The U.S. brought enforcement actions under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act against 13 companies in 2023, resulting in $776 million in penalties, a drop from the $1.5 billion in penalties announced in 2022 but up from $282 million in penalties from 2021, a Jan. 2 FCPA Blog post said. While the 2023 penalty total value was lower than in 2022, there were more companies penalized than in either 2022 or 2021, which saw eight and four companies, respectively, penalized. The blog said the average resolution amount announced by DOJ and the SEC was $59.6 million, with total financial settlements the lowest since 2021 and the second lowest since 2015.
White collar attorneys Maria Lapetina and Ian Herbert were elected members of the firm, effective Jan. 1, the firm announced. Lapetina centers her practice on internal and government investigations, including Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and anti-money laundering cases. Herbert is a member of the Trust and Family Office and Anti-Money Laundering practice groups, whose practice also centers on government investigations.
DOJ will not seek a second trial against embattled former FTX chief Sam Bankman-Fried related to charges he conspired to bribe foreign officials in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. In a Dec. 29 letter to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said proceeding with the sentencing, and avoiding a delay that a second trial would cause, "would advance the public's interest in a timely and just resolution of the case" (U.S. v. Samuel Bankman-Fried, S.D.N.Y. # 22-00673).
A Georgia businessman, a former Honduran government official and a former Florida resident were charged with allegedly participating in a scheme to pay and hide bribes to Honduran government officials to "secure contracts to provide uniforms and other goods" to the Honduran National Police, DOJ said.
The U.S. declined to prosecute Minnesota-based Lifecore Biomedical’s alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act after the medical device company voluntarily disclosed the violations and cooperated with the government’s investigation, DOJ said in a Nov. 16 declination letter.
Two British reinsurance brokers, Tysers Insurance Brokers Limited and H.W. Wood Limited, settled DOJ investigations on the companies' violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, DOJ announced. The charges arose out of the parts played by Tysers and H.W. Wood in a scheme to bribe Ecuadorian government officials "to obtain and retain reinsurance business with" Ecuadorian state-owned firms.
Ben Glassman, former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, has been appointed deputy practice group leader for Squire Patton's Government Investigations and White Collar Practice group. As U.S. attorney from 2016 to 2019, Glassman prosecuted cases involving national security, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, antitrust and the False Claims Act, among other things, the firm said. Among other Squire Patton announcements was the appointment of Kendra Sherman as the firm's first U.S. national hiring chair.
Joshua Drew, former assistant U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, has joined Miller & Chevalier as a member. Drew's practice will center on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act proceedings, corporate compliance and internal and external investigations, the firm said. He served as assistant U.S. attorney 2003-2009, and before that as a DOJ trial attorney in the agency's fraud section. More recently, Drew helped lead international communications company Veon through an FCPA monitorship.
DOJ is looking to apply its recently revamped corporate enforcement principles “across the entire Department,” including in cases involving the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said during an event last week held by the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics. Monaco said companies “should expect more to come on this topic” as DOJ extends its policies “beyond the criminal context to other enforcement resolutions -- from breaches of affirmative civil case settlements to violations of CFIUS mitigation agreements or orders.”
North Carolina-based specialty chemicals manufacturing company Albemarle Corp. agreed to pay over $218 million to settle DOJ and SEC investigations on alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, DOJ announced. The violations resulted from Albemarle's payment of bribes to government officials in Vietnam, Indonesia and India.