The surprising (and disappointing) drop in US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement actions last year should not lead to the conclusion that there has been a corresponding decrease in bribery of foreign officials by corporations.
If anything, based on the flood of whistleblower submissions in 2021 alleging FCPA violations, bribery of foreign officials and corruption have gotten worse.
So it was encouraging when a top US Department of Justice official last month said, “I would expect to see some significant resolutions in the next year.”
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Nicholas McQuaid, principal deputy of the department’s criminal division, said at a conference, “I wouldn’t over read or really read much into the numbers of prosecutions in a given year.”
FCPA enforcement activity in 2021 was the lowest in a decade, according to Stanford Law School’s FCPA Clearinghouse. It tallied just 18 FCPA enforcement actions by DOJ and the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which was half the 10-year average, and found that only three companies disclosed new investigations by US regulators in their 2021 SEC filings.
The FCPA Clearinghouse said US sanctions in FCPA cases in 2021 totaled just under $360 million – the third lowest in a decade and a 94% drop from sanctions imposed in 2020.
The largest portion of sanctions levied last year was due to the $299 million Credit Suisse Group AG paid as part of a settlement with US and UK authorities. Regulators alleged that two...
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