Bribe, Swindle or Steal

Kara Brockmeyer, a partner in Debevoise & Plimpton's Washington office and former Chief of the SEC's FCPA Unit, discusses some changes she's observed in the implementation of compliance programs with much of the world in lockdown. She also describes the pace of investigations now that DOJ and SEC lawyers are working remotely and she wraps up with a few predictions about what we might see in this f...

Darshak Dholakia, a partner in Dechert's Washington office, provides a timely overview of the current Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) approach to foreign investment in the US, comparable laws of other countries and how scrutiny of healthcare and biotechnology sectors may increase in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bill Steinman--of Steinman & Rodgers--takes us back to 2014 and the Eleventh Circuit's very fact-specific analysis of what constitutes a "foreign official" under the FCPA.

Melissa Duffy, a partner at Dechert LLP focused on international trade matters, provides an excellent review of the current status of the movement of goods into and out of the United States by air, land and sea. Melissa also addresses relevant tariffs, including recent exemptions, and restrictions by other countries on the export of their own critical medical supplies and equipment. Melissa wraps...

Jeff Clark—a partner with Willkie, Farr & Gallagher—discusses the novel aspects of the 2016 Och-Ziff bribery case, including the claim for restitution under the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act.

Jessica Tillipman of George Washington Law School covers the highlights and key points from the Siemens bribery case of 2008. It was a startling case at the time and divided the international enforcement landscape into the world before and after Siemens.

Former Crown Prosecutor and current investigative journalist, Sandy Garossino, walks us back through the early days of Vancouver's money-laundering scandal: how the problem was uncovered, the violence associated with infiltration by organized crime, what has been done to remedy the problem to date and what still remains to be done.

Randall Eliason, law professor and former Assistant US Attorney, provides an excellent account of the days leading up to the recent sentencing of political operative Roger Stone. The Department of Justice's unprecedented interference in--and reversal of--its prosecutorial team's recommendation led to the resignation from the case of all four prosecutors. Over 2000 former DOJ officials have called...

Aisling O'Shea of Sullivan & Cromwell describes the Airbus settlement that resulted in penalties totaling almost $4 billion and involved resolutions with U.S., UK and French authorities.

Investigative reporter Scilla Alecci of the ICIJ describes the excellent work that team did, using more than 715,000 leaked documents, to untangle the vast and often opaque business empire of Isabel dos Santos, Africa's richest woman and daughter of the former president of Angola.

Dr. Frank Badua, Associate Professor of Accounting and Business Law at Lamar University College of Business, describes the misconduct from the 1950s through the 1970s by a group of companies that led to widespread support for passage of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Jeff Clark, a partner with Willkie Farr & Gallagher and well-known to TRACE members, provides an excellent summary of US foreign anti-bribery activity in 2019.

Emmanuel Farhat of the AFA discusses Sapin II and his organization's role in vetting the implementation of the corporate compliance programs that the law mandates.

C4ADS Senior Analysts Stella Cooper and Cecile Neumeister discuss their fantastic report on the little known problem of illegal logging in South Sudan and the environmental, social, financial and security implications. Read the report here .

This podcast has become a bit of a holiday tradition on the podcast. Peter Hellman describes Rudy Kurniawan's audacious scheme to defraud wine collectors in his excellent book, "In Vino Duplicitas: The Rise and Fall of a Wine Forger Extraordinaire."

Bill Steinman, senior partner at boutique compliance firm Steinman & Rodgers, walks us through some continuing trends—and a few surprises--from 2019.

Olivier Catherine, Group General Counsel of Sonepar in Paris, describes in detail the company's experience as the first to complete an audit by the French Anticorruption Agency (AFA), from the initial letter launching the review through the Sanctions Committee's dismissal of all claims.

Kevin Chapla, a Civil Affairs Officer with the US Army, discusses the work his team has done with foreign governments and civilian populations to reduce the poaching and trafficking of wildlife in Central Africa.

We're reposting a popular podcast during the American Thanksgiving holiday. We want to keep the fascinating Theranos story, still to be updated with Elizabeth Holmes' fraud trial set for August 2020, in front of our listeners.

Paul Lavery of McCann FitzGerald in Dublin discusses the conflict between the GDPR's emphasis on privacy and the requirement under anti-bribery laws that companies undertake reputational due diligence on their business partners. There is a direct and as yet unreconciled conflict between privacy and transparency.

Nicola Bonucci, Director of Legal Affairs at the OECD, describes successes and failures of the anti-bribery convention as well as some of the challenges still ahead.

Priyanka Goswami of Quad Law, TRACE's partner firm in New Delhi, provides a great overview of the compliance landscape in India, together with a lot of very practical advice for companies operating there.

Sam Eversman with KsaUsaLegal in Riyadh talks about current anti-bribery efforts in Saudi Arabia, recently relaxed restrictions for women travelers and what, if anything, we can take away from the 2017 incarceration of the Saudi elite at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

Danielle Cannata, Senior Counsel, International Trade at SABIC, talks about some of the challenges, surprises and successes arising out of doing business in Saudi Arabia.

We're not posting a new podcast next week. Our fantastic editor, Brad Shoemaker of Creative Zombie Studios, is getting married this weekend and is busy with more important things! Instead, we're reposting Brad's favorite TRACE podcast: "The Death of Sergei Magnitsky". We'll be back next week with an interview from Riyadh.