Despite a brief lull in the first few months of the Trump Administration, 2017 turned out to be yet another active year of enforcement under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The US Department of Justice brought over two dozen criminal FCPA enforcement actions against companies and individuals in 2017. In the second half of 2017, the DOJ announced three blockbuster corporate settlements in coordination with enforcement authorities in other countries—Telia agreed to pay a total of $965 million to the United States, the Netherlands, and Sweden; Keppel Offshore agreed to pay more than $422 million to the United States, Singapore, and Brazil; and SBM Offshore agreed to pay $238 million to the United States on top of the $240 million it previously paid Dutch authorities and additional penalties it is likely to pay Brazil.

The new administration appears to be doubling down on some of the policies and practices embraced during the Obama Administration. In November, the DOJ unveiled a formal FCPA Corporate Enforcement Program designed to encourage self-reporting of potential violations, cooperation with government investigations, and remediation of compliance issues. The DOJ also continued its commitment to holding individuals accountable for violations of the FCPA and other corruption laws, securing individual guilty pleas and convictions in multiple cases.

On the civil side, the US Securities and Exchange Commission resolved a range of FCPA charges in 2017, including, most recently, a multi-million dollar corporate settlement announced in September. The SEC's FCPA enforcement efforts suffered a setback in June, however, when the US Supreme Court removed a weapon from the SEC's arsenal, ruling that actions for disgorgement are subject to a five-year statute of limitations. As a result, the SEC likely will intensify its efforts to bring FCPA cases more quickly.

All signs suggest that anti-corruption enforcement and related litigation will continue apace in 2018. The first few days of the new year saw a nephew of the former head of the United Nations plead guilty to FCPA charges in connection with an international real estate deal; a Maryland businessman charged with FCPA violations and other crimes for his alleged role in bribing Russian atomic energy officials; and Brazilian state-owned oil giant Petrobras agreeing to pay nearly $3 billion to settle securities class-action litigation stemming from its international corruption scandal.

This issue of our Global Anti-Corruption Insights focuses on developments from the second half of 2017. For further information on anti-corruption developments from the first half of 2017, see Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, Global Anti-Corruption Insights: Summer 2017.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Key Developments in the United States

I. FCPA Enforcement Actions Against Companies

II. FCPA Enforcement Actions Against Individuals

III. Other FCPA Investigation and Enforcement News

IV. Corruption-Related Legal Documents

Global Anti-Corruption Update

I. UK SFO Charges Four in Connection with Unaoil Probe

II. Three F.H. Bertling Employees Fined but Avoid Prison in UK for Angolan Bribery

III. Swedish Court Finds Bombardier Employee Not Guilty of Bribery in Azerbaijan Railway Project

IV. Shell, Eni, and 15 Executives to Face Trial in Italy in $1 Billion Nigerian Bribery Case

Download >> Global Anti-Corruption Insights: Winter 2018

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