Mon, 15 Apr 2013 10:40:25 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert 65fbd2ac-d5ee-45e2-923e-d4ff43a3bc3a Mon, 15 Apr 2013 10:40:25 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/DOJ-Antitrust-Division-Announces-Changes-to-Corporate-Plea-Agreement-Policy 8aa58d15-fa86-4bc5-8124-d305daa1f5cc Thu, 11 Apr 2013 16:26:13 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/Conflicting-Court-Decisions-Highlight-Difficulty-of-Prosecuting-Foreign-Corporations-for-Economic-Espionage-and-Trade-Secrets-Theft 288395d2-4946-4366-a1fa-69bd8e6b3251 Fri, 01 Mar 2013 10:45:26 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/Supreme-Court-Rejects-SECs-Ability-to-Seek-Civil-Penalties-More-than-Five-Years-after-an-Alleged-Fraud bc88cf2b-cd1c-4ad0-98c7-3769276b5021 Wed, 21 Nov 2012 13:57:59 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/Top-Five-Takeaways-From-the-New-FCPA-Guide b8b4e6a9-3a1f-4ed5-9105-b645bdce0944 Mon, 19 Nov 2012 19:02:01 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/As-US-Eases-Burma-Myanmar-Sanctions-Many-Challenges-Remain-for-US-Business-Including-Money-Laundering-and-Corruption-Risks 84555d1f-145e-406e-a842-9a86c964a2b4 Thu, 15 Nov 2012 13:14:14 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/DOJ-and-SEC-Issue-Long-Awaited-FCPA-Guidance fe549dfc-6d37-41e0-801a-8cae2b9b2c7f Tue, 13 Nov 2012 16:43:22 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/MoneyGram-International-Inc-Settlement-of-Criminal-Charges-May-Have-Far-Reaching-Compliance-Implications-for-Anti-Money-Laundering-Violations ef02e440-1863-4cbc-a6e9-03d2161f9d0d Fri, 04 May 2012 10:19:58 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/Eighth-Circuit-Approves-Use-of-Fraud-Guidelines-for-Antitrust-Crimes a823b1d2-209f-4ce6-ad9e-7b6f55b2c079 Thu, 08 Mar 2012 16:32:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/Potential-for-Change-in-Anti-Money-Laundering-Laws-Regulations-New-FATF-Recommendations-FinCEN-Calls-for-Comments-on-Customer-Due-Diligence-Procedures b705a29f-a839-4b79-87d8-3b631650032c Wed, 02 Jan 2013 12:47:26 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/Appeals-Court-Finds-Encrypted-Data-Beyond-Reach-of-Government-Investigators f1257a50-bff3-4645-90fd-537e8acccbda Wed, 14 Sep 2011 14:57:14 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/Proposal-To-Further-Executive-Branch-Employees-Acceptance-Of-Gifts-From-Lobbyists a7ecfab2-144f-41ba-828b-bf78da2a1097 Thu, 07 Jul 2011 11:11:23 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/UK-Bribery-Act-Ready-or-Not-Here-It-Comes d8e3e26c-5958-4225-9acf-d0d3e1c7ff76 Tue, 14 Jun 2011 16:52:29 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/Ineffective-Insider-Traders-Avoid-Double-Whammy-of-a-Failed-Trade-and-Civil-Penalties 856481e3-9036-4120-b752-ca8b1d9a7f4d Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/UK-Bribery-Act-Guidance-Issued On 30 March 2011, the Ministry of Justice released the long awaited guidance about procedures that relevant commercial organisations can put in place to prevent associated persons from engaging in bribery. It announced that the UK Bribery Act, which received Royal Assent in April 2010, would enter into force on 1 July 2011. On the same day, the Serious Fraud Office and the Director of Public Prosecution published joint prosecutorial guidance. Neither document provides much practical guidance or comfort to UK companies – or to those foreign companies whose activities may be subject to the Act – in trying to establish the “adequate procedures” necessary to avoid violation of the new commercial organisation offence of failing to prevent bribery. 7e1a61c1-c815-4d8e-b19c-aea594f506d2 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/UK-Bribery-Act-UK-Government-succumbs-to-pressure-and-delays-implementation-of-the-Act On January 31 2011, the UK Justice Minister, Ken Clarke, announced that the Bribery Act ("the Act"), which had been due to come into force in April 2011, will be delayed for at least three months. This was confirmation of what many believed would happen after the Government announced, in early January 2011, that there was to be a review of the legislation following growing concerns from UK businesses and trade organisations that the wording of the Act is ambiguous and that it lacks clarity. f2f86f13-273d-4599-ac92-83327cf12cf9 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/When-Accounting-Firms-Speak-Plaintiffs-Must-Prove-They-Listened-Requiring-Proof-of-Reliance-in-Securities-Fraud-Actions Crowell & Moring LLP has achieved an important victory for the accounting industry in a decision issued by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The decision, In re: Interbank Funding Corp Securities Litigation, No. 09-7167 (D.C. Cir. Dec. 28, 2010), made clear that in securities fraud actions against accounting firms, courts may not presume that investors have relied on audited financial statements where the accounting firm has affirmatively certified the statements. Quite simply, the failure to disclose a fraud is not enough. 