Global Anti-Bribery Year-in-Review: 2014 Developments and Predictions for 2015

The year 2014 saw significant anti-bribery developments, despite an overall decline in the number of FCPA actions commenced. The year brought the biggest single criminal penalty and second-highest total aggregate monetary penalty in the history of FCPA enforcement and, as we predicted in last year's review, included three "blockbuster" corporate resolutions—against Alstom, Alcoa, and Avon. This year also had the first circuit court ruling on what constitutes an "instrumentality" of a foreign government under the FCPA. A number of other developments are affecting the way that companies and individuals confront compliance with the FCPA and related internal and governmental investigations.

This annual review analyzes the noteworthy developments from 2014 related to FCPA and anti-bribery enforcement. Section I highlights enforcement trends and what they suggest about the priorities of the US Department of Justice ("DOJ") and Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). Section II focuses on notable features of the year's corporate resolutions. Section III analyzes important developments related to enforcement efforts against individuals. Section IV examines how enforcement agencies and courts are interpreting and applying the FCPA, while Section V focuses on how those agencies investigate alleged violations. Section VI assesses developments in collateral areas of the law related to FCPA enforcement. In our last section, we note developments in key foreign jurisdictions.

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