In January 2017, we published our bi-annual Recent Trends and Patterns in FCPA Enforcement report, part of our FCPA Digest, which provides an analysis of recent enforcement trends and patterns in the United States, the UK and elsewhere, as well as guidance on emerging best practices in FCPA and global anti-corruption compliance programs.
2016 was a banner year for FCPA enforcement. The DOJ and SEC's combined 27 corporate enforcement actions and $6 billion in total corporate sanctions (due in large part to the sanctions levied against Odebrecht) are the highest since the statute's enactment. However, while the 2016 enforcement year has seen a series of blockbuster FCPA enforcement actions, by and large the remainder of the 2016 FCPA cases have involved relatively small-to-medium-sized penalties over relatively run-of-the-mill bribery schemes. Among the highlights from 2016 were:
- The Odebrecht, VimpelCom, Teva, Och-Ziff, JPMorgan and Embraer enforcement actions have distorted the average corporate sanction for 2016 to $223.4 million, while the median corporate sanction of $14.4 million is comparable to past years.
- China and the healthcare/life science industries dominated the headlines for the 2016 FCPA enforcement actions.
- The cases of Qualcomm, JPMorgan and VimpelCom reflect new expansions of regulators' views as to the scope of the term "anything of value" in FCPA cases.
- A ruling in the SEC's ongoing case against the Magyar executives upheld a novel theory on the SEC's jurisdiction to enforce the FCPA.
- The DOJ has generally continued its practice of declining to bring charges where the SEC successfully forced a company to disgorge the illicit profits, reserving criminal charges for instances in which the company's conduct was sufficiently egregious.
- The incoming Trump administration raised new questions over the future of enforcement policies and priorities in relation to the FCPA.
Our full January 2017 report is available at:
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