9bafe21c-25ca-439f-8b7a-07ae30133a18 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/Court-of-Appeals-Rules-That-Grand-Jury-Subpoenas-Trump-Civil-Protective-Orders-Covering-Foreign-Documents In a terse but important opinion, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has confirmed that foreign documents brought into the United States for purposes of discovery in civil litigation may be obtained by the government through a grand jury subpoena regardless of any civil protective order. d167167c-62c2-4a2a-973a-93b361959602 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/The-UK-Bribery-Act-2010-avoid-being-the-April-fool-next-year The Ministry of Justice has this week announced that the Bribery Act 2010 ("the Act") will come in to full force in April 2011. df55f7ab-63cd-44d7-9b4b-bae35d2b723e Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/The-New-Bounty-Hunters-Congress-Creates-New-Incentives-to-Report-Securities-and-Commodities-Fraud Earlier today, the U.S. Senate passed the conference report for H.R. 4173, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. In a little-discussed piece of this sweeping financial reform legislation, Congress authorized the creation of two new bounty programs that will provide substantial monetary awards to whistleblowers who provide information that leads to an enforcement action with monetary sanctions exceeding $1,000,000 imposed by either the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) (Sec. 922) or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) (Sec. 748). These bounty hunter provisions, which are expected to be signed into law by President Obama next week, are broadly drafted and could have far-reaching application to cases involving accounting fraud, disclosure violations, and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. 7a385a4c-1d4a-46ec-8e98-2e559b89dd2f Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/Sarbanes-Oxley-Survives-but-Supreme-Court-Bolsters-Discretion-to-Remove-PCAOB-Members On June 28, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion striking down as unconstitutional the provision of Sarbanes-Oxley that controls the removal procedures of members of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board ("PCAOB" or the "Board") . Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Bd., 561 U.S. __ (2010), No. 08-861. In a 5-4 opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, determined that the current structure of the PCAOB failed to provide sufficient authority to the President to remove Board members who function as "inferior officers" of the United States. Sarbanes-Oxley, however, remains "fully operative as a law" according to the majority opinion. 839884b0-376b-4965-824c-bf1d02b1d936 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/New-Amendments-to-Corporate-Sentencing-Guidelines-Important-Changes-in-Requirements-for-Effective-Compliance-and-Ethics-Programs Last Friday, April 30, 2010, the United States Sentencing Commission finalized significant revisions to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. These changes directly implicate the relationship between a corporation's chief compliance officer and the board of directors and the manner in which a corporation should respond to the discovery of criminal conduct. 0af76c4c-6036-40e1-91ce-6fcd3a59b1ba Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/DOJ-Appoints-New-Prosecutors-and-FBI-Agents-to-Fight-IP-Crime On April 26, 2010, the United States Department of Justice ("DOJ") announced the appointment of 15 new Assistant United States Attorneys and 20 FBI Special Agents to "aggressively" pursue domestic and international intellectual property crimes. The announcement reflects the DOJ's continued focus on IP crimes, following the establishment earlier this year of the DOJ's Task Force on Intellectual Property, after Vice President Biden's summit on intellectual property rights. In short, the DOJ is not simply declaring that IP crimes are a priority – it is devoting significant time and resources to the prosecution of IP crimes such as trade secrets theft, computer hacking, piracy and counterfeiting. e96ee598-2bb8-4a68-a89d-b05ebe727d64 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/DOJ-Allows-Hiring-of-Foreign-Official-under-the-FCPA On April 19, 2010, the United States Department of Justice ("DOJ") issued its first FCPA Opinion Procedure Release of 2010, and the first since August 2009. The Release was requested by a U.S. company ("the Company") (a "domestic concern" within the meaning of the FCPA) which had entered into a contract with a U.S. government agency to design and build a facility in a foreign country. This contract required the Company to hire individuals to work at the facility as directed by the U.S. government agency. 