A Prince Of Persia

Iran has all the ingredients to be an FCPA minefield. It's big -- 66 million people in an area about the size of Alaska -- and it's the world's 6th largest oil producer. On top of that, it has a corruption problem, ranking near the bottom of the latest Corruption Perception Index -- 168th, tied with Burundi, Equatorial Guinea, Haiti, and Turkmenistan.

But although the country routinely makes world headlines, it's hardly mentioned on the FCPA Blog. Why not?

Iran has been off limits to U.S. companies from around the time the FCPA became law in 1977. The U.S. first imposed sanctions on Iran in 1979. After the takeover of the American embassy in Teheran, President Carter banned  imports of Iranian oil and blocked all transfers of property in the U.S. owned by the Central Bank and Government of Iran. In 1980, he embargoed all U.S. exports to and imports from Iran, and stopped U.S. citizens from traveling or conducting financial transactions there.

Some of those sanctions were loosened after the U.S. hostages were released. But in 1987, President Reagan imposed a new embargo on Iranian-origin goods and services. And in 1995, after Iran was labelled a sponsor of international terrorism, President Clinton again banned U.S. involvement with Iran's oil and gas development. He later confirmed that "virtually all trade and investment activities with Iran by U.S. persons, wherever located, are prohibited," according to the Treasury Department. With some small adjustments, that's how things stand today.

Criminal penalties for violating the U.S. sanctions are stiff -- fines up to $1,000,000 and prison for up to 20 years, four times harsher than the FCPA's penalties.

Even without America's business, Iran was the focus of an important FCPA case. In 2006 the Norwegian company Statoil was hit with DOJ and SEC enforcement actions for bribery and books and records violations. Statoil in 2002 had paid $5.2 million in bribes to a modern-day prince of Persia -- the son of a former president of Iran, and promised to pay $20 million more for access to the giant Pars oil field. The company eventually self-disclosed the payments and paid $3 million to Norwegian prosecutors and $21 million in penalties and disgorgement to the DOJ and SEC (with credit for the $3 million it paid back home).

That was the first FCPA criminal enforcement action against a foreign company -- Statoil is an "issuer," trading on the NYSE under the symbol STO. Its three-year deferred prosecution agreement with the DOJ expired in November 2009.

We could be hearing more FCPA news involving Iran. Last week the Wall Street Journal said the SEC's enforcement and corporation finance divisions have sent letters to several pharmaceutical and energy companies that work in Iran, as well as in Cuba, Sudan, and Syria -- which all appear on the State Department's list of countries that sponsor terrorism. (Some medicines and medical devices are licensed for export from the U.S. to Iran.) The letters reportedly asked the companies, which haven't been named, what they are doing in the four countries to ensure compliance with the FCPA.

BAE: Bribery, Bombs And Black Knights

Photo by Annie MoleIs there a place where anti-corruption policy stops and international politics begins? Andy Spalding -- a lawyer and Fulbright scholar who's a familiar face around here -- thinks so. He sent this dispatch from Mumbai, India:

Dear FCPA Blog,

The BAE matter leaves many of us bewildered, struggling to grasp its greater significance. While several FCPA commentators have deemed 2009 "The Year of the Individual," I wonder if BAE points to another trend that is emerging. . . or rather, re-emerging.  Consider:

1. BAE, Saudi Arabia, and Terrorism. The UK's anti-bribery enforcement was severely obstructed by seemingly unrelated foreign policy objectives.  Since when, we may ask, did foreign policy impact FCPA enforcement? 

2. Iran and Nuclear Proliferation. Mike Jacobson of the Washington Institute recently suggested that the FCPA might be enforced selectively against companies doing business in Iran, as a form of economic sanctions. I understand that at least some FCPA insiders found Mike's core idea -- selective enforcement of the FCPA to advance foreign policy objectives -- not inconceivable.

