March 31, 2009
The United States fights foreign kleptocrats through Proclamation 7750, by denying them and their families U.S. visas. And through Section 314(a) of the Patriot Act, which it can use to reach out to more than 25,000 financial institutions to find accounts and transactions of anyone who may be involved in laundering kleptocratic assets. But there’s nothing the United States can do on its own — or even with its G-20 allies — to turn back kleptocracy. Only a truly global program with real teeth can do that. And surprisingly, the framework for it is already in place. . . .
Read the entire post on The FCPA Blog www.fcpablog.com
March 30, 2009
A new Nigeria-based publication called Next has just posted an article (here) naming some of the officials who took bribes from KBR and its TSKJ joint venture for the $6 billion Bonny Island LNG development project. The story by Dapo Olorunyomi and Mojeed Musiliku names three former presidents among the bribe takers, including Sani Abacha, Abdusalami Abubakar, and Olusegun Obasanjo . . .
Read the entire post on The FCPA Blog www.fcpablog.com
March 27, 2009
Last week, while we were looking into ways the U.S. fights foreign kleptocrats, we heard about Presidential Proclamation 7750. It was issued in 2004 and, by 2006, a high State Department official was calling it a “key tool” in America’s anti-corruption arsenal. Yet except for a couple of mentions we found in the African press, Proclamation 7750 was practically invisible. . .
Read the entire post on The FCPA Blog www.fcpablog.com
March 26, 2009
Britain’s Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, unveiled a draft bill on March 25 that will completely overhaul the country’s antibribery laws. He called the old laws anachronistic, inconsistent, unclear, and difficult for the public to understand and for prosecutors and the courts to apply. The new scheme, he said, simplifies and modernizes the law, and will help bring transparency and accountability to international business deals. . . .
Read the entire post in The FCPA Blog www.fcpablog.com
March 25, 2009
Marc Ona Essangui is from Gabon — a west African country with lots of oil, about a million and a half people, and just two presidents since independence from France in 1960. He’s the local head of the Publish What You Pay coalition . . .
Read the entire post at The FCPA Blog www.fcpablog.com
March 24, 2009
We don’t know how many of the 50 or so disclosed and pending Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigations will be resolved this year. But here are some we’re watching . . .
Read the entire post at The FCPA Blog www.fcpablog.com
March 23, 2009
Bloomberg’s David Glovin filed a story Friday reporting that Frederic Bourke will argue that he didn’t violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act because there were no corrupt payments to foreign officials. Bourke, 62, was indicted in 2005 with Czech-born fugitive Viktor Kozeny, 45, for bribing government officials in Azerbaijan in a failed attempt to take over the state oil company known as Socar. . .
Read the entire post at The FCPA Blog www.fcpablog.com
March 20, 2009
Only bribe-payers can be prosecuted under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act; bribe-takers are excluded. Congress wrote the law that way because it believed “the efforts expended in resolving the diplomatic, jurisdictional, and enforcement difficulties that would arise upon the prosecution of foreign officials was not worth the minimal deterrent value of such prosecutions.” See U.S. v. Castle, 925 F.2d 831 (5th Cir. 1991) (per curiam). . . .
Read the entire post at The FCPA Blog www.fcpablog.com
March 18, 2009
The U.K. government is in the process of assuming direct rule over its Caribbean dependency, the Turks and Caicos Islands. A U.K. Commission of Inquiry found “clear signs of political amorality and immaturity” in the government there. The BBC said chief minister Michael Misick is alleged to have “built up a multi-million dollar fortune since coming to power in 2003.” . . .
Read the entire post on The FCPA Blog www.fcpablog.com
March 17, 2009
We’re trying to stay calm today, but it’s not easy. We just learned why France — the largest country by area in the European Union and second largest by population, possessor of the fifth biggest economy in the world, a founding member of the European Union and the United Nations, a permanent member of the Security Council and member of the G8, NATO, and the Latin Union — why that France, isn’t prosecuting any foreign public bribery. Here’s the story. But be warned, it isn’t pretty . . .
Read the entire post at The FCPA Blog www.fcpablog.com
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