10ab6a82-2601-493c-8ad4-c3b37a482a5f Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/UK-upgrades-its-tools-in-fight-against-corruption-with-Bribery-Act-2010 The Bribery Act 2010 received the Royal Assent as part of the "wash up" procedure that allows bills before parliament at the time of dissolution to become law where all parties are satisfied that the legislation is fit for purpose. It is not yet in force and is unlikely to be so for some time during the hiatus caused by the General Election and the range of underlying issues that need to be resolved before it can be fully introduced. f795196c-7f20-4466-bdec-8b115b88bff9 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/Take-Two-Charging-The-Bribe-Recipient Last week the United States Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against Juthamas Siriwan, a senior official of the Tourism Authority of Thailand ("TAT"). The indictment alleges that Siriwan conspired to launder money and laundered money in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1956(a)(2)(A) and (h). The charges stem from bribes paid to her in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA") and the anticorruption laws of Thailand. This is the DOJ's first attempt to charge a foreign official bribe recipient since some aborted efforts in the early 1990s. 2db16dee-bccc-4d32-8c62-b6672483ff6e Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/Revised-Lobbying-Disclosure-Guidance-Now-In-Effect On December 23, 2009, the Secretary of the Senate and Clerk of the House of Representatives published revisions to the Lobbying Disclosure Act Guidance ("LDA Guidance"). The document offers guidance to individuals, organizations and other entities required to register and file reports under the LDA. Key additions to the Guidance are summarized below. The complete revised LDA Guidance is available at http://www.senate.gov/legislative/resources/pdf/S1guidance.pdf. 1cc9f4ca-9c46-4f98-a99e-673be230092a Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/President-Creates-Interagency-Financial-Fraud-Enforcement-Task-Force As another reminder of the federal government's intent to strengthen its efforts to combat financial crime, President Obama this week established the Interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. Led by the Department of Justice, the task force will be composed of senior-level officials from over two dozen departments, agencies and offices, including Treasury, the SEC, the Federal Reserve, the FBI, IRS, HUD, and the FTC. Representatives of the National Association of Attorneys General, and state, local, tribal, and territorial representatives will be invited to participate on the task force through its enforcement committee. Treasury, HUD, and the SEC will also serve on the steering committee. The Attorney General will convene the first meeting of the task force in the next 30 days. 0bc6c4eb-57d5-4a7f-a492-3343aa482132 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/Mitigating-the-Risk-of-Subject-Matter-Waiver-When-Disclosing-Privileged-Materials-to-the-Government New Federal Rule of Evidence 502 has been invoked in a high-profile securities case to avoid subject-matter waiver in connection with the disclosure of privileged materials and information to the government. The approach taken in this case provides a valuable lesson for companies facing government investigations. a9da6461-3e2f-4487-888f-1ef6596b7e6e Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/Attorney-General-Commits-to-Smart-on-Crime-Approach-to-Economic-Crimes-1352290 In an address on August 3, 2009, at the American Bar Association's annual convention, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. touted the administration's efforts to date in prosecuting health care fraud, and committed to a "smart on crime" approach to economic and other crimes. Highlighting last week's indictments by a Houston grand jury of thirty-two health care executives, providers, and operators who allegedly made $16 million in fraudulent Medicare claims, Holder noted that the indictments were examples of the success of this "smart on