Last year, Mexico enacted sweeping changes to the country’s anti-corruption regime, including new whistleblower protections for individuals. Also last year, Argentine authorities extended special benefits to whistleblowers, such as reducing the length of prison sentences, when they report certain types of public corruption. What is the state of whistleblower laws in Latin America and the Caribbean? Are such laws effective ways to encourage reporting corruption and allowing people to speak up when they see wrongdoing? What best practices in protecting whistleblowers need to be replicated, and what flaws in the system should be corrected? Should whistleblowing laws apply differently to the public and private sectors?
Morgan Miller, partner, and Bryan Parr, of counsel, in the Investigations and White Collar Defense practice at Paul Hastings: “Laws providing protections for whistleblowers, and that ensure private actors do the same, are critical to ensuring effective compliance, particularly in the context of anticorruption regimes. The challenge is to find the right mix, and types, of carrots and sticks to incentivize true whistleblowers. While certainly they are steps in the right direction, by offering to spare the rod, both the Mexico and Argentina reforms communicate an approach quite different from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s frequent press releases about significant monetary rewards. By presuming there is a penalty to be reduced, such measures...
The High Court has directed that investigations be carried out against lawyer Ndegwa Njiru and his two clients for subornation of perjury and perjury ( lying under oath) in relation allegations tha...