Manatt Partner Discusses Increased FCPA Enforcement
"FCPA Enforcement Heats Up"
Corporate Secretary
July 23, 2013 - Manatt's Jacqueline Wolff, co-chair of the firm's Corporate Investigations & White Collar Defense Practice, spoke to Corporate Secretary about how companies can help protect themselves against Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations.
As reported by Corporate Secretary the SEC and the DOJ have been busy, potentially signifying an aggressive crackdown in the months ahead. Last year, the government initiated at least 39 new corporate investigations, almost 20 percent more than the previous record of 33 in 2007. Prosecutors have also stepped up enforcement actions against individuals. In April, the SEC and DOJ revealed recent civil and criminal charges against at least eight individuals.
Industry insiders told the publication that is important for companies to evaluate the areas in which their business is at risk of scrutiny and carefully target their resources. Wolff suggests that every company perform targeted risk assessments before making decisions about where to target compliance funding.
"A lot of consulting firms and lawyers out there are happy to provide an off-the-shelf FCPA program to a company that does not want to spend too much money on compliance," she said. "But if there is no risk assessment, that off-the-shelf FCPA program won't necessarily protect them."
Read the article here.