crime" policy. The operation relied on the innovative tactic of real time data analysis of Medicare billing records. Real time data analysis allowed fraud investigators to contemporaneously review billing claims as they were filed by Medicare providers and thereby immediately identify irregularities - a strategy that varies greatly from the previous complaint-driven approach taken by fraud investigators. c3a273b7-9a77-47d1-a853-7a8adce95797 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/Pushing-the-Envelope-on-Insider-Trading On July 22, 2009, the SEC prevailed in a cutting edge insider trading case when the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that there is no fiduciary duty requirement for insider trading. Under this ruling, insider trading may be prosecuted under a premise that is not based on either of the two generally accepted theories of insider trading: the traditional theory or misappropriation theory. According to the Second Circuit, if deception is used to gain access to material nonpublic information, trading on the basis of that information is illegal insider trading regardless of whether a fiduciary obligation was violated. This decision illustrates the aggressive stance that the SEC is taking to combat insider trading. ffb73500-ba99-4b6b-a86b-232f0d240011 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/Fifth-Circuit-Affirms-FCA-Liability-and-Damages-Under-A-Fraud-in-the-Inducement-Theory On July 9, 2009, the Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment for the government on both liability and damages in a False Claims Act ("FCA") case involving false statements made to induce the award of federal research grants under the Small Business Innovation Research ("SBIR") program. United States ex rel. Longhi v. Lithium Power Tech., Inc., Nos. 08-20194, 08-20306, 2009 WL 1959259 (5th Cir. July 9, 2009). The district court had held that the government's fraudulent inducement theory was viable under the FCA "even if the statements on particular invoices submitted in connection with the project were true." Id. at *3. The Fifth Circuit agreed, reasoning that the otherwise true claims were actionable false claims because they were derived from the original fraudulent misrepresentations made to induce the grants. Id. at *7. 3c4ca3c5-a9a0-47b0-b2e8-72602e25639a Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/Decision-Could-Limit-Work-Product-Protection-for-Cooperating-Companies A Northern District of Texas federal court decision could have unintended consequences on the government's ability to pressure companies to cooperate. In Securities and Exchange Commission v. Microtune, Inc., et al., the Court held that the work product protection did not apply to internal investigation documents where the evidence suggested that the documents were created not "in anticipation of litigation" but rather for pure business purposes and/or to cooperate with the government. No. 3-08-CV-1105-B, 2009 WL 1574872, at **1-2 (N.D. Tex., June 4, 2009). 18ac4e66-e31b-48b3-96d1-9e9b1c1be7f2 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/Revisions-to-Lobbying-Disclosure-Act-Guidance The Clerk of the House has posted a notice regarding conditions for terminating the listing of an individual lobbyist on an organization's lobbying reports and has amended significantly its Lobbying Disclosure Act Guidance ("Guidance"). Some key aspects of the modifications are summarized below. 7f4f6430-268d-4e7e-925b-fb9d0b2b879d Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/Aiding-and-Abetting-SEC-Violations-Limited-by-the-First-Circuit The Securities and Exchange Commission must show that a defendant provided substantial assistance to an ongoing fraud scheme to prove aiding and abetting liability, according to a recent decision by the First Circuit Court of Appeals. SEC v. Papa, Case No 08-1172, 2009 WL 280358 (Feb. 6, 2009). The court rejected the SEC's claim that aiding and abetting liability could be predicated on conduct that happened after the fraud was completed. c7a739a0-df44-4f9e-b3cb-18f51f8cec42 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/Private-Right-of-Action-under-the-FCPA-Risks-increase-as-litigants-increasingly-use-foreign-bribery-allegations-as-predicate-acts-in-US-civil-tort-cases Supreme Fuels Trading FZE, a company incorporated and headquartered in the UAE, filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Miami against, among others, prominent political fundraiser Harry Sargeant III and his company, International Oil Trading Company (IOTC). The lawsuit alleges that Sargeant and others participated in a conspiracy to bribe Jordanian government