The U.S. this week charged FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act's anti-bribery provisions. Filing a superseding indictment at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York March 27, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Bankman-Fried and others paid around $40 million in cryptocurrency to one or more Chinese government officials to "induce them" to unfreeze certain cryptocurrency trading accounts held by one of Bankman-Fried's companies, Alameda Research (U.S. v. Samuel Bankman-Fried, S.D.N.Y. # 22-00673).
Ericsson pleaded guilty to breaching its 2019 deferred prosecution agreement with DOJ relating to its violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The company admitted to violating the FCPA and agreed to pay over $206 million in criminal penalties during a proceeding at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Bloomberg reported (U.S. v. Ericsson, S.D.N.Y. # 19-00884).
Trade lawyers are expecting a sharp increase in DOJ export control and sanctions prosecutions in the coming months as the agency’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section undergoes a hiring spree, and several law firms said the increased attention on sanctions violations may cause some companies to bolster their compliance programs.
Roger Ng, former managing director of The Goldman Sachs Group, was sentenced on March 9 to 10 years in prison for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act as part of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York said. Federal prosecutors sought 15 years for the investment banker.
Australian mining giant Rio Tinto will pay a $15 million civil penalty to the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle claims the company violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by bribing a Guinean government official to retain mining rights in the country.
DOJ last week announced “significant changes” to how it assesses corporate compliance programs’ approach to communications platforms, which could impact whether the agency offers to resolve an investigation without criminal charges. Under the revised policies, companies that claim to not have access to emails and other electronic information related to a DOJ probe may have to prove to the agency that they can’t access those messages, Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite said.
Ericsson will plead guilty and pay a criminal penalty of more than $206 million after breaching provisions of a 2019 deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) stemming from Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations, DOJ said March 3. Ericsson also will plead guilty to engaging in a “long-running scheme to violate" the FCPA by paying bribes, falsifying books and records, and "failing to implement reasonable internal accounting controls in multiple countries around the world,” DOJ said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security will increase the number of penalties it issues against corporations for export violations this year, an effort it hopes will lead to improved industry compliance, the top export BIS enforcement official said last week. DOJ also will concentrate more resources on targeting export violators, a top agency official said, and plans to significantly expand its Export Control Section.
Swiss commodity trading and mining giant Glencore was ordered to pay $700 million after pleading guilty to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in a bribery scheme spanning several countries. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York approved the settlement in a Feb. 27 order, and the company will pay a $428.5 million fine and $272 million in forfeiture as part of a plea deal reached in May 2022 (see 2205270044) (U.S. v. Glencore International, S.D.N.Y. # 22-00297).
Swedish telecommunications giant Ericsson announced Feb. 28 that Laurie Waddy will step down as the company's chief compliance officer after nearly four years in the role. Waddy has stood at the center of Ericsson's compliance efforts amid alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.