Glenn Oztemel of Westport, Connecticut, and Eduardo Innecco, a dual Brazilian and Italian citizen, were charged in an indictment unsealed in the District of Connecticut on Feb. 17 in a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act scheme, DOJ announced. The duo allegedly violated the FCPA and committed money laundering as part of a scheme to pay bribes to Brazilian officials to obtain contracts from the Brazilian state-owned energy company Petroleo Brasileiro-Petrobras, DOJ said.
Martin Weinsten and Jeffrey Clark, former attorneys at Willkie Farr, have joined Cadawalader Wickersham as partners in the Global Litigation Group in Washington D.C., the firm announced. Weinstein will head the firm's global compliance, investigations and enforcement practice, where his work will center on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act proceedings and other investigative and enforcement matters including fraud, whistleblowing and money laundering. Clark's practice will also center on FCPA cases and "other types of international business and white collar litigation."
David Stier, former trial attorney at DOJ, has joined DLA Piper as a partner in the litigation practice in Washington, D.C., the firm announced. Stier worked at DOJ for over 12 years, filling various roles, though most recently working as an attorney in the money laundering and asset recovery section's Bank Integrity Unit. In this role, Stier led Bank Secrecy Act, sanctions, bribery, money laundering, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and fraud investigations, the firm said.
The State Department this week designated Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Berrocal, former president of Panama, for “significant corruption.” Martinelli pleaded guilty in 2021 for his role in a bribery scheme that violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (see 2112150016). The designation also applies to Martinelli's immediate family members.
DOJ this week released its revised criminal corporate enforcement policies for voluntary self-disclosures, outlining new criteria companies must meet to qualify for declinations even in cases where there are aggravating factors. The new updates, which are the “first significant changes” to the Criminal Division’s corporate enforcement policies (CEP) since 2017, offer companies “new, significant, and concrete incentives to self-disclose misconduct,” Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite said, speaking at Georgetown Law Center. He also said they give companies incentives to “go far above and beyond the bare minimum when they cooperate with our investigations.”
Multinational conglomerate Honeywell will pay $202.7 million to resolve anti-corruption Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigations with both U.S. and Brazilian authorities, the company said in a Dec. 19 press release. The conduct subject to the investigations involved Honeywell's operations in Brazil with the state-owned Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) and an intermediary, Unaoil.
Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite last week touted DOJ's action under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, championing DOJ's $315 million FCPA resolution with ABB over the company's bribery of an official in South Africa's state-owned energy company (see 2212050021). The case was the department's "first coordinated resolution with authorities in South Africa," and has resulted in South African authorities bringing corruption charges of their own against the official, Polite said in closing remarks, as prepared for delivery, Dec. 9 at an anti-corruption conference.
Jerrob Duffy, former head of the Litigation Unit in the Fraud Section of DOJ's Criminal Division, has joined Squire Patton as a partner in the Government Investigations & White Collar practice, the firm announced. Duffy worked for over two decades at DOJ, rising to the role of chief of the Fraud Section's Litigation Unit, where he oversaw matters involving the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, money laundering, securities and other violations, the firm said.
Swiss commodity trading and mining company Glencore agreed to pay the Democratic Republic of the Congo $180 million to settle "all present and future claims" of corruption running from 2007 to 2018, the company announced. The news comes after Glencore pleaded guilty in a New York district court to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in May (see 2205270044). In that case, Glencore International and Glencore agreed to pay over $1.1 billion to settle the investigations into bribery and commodity price manipulation.
The U.S. filed new charges under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act against Javier Aguilar, a former oil and commodities trader at Vitol, accusing the Mexico and Houston resident of conspiracy to violate the FCPA's anti-bribery provisions for schemes in Ecuador and Mexico. The case against Aguilar was originally brought to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in 2020 solely for the Ecuadorian bribery scheme (see 2009230016). The new indictment now lays out five counts against Aguilar, four for FCPA violations and one for money laundering (U.S. v. Javier Aguilar, E.D.N.Y. #20-00390).