officials to obtain necessary documents that would ensure the receipt of over $1 billion in U.S. government contracts for the supply of fuels to the U.S. military in Iraq. 86e617b8-1f14-4849-a6b7-aa872d417cb0 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/FCPA-Enforcement-Update-DOJ-Arrests-Four-Individuals-for-Bribery-Activities-in-Vietnam-1352028 Recent FCPA arrests demonstrate continued emphasis on prosecuting individuals. The Department of Justice announced last week the arrest and indictment of four individuals on charges that they and their company, Nexus Technologies, Inc., paid at least $150,000 in bribes to Vietnamese officials to obtain contracts to supply the Vietnamese government with technology and equipment, including underwater mapping equipment, bomb containment equipment, helicopter parts, chemical detectors, satellite communication parts, and air tracking systems. Nexus Technologies was also indicted and has not entered a plea or deferred prosecution agreement. The company, which is incorporated in Delaware and has offices in Philadelphia, New Jersey, and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, is in the business of procuring equipment and consulting services for various sectors, including the petroleum, power generation, civil aviation, and maritime industries. The individual defendants were identified as Joseph Lukas, An Nguyen, Kim Nguyen, and Nam Nguyen, all of whom are U.S. ... b6dbc72c-b1c5-4209-88aa-2a2c0f0a9e87 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/DOJ-Issues-Revised-Guidelines-on-Corporate-Cooperation-Hours-After-Second-Circuit-Finds-Prior-DOJ-Policies-Unconstitutional On the same day the Second Circuit issued an eagerly anticipated opinion finding DOJ violated the constitutional rights of KPMG executives in United States v. Stein, and in the face of increasing pressure from Congress, the DOJ has revamped its policy on criminal prosecution of corporations for the second time in as many years. The new policy has implications for any company facing the decision whether – and to what extent – it should cooperate with a government investigation of alleged corporate misconduct. 3b150055-4bfa-4715-9304-b1a099bd6a1e Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/Lobbying-Disclosure-Act-Guidance-Reverses-Course The Secretary of the Senate and Clerk of the House overhauled Section 7 of The Lobbying Disclosure Act Guidance regarding required contribution disclosures (due July 30). Several examples in the most recent Guidance represent a complete reversal from those posted in the May 29, 2008 iteration. f457ff0e-4899-41e4-b3cb-33d0f02ece84 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/Lobby-Law-Development-Just-When-You-Almost-Had-The-New-Disclosure-Rules-Figured-Out-Here-Come-The-Constitutional-Challenges Yesterday the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) filed suit under the First Amendment to enjoin enforcement of a key provision of the Honest Leadership & Open Government Act of 2007. The Act requires associations that engage in lobbying to disclose the names of member organizations that contribute more than $5,000 in a quarterly period to the association’s lobbying activities, if the member actively participates in the planning, supervision, or control of such activities. 9fa593f1-f81e-44b1-a817-fdb372201a11 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/Tis-the-Season-to-Give-Gifts-or-Is-It Just in time for the holidays, on December 21, 2007, DOJ and the SEC respectively announced settlements with Lucent Technologies Inc. – now a subsidiary of Alcatel-Lucent – of allegations that Lucent had violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by providing officials of Chinese government owned or controlled customers with excessive travel and entertainment in the United States. These settlements – a non-prosecution agreement with DOJ and a civil settlement with the SEC – apparently close an investigation first publicly announced some years back with the April 2004 dismissal of four of Lucent’s senior executives in China. 3d1c0204-da8e-4890-b8f3-701ac2a3d4cf Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/FCPA-s-Ever-Expanding-Reach-Goes-Private As U.S. regulators continue to explore new, more aggressive ways to prosecute foreign bribery under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Department of Justice sent a clear warning yesterday that prosecution is not reserved for publicly traded companies on U.S. exchanges or their executives. 