Season's Greetings From Uncle Sam

While no one was looking, the DOJ did something great.

It added more translated versions of the FCPA to its site. The full statute (15 U.S.C. §§ 78dd-1 et seq) now appears in 14 tongues, covering something like 2.8 billion people (give or take a few hundred million).

They are:

Arabic – عربي

Bengali – বাংলা

Cantonese – 廣東話

Chinese Mandarin –官話

French – Français

German – Deutsch

Japanese –日本語

Javanese – Basa Jawa

Korean –한국어

Malay – Bahasa Malaysia

Portuguese – Português

Russian – Русский

Spanish – Español

Urdu – اردو

The DOJ cautions that the translations are unofficial. But, it says, the goal "is to increase the general awareness and understanding of the FCPA by both U.S. companies engaging in international business and their foreign counterparts."

The move may be partly in response to the OECD’s critique that the government offer more help to small and medium-sized enterprises to comply with the FCPA. The ten new translations  and original four are free, giving companies of any size a neat tool to educate and train their non-English-speaking workforces.

The languages were apparently chosen to reach people in large emerging economies, and others in high-risk compliance environments. 

And how about this: Will translating the FCPA into so many languages help other countries understand the law and nudge them to adopt something similar of their own? Let's hope so.

Found In Translation

As posted yesterday on the wrageblog here, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is now available in Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Arabic. The translations come from the U.S. Department of Commerce through a project headed by Senior Counsel Kathryn Nickerson. As the wrageblog pointed out, "Although the translations are marked 'unofficial' we’re told they’re accurate and that they read well. This is a great service to the compliance community." We agree.

Kudos to Kathryn Nickerson and the DOC.

* * *
Too much love, Jefferson says. Federal Judge Tim Ellis this week denied former Congressman William Jefferson's request for a new trial. A copy of Judge Ellis' order can be downloaded here.

Jefferson argued that the jury should have heard evidence about an intimate relationship between an FBI agent working on Jefferson's case and Lori Mody. She was the government's informant who secretly taped her conversations with Jefferson about bribing Nigeria's vice president. Ellis, however, said disclosure to the jury wasn’t necessary because the government didn’t enter into evidence any of her statements about the contents of meetings that were not secretly recorded by the FBI. Mody herself didn't testify at the trial.

Four days before jury selection began, lead FBI agent Timothy Thibault disclosed that agent John Guandolo, who was the undercover driver for Lori Mody, had been involved in a sexual relationship with her during the FBI's investigation. Judge Ellis ruled that evidence of the relationship was not relevant to any issues at the trial and therefore would not have been admissible.

Presumably Jefferson will raise the issue again on appeal. He's saying evidence of the relationship goes to the credibility of the FBI and witnesses it interviewed. Whatever happens, there was at least the appearance of impropriety . . . .

Separately, some are asking whether Jefferson was convicted of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act or acquitted. It's a good question. Here's what happened:

The jury acquitted him on Count 11 of the indictment -- the only substantive FCPA charge he faced. The jury convicted Jefferson on Count 1 of the indictment. It alleged three separate illegal conspiracies -- to solicit bribes, deprive citizens of honest services, and violate the FCPA. The jury's verdict form did not require it to specify which of the three illegal conspiracies the panel believed he engaged in. So Jefferson's conviction on Count 1 may or may not have included the jury's finding that he conspired to violate the FCPA. There's no way to tell without polling the jury and, as far as we know, that didn't happen.

So a guilty verdict will be recorded for Count 1 of the indictment. That means all three conspiracies alleged are presumed to be proven, including the FCPA-related charge.

Read prior posts about William Jefferson here.
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