Top Ten International Anti-Corruption Developments For March 2017

In order to provide an overview for busy in-house counsel and compliance professionals, we summarize below some of the most important international anti-corruption developments from the past month, with links to primary resources. This month we ask: Will the Department of Justice (DOJ) FCPA Pilot Program continue past its one year expiration date? How did the UK, Finland, and Argentina fare in the latest OECD Working Group on Bribery's assessment of their foreign bribery enforcement records? What major domestic corruption efforts are underway in Argentina, Brazil, China, South Korea, and Thailand? The answers to these questions and more are here in our March 2017 Top Ten list.

1. FCPA Pilot Program to Continue Past April 2017.

   During his March 10, 2017, keynote address to the American Bar Association's 31st Annual National Institute on White Collar Crime, Kenneth Blanco, Acting Assistant Attorney General of DOJ's Criminal Division, addressed the future of the FCPA Pilot Program. Announced in April 2016, the Pilot Program provides that companies which voluntarily disclose improper conduct to the Fraud Section's FCPA Unit, fully cooperate in accordance with the Principles of Federal Prosecution of Business Organizations and the Yates Memo, appropriately remediate, and otherwise pass muster under the "stringent requirements" of the Program may receive up to a 50% reduction off the bottom of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines fine range and generally will not be required to retain an independent compliance monitor. According to Blanco, the Program "provides our prosecutors, companies and the public clear metrics for what constitutes voluntary self-disclosure, full cooperation and full remediation. It also outlines the benefits that are accorded a voluntary self-disclosure of wrongdoing, full cooperation and remediation." Blanco said of the Program, which was set to expire on April 5, 2017, "we will begin the process of evaluating [its] utility and efficacy . . . , whether to extend it, and what revisions, if any, we should make to it." Blanco stated that the Program "will continue in full force until we reach a final decision on those issues." In addition to discussing the Pilot Program, Blanco touted the Criminal Division's cross-border investigative efforts, including the Division's cooperation with its foreign law enforcement counterparts. According to Blanco, "the Criminal Division's approach to large, complex transnational and white collar investigations is truly global in nature and the results that we have obtained demonstrate and reinforce the importance of working with and maintaining true partnerships with our counterparts aboard." With respect to FCPA enforcement, Blanco continued the new administration's theme of emphasizing the importance of multinational anti-bribery enforcement "to create an even playing field for global business."

2. TRACE Reports Significant Increase in Global Foreign Bribery Enforcement.

   On March 2, 2017, Trace International released its annual Global Enforcement Report (GER 2016). The GER 2016, a review of international anti-bribery enforcement trends in 2016, found that U.S. enforcement actions doubled (from 15 to 30), while non-U.S. enforcement actions more than doubled (from 4 to 10) since 2015. The GER 2016 noted that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and DOJ conducted 198 foreign bribery investigations, of which 38% involved companies headquartered outside the United States or individuals with non-U.S. citizenship. Of the investigations concerning alleged bribery of foreign officials being conducted against non-U.S. companies and individuals, the highest number involved companies or individuals in the United Kingdom, followed by Switzerland and Germany. Government officials in the Asia Pacific region were the alleged recipients of bribes in approximately 46% of investigations and 40% of enforcement actions concerning alleged bribery by U.S. companies...