http://fcpablog.podbean.com News And Views About The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act And More Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:54:11 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en If you haven't seen (or heard) last week's episode of Bill Moyers' Journal on PBS called LBJ's Path To War, it's something special. The hour-long program consists almost entirely of excerpts from President Johnson's recorded phone calls with advisors and congressional leaders. He's talking to them about the Vietnam problem. ... http://fcpablog.podbean.com/2009/11/23/weve-got-to-conduct-ourselves-like-men/ Surprising news from the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia. William Jefferson is free pending appeal of his conviction in August on 11 corruption counts. Last week U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III sentenced him to 13 years in prison. But the judged ruled on Wednesday that Jefferson can remain ... http://fcpablog.podbean.com/2009/11/19/jefferson-and-bourke-are-released-on-bail/ Mergers and acquisitions are back. Seeking Alpha just said: "Over the past few weeks, there has been a resurgence in acquisition activity, fueling an already strong market rally. This news has spanned all regions of the economy ranging from the transportation sector (Burlington Northern being taken over by Berkshire Hathaway) ... http://fcpablog.podbean.com/2009/11/18/ma-surge-means-more-fcpa-action/ A Virginia man pleaded guilty on Friday, November 13th to being part of an overseas bribery conspiracy that began in 1996 and ended in 2003. Charles Paul Edward Jumet, 53, was charged in federal court in Richmond, Virginia under a two-count criminal information. He admitted conspiring with others to violate ... http://fcpablog.podbean.com/2009/11/16/guilty-plea-in-old-panama-bribes-case/ Former nine-term congressman William Jefferson, 63, was sentenced on Friday to 13 years in prison. He was found guilty on 11 of 16 corruption charges, including one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He was acquitted of the single substantive FCPA charge he faced. . . ... http://fcpablog.podbean.com/2009/11/16/jefferson-sentenced-to-13-years/ Let's talk about Mr. Bourke. He was sentenced Tuesday to a year and a day in jail and fined a million dollars for conspiring to violate the FCPA and lying to FBI agents. People in the courtroom said when he was convicted, Bourke was shocked. So apparently he never expected ... http://fcpablog.podbean.com/2009/11/13/frederic-bourkes-big-bet/ The New York Times alleged yesterday that executives at the private military security firm formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that might have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The payments were "intended to silence [the officials'] criticism and buy their ... http://fcpablog.podbean.com/2009/11/12/blackwater-and-the-fcpa/ Frederic Bourke, the American entrepreneur who led a charmed life and whose prosecution brought new prominence to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison and fined $1 million for investing in a bribe-tainted deal in Azerbaijan and then lying to FBI ... http://fcpablog.podbean.com/2009/11/12/bourke-gets-a-year-in-prison/ Before getting to William Jefferson, this reminder: Frederic Bourke is scheduled to be sentenced in Manhattan today (Tuesday, November 10) at 2:30 pm. He could be jailed for up to ten years for conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and lying to federal investigators. Now Jefferson: He'll learn his ... http://fcpablog.podbean.com/2009/11/10/toss-jeffersons-fcpa-conspiracy-count/ Last week, the U.S. ambassador to Kenya, Michael Ranneberger, made a very strange announcement. He confirmed on his Twitter page that the U.S. government had denied a visa to Kenya's attorney general Amos Wako. What's strange is that as far as we know, it's the first time an American official ... http://fcpablog.podbean.com/2009/11/09/a-tweet-too-far/ In the western China municipality of Chongqing, a special deployment of 25,000 police officers was called in to fight organized crime. Chongqing city proper has around five million people but the region-- called the "municipality" -- has closer to 32 million (California's population is about 36 million). Last month, police ... http://fcpablog.podbean.com/2009/11/06/gotham-city-east-and-west/ Elizabeth Spahn, a professor at the New England School of Law, stopped by this week. She left a comment about Andy Spalding's latest post. In it, she cited her recent article that asks the questions: Why is there so little legal scholarship regarding international bribery? Why aren't law professors training ... http://fcpablog.podbean.com/2009/11/05/the-fcpas-imperialist-myth/ With so much to lose by going to trial, how many organizations and people will plead guilty to white collar crimes they didn't commit? Ellen Podgor of Stetson University College of Law and the White Collar Crime Prof Blog asks that question in her latest essay, "White Collar Innocence: Irrelevant ... http://fcpablog.podbean.com/2009/11/04/professor-podgor-pops-the-question/ On the subject of Frederic Bourke -- the wealthy entrepreneur convicted in July of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and lying to FBI agents -- we now know what issues his lawyers plan to raise on appeal. Most relate to what Bourke knew and intended -- his ... http://fcpablog.podbean.com/2009/11/03/how-appealing-are-bourkes-chances/ The first time we heard from Andy Spalding, a lawyer on a year-long Fulbright Research Grant in Mumbai, India, he floored us with the idea that the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act causes corruption and hurts poor people. We just heard from him again, this time about the way the Justice ... http://fcpablog.podbean.com/2009/11/02/the-fcpas-thwarted-intent/ The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act researcher Cody Worthington responded to our post Their Days Are Numbered. To our list of thirteen people waiting to be sentenced for violating or conspiring to violate the FCPA, he suggested we add three more. Here they are . . . Read the entire post on ... http://fcpablog.podbean.com/2009/10/30/make-that-sixteen/ In Dakar, the capital of the West African country of Senegal, the IMF's regional representative was given a farewell dinner two months ago. After three years in the post, Alex Segura was heading back to his native Spain. As the evening ended, President Abdoulaye Wade handed Segura a going-away gift. ... http://fcpablog.podbean.com/2009/10/29/senegals-big-send-off/ We count at least thirteen people waiting to be sentenced for violating or conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Both offenses carry a prison term of up to five years. And for substantive offenses the fine can be up to $250,000 or twice the gross gain produced by ... http://fcpablog.podbean.com/2009/10/28/their-days-are-numbered/ Hermitage Capital Management, once the largest foreign investor in the Russian stock market, has accused police officials, bankers, judges and lawyers of working with gangsters to steal $230 million from the company and using its documents to obtain another $230 million from the Russian treasury through fraudulent tax refunds. Hermitage's ... http://fcpablog.podbean.com/2009/10/27/russian-graftthe-video/ Halliburton disclosed Friday in its latest SEC filing that the U.K.'s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) may bring civil claims or criminal charges against it under various British laws. In February this year, Halliburton and its former subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root LLC, admitted paying Nigerian officials at least $182 million ... http://fcpablog.podbean.com/2009/10/26/halliburton-may-face-uk-charges/