after all, with the massive Siemens resolution, 2008 dwarfs all other years combined in fines and disgorgement), 2008 saw the FCPA's enforcement regime mature like never before. There were no unimportant FCPA enforcement actions this year. Whether the trend was increasingly aggressive enforcement against individuals, ramped up international coordination, the joining of FCPA prosecutions wi
Client Alert | January 5, 2009
Washington, D.C. partner F. Joseph Warin and associate Patrick F. Speice are the authors of "Go Directly to Jail: Sentencing of Individual Criminal Defendants in Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Cases" [PDF] published in the September issue of Bloomberg Law Reports.
Article | September 1, 2008
The frenetic pace of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA") enforcement set in 2007 has carried through the first half of 2008. Mid-year prosecutions are up – substantially so – from last year's record-setting totals. And corporate disclosures and media reports of ongoing investigations evidence that this trend of continually increasing enforcement is here to stay for the near future. This client update provides an overview of the FCPA and other foreign bribery enforcement activities during the first half of 2008, a discussion of the trends we see from that activity, and practical guidance to help companies avoid or limit liability under these laws. A collection of Gibson Dunn's publications on the FCPA, including prior enforcement updates and more in-
Client Alert | July 7, 2008
OVERVIEW Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) enforcement has proliferated dramatically in recent years. In addition to new criminal and civil enforcement activities brought by the Department of Justice and the SEC, private civil actions now often involve the FCPA.
Client Alert | May 21, 2008
2007 -- A "Landmark Year" in FCPA Enforcement "2007 is by any measure a landmark year in the fight against foreign bribery." When Mark F. Mendelsohn, Deputy Chief of the Fraud Section in the Department of Justice's Criminal Division ("DOJ") and the government's top criminal Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA") enforcer, opened the 2007 ACI FCPA Conference with this bold statement, not a single eyebrow rose across the ballroom filled with members of the ever-growing FCPA Bar.
Client Alert | January 4, 2008
Washington, D.C. Partner Joseph Warin and Associate Andrew Boutros are the authors of "FCPA Investigations: Working Through A Media Crisis" [PDF] published in the December 2007 issue of White Collar Crime.
Client Alert | December 1, 2007
Partners F. Joseph Warin and Robert C. Blume and Associate J. Taylor McConkie are the authors of "View from here: Countering corruption" published in the October 25, 2007 issue of Legal Week.
Client Alert | October 25, 2007
Partner Robert C. Blume and Associate J. Taylor McConkie are the authors of "Navigating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: The Increasing Cost of Overseas Bribery" [PDF] published in the August 2007 issue of The Colorado Lawyer.
Client Alert | August 1, 2007
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) is 30 years old this year, and the anniversary is being “celebrated” with an explosion of enforcement activity by both the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and the Department of Justice (“DOJ”).
Client Alert | July 26, 2007
Washington D.C. partner F. Joseph Warin and Denver partner Robert C. Blume are the authors of "The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: Recent Developments, Trends, and Guidance" published in the February 2007 issue of Insights.
Client Alert | February 10, 2007
This client update provides an overview of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA") enforcement activities in 2006, a discussion of the trends we see from that activity, and practical guidance to help companies avoid or limit FCPA liability.FCPA OverviewThe FCPA’s anti-bribery provisions make it illegal to make payments of money or anything of value to any foreign government official or foreign political party in order to obtain or retain business or secure any improper advantage. The anti-bribery provisions apply to "issuers," "domestic concerns," and "any person" that violates the FCPA while in the territory of the United States. The term "issuer" covers any business entity that is registered under 15 U.S.C.
Client Alert | February 7, 2007
Statoil ASA, an international oil company headquartered in Norway and majority-owned by the Government of Norway, has agreed to pay a total of $21 million to settle criminal and administrative charges for violating the anti-bribery and books-and-records provisions of the U.S.
Client Alert | October 16, 2006
Partner Judith Lee and Of Counsel James Slear are authors of "Special problems concerning the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in the People's Republic of China" [PDF] published in September 2006 in the IBA Legal Practice Division's Litigation Committee Newsletter.
Client Alert | September 13, 2006