3. China, Russia, and Political Alliances in the Developing World. Another piece ran earlier this year which demonstrated that as companies subject to the FCPA do less business in heavily bribery-prone countries, the resulting void of foreign capital will be filled by companies from countries that are not enforcing, or have not adopted, anti-bribery laws -- so-called "black knights." Economists predicted that the FCPA specifically would produce this effect, and we are indeed observing it today as China and Russia invest aggressively in Africa, Latin America, Central Asia, and the Middle East without fear of a bribery penalty. This dynamic is likely to significantly alter international politics for many years to come, though the FCPA community seems loathe to admit it.

4. History is Circular: the Forgotten Cold War Origins of the FCPA. Though we generally think of the FCPA as the product of Watergate, legislative history makes all too clear that the FCPA was also conceived, for better or for worse, as a tool of the Cold War -- punishing bribery was deemed essential to maintaining capitalism's credibility and ultimately spreading liberal democracy to politically unstable countries. This was not a partisan idea, advocated by a mere handful of arch-conservatives; to the contrary, both sides of the aisle readily endorsed it, including vociferous, high-profile critics of the Vietnam War such as George Ball. 

With the end of the Cold War, we largely stopped thinking about the FCPA's foreign policy implications, and were probably happy to do so. But alas, realpolitik has reared its ugly head once again, unlikely to return whence it came. So we're right back where we started, wrestling with the awkward convergence of anti-bribery laws and international politics. It may not be pleasant, but we should probably get used to it. 

With thanks,
Andy Spalding

 As always, other views are welcome.

Giving Thanks Once Again

During this season of Thanksgiving, the folks at Norway's Statoil ASA will be celebrating the end of the company's three-year deferred prosecution agreement -- and the Justice Department's public announcement about it here. In 2006, Statoil (which trades on the NYSE under the symbol STO) was charged with violating the anti-bribery and accounting provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. It had paid more than $5 million through a middleman to an Iranian official for access to the South Pars natural gas field, one of the world’s largest. In settling with the DOJ, it agreed to pay a $10.5 million penalty and enter into the three-year deferred prosecution agreement. It also agreed with the SEC to pay $10.5 million in disgorgement and retain a monitor.

The case made waves in '06. Statoil's was the earliest criminal enforcement action against a foreign company. The financial penalties the DOJ and SEC imposed set that year's record for an FCPA case. And Statoil had already been punished in Norway for the bribery and fined about $3 million. The U.S. government evidently deemed that inadequate but, in an act of comity, allowed Statoil to deduct the Norwegian fine from the U.S. criminal penalty.

U.S. Attorney Prett Bharara got it right when he said yesterday: "This case shows that deferred prosecution agreements against corporations can work as an important middle ground between declining prosecution and obtaining the conviction of a corporation. The deferred prosecution agreement . . . helped restore the integrity of Statoil's operations and preserve its financial viability while at the same time ensuring that it improved what was obviously a failed compliance and anti-corruption program."

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Frederic Bourke and William Jefferson will be thankful to be out on bail pending their appeals. The DOJ may have put too much zeal into Bourke's prosecution, and may have botched part of Jefferson's trial. But both men will have second chances on appeal. Bourke to argue that he never intended to break the law, and that being a criminal in the United States still requires some mens rea. And Jefferson that he was convicted for private acts under a law governing public acts, that he never had a chance to confront the main witness against him -- the government's informant, that her relationship with an FBI agent working on his investigation was evidence the jury should have heard, that the "honest services" statute he was convicted under is too vague to understand, and that the jury's verdict on the conspiracy count should have been tossed. 

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We're thankful, as always, for the rule of law. Our system of justice isn't perfect. It can't be. But as we said a few weeks ago, when it works as it should, the guilty are usually punished and the innocent usually go free. And that's a rare blessing at any time and place. We're thankful too for the freedom we and others have to praise the system when it works and criticize it when it doesn't.

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We're thankful so many people are at work right now trying to spread the rule of law around the world. People in governments, in NGOs, in universities and private institutions, and on their own. Wherever it goes, the rule of law helps people escape from fear and poverty.

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We're thankful for everyone who supported the FCPA Blog during the past year -- our readers, sponsors, contributors, fellow bloggers, and kibitzers. They all help keep us honest and cheerful.

