Anti-bribery: DOJ and SEC enforcement trends 2016

The SEC resolved 24 corporate investigations in 2016, and the DOJ concluded 13. Over the course of 2016, almost 30 companies paid about $2.5 billion to resolve FCPA actions, making it the biggest enforcement year in FCPA history in terms of dollars collected.

However, the Trump administration could advocate for the creation of a compliance defense to limit a party’s exposure to FCPA liability. This defense would allow any American firm charged with violating the FCPA to show that it had compliance procedures in place to prevent a violation, and if the procedures are deemed sufficient, the firm would avoid liability.

Adequate procedures defense

The Trump administration’s support for the “adequate procedures” defense to FCPA violations could bring it in to line with the UKBA approach on this important point. Under the wide ranging UK Bribery Act, a commercial organisation will have a full defense if it can show that despite a particular case of bribery it nevertheless had adequate procedures in place to prevent persons associated with it from bribing. 

Full lifecycle policy and procedure management across the enterprise and 3rd parties

Policies and Procedures Management, ensuring that critical information is received, read and understood by staff, and intermediaries, provides certainty to management, auditors and regulators that the organisation is compliant in its operations. The focus of the Mitratech PolicyHub product is to help organisations to reduce the risk of reputational damage, and provide evidence of Governance, Best Practice, Compliance, and adequate procedures.

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