International Law

FCPA and China - Why Paranoia is a Good Thing

By Stan

Dan at China Law Blog has a very good post on the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), specifically on who qualifies as a “foreign official” (apparently employees of State-owned Enterprises (SOEs) may be deemed foreign officials).

The take-away point from an FCPA compliance standpoint is that conducting business or seeking new business in China is different because of the Enforcement Agencies? ?foreign official? interpretation.

You can say that again. I try to stay away from FCPA when I can, and usually let experts handle cases that have progressed to a point that I think might be actionable. (I don’t hold myself out as an expert on U.S. law — too many years in China.)

That being said, the subject certainly comes up often when counseling US companies on their internal governance procedures, and I often feel that the best advice for clients is to be slightly paranoid. Dan has a few tips in his post on dealing with the whole SOE issue, which are good.
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Full post as published by China Hearsay on September 23, 2009 (boomark / email).