Michelle Schulz, a former member of the President's Export Council Subcommittee on Export Administration, rejoined the Braumiller Law Group as of counsel, the firm announced in an email. Schulz was one of the founders of the Braumiller Law Group, helping start the firm in 2003 when it was known as Braumiller Schulz. Schulz also served for a decade as a senior adviser to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's Industry Trade Advisory Committee for Aerospace. Her practice deals with export controls, including matters under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations and Export Administration Regulations, along with Foreign Corrupt Practices Act cases and Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. regulations, the firm said.
Daniel D'Andrea Golindano and Luis Javier Sanchez Rangel, two former senior Venezuelan prosecutors, were charged with money laundering for accepting over $1 million in bribes in a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act matter, DOJ said March 8. Each is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and two counts of engaging in monetary transactions in criminally derived property. D'Andrea and Sanchez face up to 20 years in prison for the conspiracy to commit money laundering charge and up to 10 years in prison for each count of engaging in transactions in criminally derived property.
Daniel Pickard, previously an international trade partner at Wiley, joined Buchanan Ingersoll as the chair of its International Trade and National Security practice group, the firm announced. Pickard deals with matters concerning trade remedy investigations, including antidumping and countervailing duty and safeguard cases; U.S. economic sanctions; anti-bribery cases; export controls; the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act; and national security, the firm said. His national security practice deals with export controls and anti-boycott proceedings.
South Korea-based KT Corp. agreed to pay $6.3 million after it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Feb. 17. The telecommunications company, “engaged in multiple schemes” to make “improper payments” to government officials in South Korea and Vietnam, the SEC said, and didn’t have adequate internal accounting controls over charitable donations, third-party payments, executive bonuses and gift card purchases.
The Department of Justice this week released the 2021 year in review for its Fraud Section, detailing the agency's work on cases involving the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The review includes statistics on prosecuted FCPA cases, information on new officials who joined the FCPA Unit last year, and a list of “significant” corporate resolutions, individual indictments and guilty pleas.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., announced he is introducing a bill that would make U.S. companies liable for statements "that excuse the genocide in Xinjiang" or other statements that advance Chinese propaganda efforts, and would make it illegal to invest in core Chinese Communist Party activities. He says these actions would be subject to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, unless companies could explain that their actions were not made to gain or retain market access. Traditionally, the FCPA has been used to prosecute the offering of bribes by U.S. persons or firms in foreign countries.
The House’s America Competes Act of 2022 would revise and introduce a range of new export control and sanctions provisions, including new restrictions on exports of electronic waste-related goods, more designations targeting China for human rights abuses and a repeal of the sunset of the Magnitsky human rights sanctions regime. The bill, unveiled this week as the response to the Senate’s U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, would also require the Biden administration to conduct “periodic” reviews over its export controls for surveillance equipment, urges the administration to reexamine U.S. export policies for countries that supply weapons to terrorist organizations and calls for better harmonization of U.S. export control and sanctions policies with allies.
Iris Bennett, former cross-border investigations and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act attorney at boutique firm Smith Pachter, has joined Steptoe & Johnson as a partner in its Investigations and White Collar Defense Group, the firm announced. Based in Washington D.C., Bennett will tap her experience carrying out internal investigations over potential violations of the FCPA, the False Claims Act and the Anti-Kickback Act, the firm said.
Agustin Orozco, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Central District of California for the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section, has rejoined Crowell & Moring, the firm announced. Orozco will work as a partner in the Los Angeles office's White Collar & Regulatory Enforcement and Government Contracts groups. He will focus on white collar criminal defense and corporate investigations, and advise individuals and companies on matters relating to the "Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR), False Claims Act (FCA), Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), and alleged violations of Title 18 of the United States Code," the firm said.
Timothy Broas, former U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands, joined Wilson Sonsini in the firm's government investigations practice as senior of counsel, the law firm said. Broas joins from Bryan Cave, where he worked for just over three years on white collar matters including Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations.