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).
Switzerland-based global technology firm ABB agreed to pay over $315 million to settle a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigation over the bribery of an official at South Africa's state-owned energy company, DOJ announced Dec. 2. DOJ coordinated the resolution of the case with the SEC and authorities in South Africa and Switzerland.
Marshall Islands citizens Cary Yan and Gina Zhou pleaded guilty Dec. 1 to conspiring to bribe Marshallese officials for legislation that would benefit the pair's business interests, DOJ announced. The two admitted to one count of conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions in the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and face a maximum of five years in prison.
The U.S. is likely to see several more resolutions under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in the coming months, Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole Argentieri said at an annual FCPA conference this week. Argentieri made the remark after highlighting FCPA enforcement action taken in 2022. These moves included three corporate FCPA resolutions, involving Stericycle, Glencore and GOL Linhas Airlines, and one declination under the Corporate Enforcement Policy with disgorgement, involving Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group Holdings (JLT).