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Finally, we give thanks for these words from Walden, written in 1854 by Henry David Thoreau, one of the most thankful and sanest Americans who ever lived:

At length the winter set in good earnest, just as I had finished plastering, and the wind began to howl around the house as if it had not had permission to do so till then. Night after night the geese came lumbering in the dark with a clangor and a whistling of wings, even after the ground was covered with snow, some to alight in Walden, and some flying low over the woods toward Fair Haven, bound for Mexico. . . . The snow had already covered the ground since the 25th of November, and surrounded me suddenly with the scenery of winter. I withdrew yet farther into my shell, and endeavored to keep a bright fire both within my house and within my breast.

The Statecraft Of Enforcement

Should the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act be used to punish nations that don't behave the way the United States wants them to? Michael Jacobson (left) from the Washington Institute thinks so. In the September 24 issue of Policy Watch, he proposes targeted enforcement of the FCPA against non-U.S. companies that do business with Iran (U.S. companies aren't allowed there under current law). The purpose is to sanction the country and its leaders on the nuclear issue.

Jacobson's thinking goes like this: Tehran deserves punishment. The U.N. can't do it because China and Russia won't get behind effective sanctions. But the FCPA reaches all foreign companies that have securities registered in the U.S. Some of those foreign companies are doing business with Iran. That country's leaders are corrupt and most deals they do probably violate the FCPA's anti-bribery provisions. Therefore, the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission should target FCPA enforcement against foreign companies doing business with the regime. That will discourage trade with Iran and ultimately inflict real damage on the leadership there. While unilateral U.S. action will work, Jacobson says, the best scenario is for other OECD countries to adopt the same approach under their respective anti-corruption laws.

Is this a serious idea?

Well, the Washington Institute where Michael Jacobson works is a serious think tank. On its board of advisers are five former Secretaries of State -- Warren Christopher, Lawrence Eagleburger, Alexander Haig, Henry Kissinger and George Shultz. Among the other board members are Martin Peretz, editor in chief of the New Republic, Richard Perle, a former Assistant Secretary of Defense, James Woolsey, a former director of the CIA, and Mort Zuckerman, publisher of U.S. News and World Report. That's a lot of horsepower.

Jacobson's bio says he specializes in counterterrorism and intelligence -- particularly "sanctions and financial measures to combat national security threats." Before joining the Washington Institute, he was a senior advisor in the Treasury Department's Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence and counsel on the 9-11 Commission. He also worked for the FBI, first as an intelligence analyst, then as assistant general counsel. He holds "a bachelor's degree in psychology from Brandeis University, a master's degree in international relations from Tufts University, and a law degree from Boston College Law School."

So yes, this looks like a serious proposal. But is it a good idea?

We're against corruption and the spread of nuclear weapons. Who isn't? And we know dealing with Iran is frustrating; carrots don't work and there aren't many sticks to reach for. Still, the cost of using the FCPA as a sanction would be high, and it probably wouldn't work.

Today the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is admired around the world. Called "one of Congress's finer moments" by the Wall Street Journal, it's a hopeful statute that stands for ethics in business and government. Once politicized, however, it'll be just another symbol of heavy-handed and overreaching American diplomacy that's resented overseas. At home, injecting the DOJ and SEC so deep into U.S. foreign policy would compromise their integrity as crime-fighting agencies, with implications far beyond FCPA enforcement.

What's more, using the FCPA to sanction Iran (or any country) is likely to backfire. Targeted enforcement might keep clean money out. But as we heard from Andy Spalding earlier this year, that would open the door for investors from countries "not committed to effectively enforcing anti-bribery measures," like Russia and China, making it even easier for crooked leaders to skim funds from military and civilian projects. End result: more corruption and no less nuclear development.

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RIP William Safire. From Time magazine: "Not for Safire the clodden metaphors, arch constructions, one-sentence paragraphs and dreary wonkery that are the stock in trade of too many modern American columnists. He was of that generation of inky-fingered wretches who remembered that it is not a sin for journalism to entertain — indeed, that one way you can get across a point about which you feel passionately is to make people smile while they are absorbing it."
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