OECD Working Group releases report on liability of legal persons for foreign bribery

The OECD Working Group on Bribery has been setting global standards for fighting foreign bribery since the adoption of the Anti-Bribery Convention in 1997. Among these standards, the Convention requires Parties to establish systems of liability of legal persons and to provide that firms found guilty of foreign bribery are subject to “effective, proportionate and dissuasive” sanctions.

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Queler and Won: Do bribe takers walk?

It is a somewhat common refrain that while corporate executives and companies pressured into paying bribes overseas face prosecution under the FCPA, the foreign officials who solicit, demand, and even extort the bribes go scot-free. As with many refrains, however, the reality is more complex. 

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The Netherlands: Tougher foreign bribery laws (with gaps), help for graft victims

In the prior post I talked about enforcement efforts that lagged in the Netherlands but are now gaining more traction. This post will cover recent amendments to the Dutch Criminal Code that are helping authorities prosecute overseas bribery, and Dutch civil remedies used to fight graft.

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Dr. Klaus Moosmayer: Compliance, voluntary self disclosure, and a roundtable at the OECD

Dr. Klaus Moosmayer is the Chief Compliance Officer of Siemens AG (Image courtesy of Siemens)There is still the (dangerous) myth -- especially in media and sometimes at enforcement agencies -- that compliance has failed when a company reports acts of misconduct.

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French lessons: How about some strategic enforcement competition?

Even the most ardent Francophile, as I most assuredly am, must be dismayed by France’s abysmal record of bribery prosecutions. Recent OECD Anti-Bribery Convention Working Group reports reveal France’s inexorable zero. While France has contributed significantly to the global anti-corruption regime through its part in seizing Obiang family assets as well as referring evidence in the KBR cases to the U.S., nevertheless when it comes to prosecuting its own French based multinationals, France is failing.

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Turkey: A weak enforcement effort with no foreign bribery prosecutions

The recent political and anti-corruption machinations in Turkey must have provided an interesting and diplomatic challenge for the OECD’s Phase 3 examiners whose report was published last week.

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France enforcement score: 0 for 24

Today the OECD’s Working Group on Bribery issued its Statement on France’s Implementation of its Anti-Bribery Convention. While acknowledging some progress, it expresses “serious concerns for France’s limited efforts to comply with the OECD Convention….and strongly encourages France to pursue the reforms which were previously announced and remain necessary.”

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Tanzanians want help tracing $300 million in Swiss accounts

Tanzania has asked for help to find out if money moving into bank accounts in Switzerland was stolen from the government through fraud and corruption.

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New commentary on FCPA Guide provides valuable insights

The Resource Guide to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was published by the Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in November 2012. The Guide, the merits of which have been widely debated on the FCPA Blog, is now the subject of extensive discussion in the second edition of the Cambridge University Press Commentary on the OECD Convention on Bribery.

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