Bribe, Swindle Or Steal

This week, Kara Brockmeyer, partner in Debevoise & Plimpton’s Washington, D.C. office, discusses the impact of the U.S. Anti-Money Laundering Act on anti-corruption compliance and enforcement. This podcast was recorded at TRACE’s 2022 Forum, which brings together compliance professionals for meaningful discussions.

Brian Klaas, Associate Professor at University College London and host of the award-winning podcast “Power Corrupts,” joins us to discuss his book “Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us”.  Brian describes research on who is drawn to positions of power and how power impacts us, including potentially re-wiring our brains.

Drago Kos, Chair of the OECD’s Working Group on Bribery, and Dan Kahn, former head of the DOJ’s FCPA Unit and now a partner in Davis Polk’s DC office, wrap up our series on the OECD revised Recommendation with a focus on the very practical implications for companies.

Bill Steinman of Steinman & Rodgers joins the podcast to discuss the recent Opinion Procedure Release addressing extortionate demands.  Bill also reviews the substantial grey area of emergencies involving the detention of personnel and confiscation of property that are arguably legal under local law.

Michelle de Kluyver, partner in Addleshaw Goddard’s Global Investigations group, joins the podcast to discuss the UK’s history with the OECD convention and what impact the revised Recommendation might have.

Cheryl Scarboro presents TRACE’s annual FCPA Year in Review webinar and we listen in for today’s podcast. Cheryl was Associate Director in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement for almost twenty years and served as its first ever Chief of the FCPA Unit.  She is now a partner in Simpson Thacher & Bartlett’s Washington DC office.

Jan Dunin-Wasowicz, counsel in Hughes Hubbard & Reed’s Paris office, joins the podcast to discuss France’s performance to date as a party to the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention and what impact the revised Recommendation might have there.

Investigative journalist Erlend Ofte Arntsen of Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang joins the podcast to discuss his work on the Tinder Swindler story, recently adapted into a Netflix documentary. Erlend and his colleagues broke the story of Shimon Hayut, an Israeli con man who found women on the dating app, impressed them with private jets and bodyguards, concocted stories about being in great personal danger and then drained their bank accounts and left them with extraordinary credit card debt. 

Peter Solmssen joins the podcast to talk about his work, together with a group of experts, in support of the OECD Working Group on Bribery’s revised Recommendation relating to settlements. He discusses how “individual heroism” by prosecutors should not be required to reach settlements and he shares his thoughts on the benefits the revised Recommendation will bring not only to companies, but also to prosecutors and to the larger goal of reducing corruption.

Mark Morrison, National Practice Group Leader of Blakes’ Business Crimes, Investigations & Compliance group, joins the podcast to discuss Canada’s performance to date as a party to the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention and what the revised Recommendation might mean for Canada.

Ryan Murphy, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Cyber, Risk & Regulatory Platform and lead on PwC's U.S. Investigations & Forensics Services Practice, joins the podcast to discuss audits:  what the term means, what assurance they should and should not provide and how they can be used for nefarious purposes.

Wendy Wysong of Steptoe & Johnson, TRACE’s Partner Law Firm in Hong Kong, joins the podcast to discuss recent new guidance from China’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI). Applying only to bribes paid within China’s borders, the guidance highlights some challenges for companies operating in China, particularly with respect to multi-country settlements.

Leah Ambler, Director, Corruption Prevention at the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity and former Legal Analyst at the OECD, joins the podcast—in her personal capacity—to discuss her excellent chapter on Whistleblower Protections. Leah discusses the importance of whistleblower protections to reducing corruption and the challenges inherent in these protections in the absence of comprehensive, harmonized legislation.

Yana Gorokhovskaia of Freedom House joins the podcast to talk about transnational repression, the increasingly common abuse and intimidation by states of their citizens living abroad. Yana discusses Jamal Khashoggi, murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and Roman Protasevich, whose plane was forced to land in Belarus where he is still being held, but also refers to the hundreds of other cases that don’t make the news. Freedom House has released an excellent report on this problem that can be found at: https://freedomhouse.org/report/transnational-repression

As is holiday tradition, we're revisiting our podcast with Peter Hellman, who describes Rudy Kurniawan’s audacious scheme to defraud wine collectors in his excellent book, In Vino Duplicitas: The Rise and Fall of a Wine Forger Extraordinaire.

Penelope Kyritsis, Assistant Director of Research at the Worker Rights Consortium, discusses the detention of China’s Uyghur Moslem minority, in internment camps. Uyghurs have been compelled to work in these camps, primarily in Xinjiang. But they are now also separated from their families and relocated to factories across China, making it difficult for companies to undertake meaningful due diligence on forced labor in their Chinese supply chains.

Nicola Bonucci, former Legal Director at the OECD and now a partner at Paul Hastings in Paris, joins the podcast to discuss the 2021 OECD Anti-Bribery Recommendation announced in November. We also chat about the challenge of advancing an international consensus on anti-corruption enforcement amongst Working Group on Bribery (WGB) members hailing from different legal systems.

As part of the many events marking International Anti-Corruption Day this week, The Vancouver Anti-Corruption Institute (VACI) will launch 9 December in Vancouver. Peter German, president of VACI—and of its host organization, the International Centre for Criminal Law Reform & Criminal Justice Policy—joins the podcast to discuss the need for this initiative, its focus and some of its goals.

Prof. Mark Pieth joins the podcast to discuss his recent book: Gold Laundering: The dirty secrets of the gold trade - and how to clean up. He outlines the many problems associated with gold, including child and trafficked labor, environmental degradation, violence and corruption. He also addresses some modest steps forward and how, in spite of the considerable challenges, more progress can be made.

Duncan Smith of the European Investment Bank joins the podcast to discuss his book: Promoting Integrity in the Work of International Organisations: Minimising Fraud and Corruption in Projects. He discusses the unique role of multinational development banks, the progress that remains and the cost of getting it wrong.