Report Finds FCPA Charges Most Likely to Target Senior Executives

http://ow.ly/703H1

An article by Shannon Green published on law.com on the Corporate Counsel webpage.

This article discusses a recent compliance study report issued by the law firm of Chadbourne & Parke.

The article states, ""I'm not saying that the government is targeting individuals left and right," says (M. Scott) Peeler. "But they've targeted a lot of people." Since 2007, the U.S. government has set yearly records in terms of the number of FCPA enforcement actions brought against companies. And many corporate execs are going to jail or facing serious charges for their involvement in their companies' bad acts abroad."

The article goes on state, "What mattered more was the degree to which the accused individual appeared to be involved in the dirty dealing. Of the cases in which the individual had direct knowledge of the bribes and had a hand in the activity, 44 faced criminal charges.
"That's clearly the worst-case scenario," says Peeler, in which an executive, or any employee, knew there were bribes being paid and took some action to encourage the activity. "Obviously, the more you know and the more steps you took," he says, "the worse it gets.""

Of interesting note the author states, "The risk of prosecution may be greatest when doing business in foreign jurisdictions close to home. Forty-four percent of the cases Peeler studied involved bribes paid in Mexico and Central and South America, compared to Asia (32 percent), Africa (21 percent), and Europe (3 percent)."

The article then goes on touch on the new UK Bribery Act as well. M. Scott Peeler, the attorney quoted in the article apparently refers to the UK Bribery Act as, "FCPA on steroids".