In April 2010, the International Bar Association, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, launched the Anti-Corruption Strategy for the Legal Profession. The project is focusing on the role lawyers play in fighting corruption in international business transactions. Nearly half of all respondents recognized corruption to [...]
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The International View on US Anti-Bribery Efforts
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s report on U.S. anti-bribery efforts released their Phase 3 Report on the United States. In its report, the Working Group commended the United States for its engagement with the private sector, substantial enforcement, and commitment from the highest levels of the U.S. Government. In addition to the recommendation [...]
Adequate Procedures to Prevent Bribery in the UK
On 14 September 2010, the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Justice issued its Consultation Paper on what might be “adequate procedures” prevent bribery. Under section 9 of the Bribery Act, the only defense against criminal liability for a commercial organization which has “failed to prevent bribery” is that the organization had adequate procedures” to prevent bribery. [...]
Michael Lewis, Greece, and Corruption
Michael Lewis has moved from Wall Street, to baseball, the left tackle, Iceland, the credit collapse and on to Greece. He takes a look at Greece’s financial crisis in the October issue of Vanity Fair: Beware of Greeks Bearing Bonds. One issue is the debt hangover. Greece has about $400 billion in outstanding government debt [...]
FCPA Opinion Procedure Release 10-02
A continuing quirk of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is the ability to ask the Department of Justice whether a particular set of facts would be a violation of the Act. Given all of the recent FCPA activity I expected there to be an uptick in Opinion Procedure Releases under the FCPA. So far that [...]
UK Bribery Act Delayed
When I saw there was a press release from the UK’s Ministry of Justice, I was expecting an announcement of what it meant for a commercial organization to have “adequate procedures” to prevent bribery. That being the only affirmative defense under the Bribery Bill. It turns out that implementation of the Bribery Act will be [...]
Bribery in Britain
The British government is working on a new Bribery Bill “to reform the criminal law of bribery to provide for a new consolidated scheme of bribery offenses to cover bribery both in the United Kingdom (UK) and abroad.” The Bribery Bill would replaces the offenses under the Public Bodies Corrupt Practices Act 1889, the Prevention [...]
Paying a Bribe with Zero
In India, petty corruption is pervasive. Its citizens often face situations where they are asked to pay bribes for public services that should be provided free. The 5th Pillar is advocating for paying the bribe with a zero-rupee note. According Vijay Anand, president of the 5th Pillar, the idea is credited to an expatriate Indian [...]
New Massachusetts Lobbying Law is now in Effect
In mid-2009, the Massachusetts Legislature was rocked by the highly public federal indictments of a state senator and speaker of the Massachusetts House. In response, the legislature passed a sweeping overhaul of its campaign finance, lobbying and government ethics laws. There are new rules in the Commonwealth that went effective on January 1. (Massachusetts is [...]
