Bribe, Swindle Or Steal

Tess Davis, Executive Director of the Antiquities Coalition, describes how criminals use art and antiquities for corruption, to launder money and to fund terrorism. She also discusses the current legal state of play and how the public can be part of the solution.

Abigail Bellows with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace describes how a $5 million surcharge could be levied on FCPA enforcement actions and then deployed quickly to support incipient anti-corruption efforts worldwide. This would address, in part, concerns that the victims of corruption rarely benefit from the substantial sums involved in settlements.

Omar Zuniga of Mexico City’s Creel law firm discusses the tax provisions there that are making companies nervous and prompting a scramble to vet vendors against black lists.

Mike Ward, partner at Vinson & Elkins in San Francisco and former chief compliance officer with Juniper Networks, discusses the overstated role attributed to business partners as the sole conduit of corruption. Mike also addresses the widely misunderstood role that agents, distributors and channel partners play and why companies often need to work through these sales and marketing networks to go to market worldwide.

Barnard College professor Alex Cooley and Wiley partner Kevin Muhlendorf discuss telecommunications scandals and the risk of corruption in 5G telecom implementation. They are the authors of chapters on these two subjects in TRACE’s new book Corrosive: Corruption and its Consequences.

Kara Brockmeyer, a partner in Debevoise & Plimpton’s Washington office and former Chief of the SEC’s FCPA Unit, discusses some changes she’s observed in the implementation of compliance programs with much of the world in lockdown. She also describes the pace of investigations now that DOJ and SEC lawyers are working remotely and she wraps up with a few predictions about what we might see in this field post-pandemic.

Darshak Dholakia, a partner in Dechert’s Washington office, provides a timely overview of the current Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) approach to foreign investment in the US, comparable laws of other countries and how scrutiny of healthcare and biotechnology sectors may increase in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bill Steinman--of Steinman & Rodgers--takes us back to 2014 and the Eleventh Circuit’s very fact-specific analysis of what constitutes a “foreign official” under the FCPA.

Melissa Duffy, a partner at Dechert LLP focused on international trade matters, provides an excellent review of the current status of the movement of goods into and out of the United States by air, land and sea. Melissa also addresses relevant tariffs, including recent exemptions, and restrictions by other countries on the export of their own critical medical supplies and equipment. Melissa wraps up with some very practical strategies for companies on managing the movement of goods in these uncertain times.

Jeff Clark—a partner with Willkie, Farr & Gallagher—discusses the novel aspects of the 2016 Och-Ziff bribery case, including the claim for restitution under the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act.

Jessica Tillipman of George Washington Law School covers the highlights and key points from the Siemens bribery case of 2008. It was a startling case at the time and divided the international enforcement landscape into the world before and after Siemens.

Former Crown Prosecutor and current investigative journalist, Sandy Garossino, walks us back through the early days of Vancouver’s money-laundering scandal: how the problem was uncovered, the violence associated with infiltration by organized crime, what has been done to remedy the problem to date and what still remains to be done.

Randall Eliason, law professor and former Assistant US Attorney, provides an excellent account of the days leading up to the recent sentencing of political operative Roger Stone. The Department of Justice’s unprecedented interference in--and reversal of--its prosecutorial team’s recommendation led to the resignation from the case of all four prosecutors. Over 2000 former DOJ officials have called on Attorney General Barr to resign in the wake of his interference in the case.

Aisling O’Shea of Sullivan & Cromwell describes the Airbus settlement that resulted in penalties totaling almost $4 billion and involved resolutions with U.S., UK and French authorities.

Investigative reporter Scilla Alecci of the ICIJ describes the excellent work that team did, using more than 715,000 leaked documents, to untangle the vast and often opaque business empire of Isabel dos Santos, Africa’s richest woman and daughter of the former president of Angola.

Dr. Frank Badua, Associate Professor of Accounting and Business Law at Lamar University College of Business, describes the misconduct from the 1950s through the 1970s by a group of companies that led to widespread support for passage of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Jeff Clark, a partner with Willkie Farr & Gallagher and well-known to TRACE members, provides an excellent summary of US foreign anti-bribery activity in 2019.

Emmanuel Farhat of the AFA discusses Sapin II and his organization’s role in vetting the implementation of the corporate compliance programs that the law mandates.

C4ADS Senior Analysts Stella Cooper and Cecile Neumeister discuss their fantastic report on the little known problem of illegal logging in South Sudan and the environmental, social, financial and security implications. Read the report here.

With the compliance professionals showing increased interest in behavioral ethics and asking not just how employees and others engage in misconduct, but also why, we’re re-posting this podcast with Shaul Shalvi on his research into what motivates criminals.