460c9bef-3908-4190-acb9-a21323933cee Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/SEC-Settlement-Highlights-Risks-for-Corporate-Executives-Under-the-FCPA On December 11, Robert W. Philip, the former President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board of Schnitzer Steel Industries agreed to pay more than $250,000 to settle charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission that he violated the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Last year, Schnitzer Steel and its Korean subsidiary paid more than $15 million and entered into, respectively, a deferred prosecution agreement and corporate guilty plea to settle related charges by the SEC and the U.S. Department of Justice. Then in June 2007, Si Chan Wooh, another SSI executive, pled guilty and settled with the SEC for his involvement in the scheme which involved bribes and kickbacks to government and privately owned steel mills in China, Japan and Korea. 76ab3925-0241-48db-8f08-d9b9e819b398 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/SEC-Ramps-Up-Hedge-Fund-Enforcement The Securities and Exchange Commission has created a hedge fund unit within its Division of Enforcement to coordinate and enhance its efforts to combat insider trading. The unit will work in cooperation with other federal law enforcement agencies and self-regulatory organizations. 6cbfc53a-7d74-43e9-ac99-54988463ffd5 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/DOJ-Makes-Good-On-Promise-To-Prosecute-Individuals-For-FCPA-Violations On July 23, the Department of Justice announced the indictment of Jason Edward Steph, a former executive of Willbros International Inc. (WII), a subsidiary of Houston-based Willbros Group Inc., on charges of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and money laundering. 0b7cd55c-bd37-461e-baa5-1b506ebf725e Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/Record-44-Million-Settlement-for-FCPA-Violations The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced yesterday that Baker Hughes, Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary, Baker Hughes Services International Inc. (BHSI), agreed to pay a record $44 million in fines, penalties and disgorgement to settle criminal charges and a related civil complaint. b086819b-1667-42b0-bf81-8404d1361d31 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/Grand-Jury-Returns-Second-FCPA-Indictment-of-Former-Alcatel-Executives Yesterday, a Miami federal grand jury indicted a second former executive of Alcatel, S.A., a French telecommunications company, for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The indictment supersedes a December 2006 indictment of another former Alcatel executive and charges both with conspiring to make over $2.5 million in indirect payments through a foreign “consulting” firm to Costa Rican officials in order to obtain a telecommunications contract on Alcatel’s behalf. 7a9efa20-a53d-480a-a901-c26ea8a580b0 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/Department-of-Justice-Supersedes-Thompson-Memorandum U.S. Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty announced yesterday that the Department of Justice has superseded the recently embattled “Thompson Memo” setting forth “Principles of Federal Prosecution of Business Organizations.” 1dac50c9-09f2-4f78-95f6-bb57b2a63cd6 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/Uncle-Sam-Stretches-Its-Long-Arm-to-Enforce-The-Foreign-Corrupt-Practices-Act Friday the 13th is considered unlucky in the United States, something Norway's state-controlled oil company, Statoil ASA, will not soon forget after settling charges under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act last Friday for a whopping $21 million. 41d4e759-4603-4eb9-83dc-97afdc9296e4 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/Proposed-Rules-of-Evidence-Amendment The Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Evidence has proposed a change that would promote cooperation with federal regulatory, investigative and enforcement authorities and at the same time remove the fear that such cooperation would permit discovery by third parties of attorney-client privileged and work product protected materials that are shared with these federal authorities. 189455dc-e503-4318-a706-bae751567185 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:12 GMT http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/White-Collar-Alert/DOJ-Rebuked-on-Limitation-of-Legal-Fee-Coverage In reliance upon the Thompson Memorandum, the Department of Justice unconstitutionally pressured accounting firm KPMG to curtail its practice of advancing legal fees to company employees under investigation and prosecution, according to the June 26 Opinion issued by U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan.