International Law

Be The One Millionth Caller . . .

Posted on July 06, 2009
China's new nationwide anti-corruption hotline mentioned earlier is off to a good start. Too good, in fact. During the first week more than 11,000 calls jammed the phones. The China Daily said only one in five calls connected to the hotline because its ten operators were overwhelmed...

In Jefferson's Case, What Gives?

Posted on July 05, 2009
Here's the question: Is William Jefferson still on trial for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act? His indictment included an FCPA count and the cash found in his freezer was supposed to be evidence of an antibribery offense. But the ex-congressman's trial has been going on for a few weeks now and we haven't heard anything about the FCPA...

More Caribbean Controversy

Posted on July 01, 2009
Tiny Antigua -- the adopted home of Sir Allen Stanford -- isn't the only Caribbean hide-away that's in the news these days for the wrong reasons. There's also its even-tinier neighbor, the Turks and Caicos Islands.In April, a U.K. report alleged systematic corruption among Turks and Caicos' leading politicians and their friends...

Enforcement Report For Q2 '09

Posted on June 30, 2009
During the second quarter there were, by our count, eleven Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement actions. They involved four companies -- three firms resolved criminal or civil charges, or both, and one disclosed an investigation -- and 13 individuals who were either indicted, put on trial, pleaded guilty or sentenced...

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Guilty Plea In Vietnam Bribery Case

Posted on June 29, 2009
A former executive of a Philadelphia-based export company pleaded guilty Monday to being part of a conspiracy to bribe Vietnamese government officials in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.Joseph T. Lukas, 60, a resident of New Jersey, was a partner in Nexus Technologies Inc...

Writing Modern History

Posted on June 28, 2009
An extended interview in this month's Guernica with Michela Wrong is great reading. She's the British journalist who's current book is It?s Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle-Blower. In the book and the interview, she uses the story of John Githongo to talk about the root causes of corruption in Africa, digging deep into tribalism, colonialism and western aid...

Will Graft Defeat Iraq?

Posted on June 25, 2009
We like to end our weeks around here with a light touch. But not today. We just read a disturbing story from Reuters' Aseel Kami in the Washington Post. He describes the "pandemic of corruption" now gripping Iraq. After all that's happened there, it's a terrible blow...

A Billion Calls Later . . .

Posted on June 24, 2009
We admit it. Praise for China's perennial anti-corruption campaigns doesn't fall easily from our lips. There are always questions about the numbers the central government tosses around ("prosecutors nationwide prosecuted 8,939 officials for duty dereliction in 2008, up 5...

More Journalists Murdered In The Philippines

Posted on June 23, 2009
Anti-corruption journalists in the Philippines are under siege. Two were killed in the same week this month. The latest victim was newspaper commentator Antonio Castillo. He was shot on June 12 by two gunmen on a motorcycle in the central Philippines town of Uson, according to the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility...

Russian Headwinds Hit Investors

Posted on June 22, 2009
Russia -- the world's largest country by land mass, with 11 time zones and 142,000,000 people, one of five permanent members on the UN Security Council, member of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations, and possessor of the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons on the planet -- yes, that Russia, ranks 120th on the World Bank's Doing Business Index (here), one spot above Nepal...

Sir Allen's FCPA Mystery

Posted on June 21, 2009
The Texas billionaire with a Caribbean knighthood and a passion for cricket was charged by U.S. prosecutors on Friday with running a "massive ponzi scheme" through his bank in Antigua. Allen Stanford, 59, faces 21 charges that could send him to prison for 250 years, including mail and wire fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy to mislead the Securities and Exchange Commission...

The Friday Round Up

Posted on June 18, 2009
Reports from the BBC and the Straits Times say the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is trying once again to get rid of secret accounts held by local officials. Known as "little coffers," the money is skimmed from public funds. The CCP directed party and government officials to disclose the accounts or face severe punishment...

Witnesses Hit Bourke And Jefferson

Posted on June 17, 2009
From Frederic Bourke's Trial. Outstanding coverage on the testimony this week of Hans Bodmer, Viktor Kozeny's Swiss lawyer, from the Courthouse News Service here and Bloomberg's David Glovin here.From Glovin's account:Bodmer, who is testifying for prosecutors in exchange for leniency and admits knowing of the bribery scheme, testified yesterday that he told Bourke about the payments...

It's All Good For Sun

Posted on June 16, 2009
In May, a month after it agreed to be acquired by Oracle for $7.4 billion, Sun Microsystems said it may have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and that the violations could have a material effect on its business. It launched an internal investigation and shared the results with the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission...

Jefferson's Judge Keeps Things Moving

Posted on June 15, 2009
Opening arguments in the trial of former congressman William Jefferson for corruption and violating the FCPA start today. During the three days of jury selection last week, the tone from the bench was no-nonsense. A Louisiana TV station carried this revealing report:One potential juror who was interviewed told the court she believed ?large sums of money in a freezer is odd...

The Death Of A Long-Time Leader

Posted on June 14, 2009
Gabon's president, Omar Bongo, 73, died last week of heart failure while in Spain on a holiday. In 1967, when he was just 31, he became the country's second post-colonial ruler. He went on to be Africa's longest-serving head of state.Outside Gabon -- a West African country with about a million and a half people and lots of oil -- he was generally seen as a force for stability and regional peace...

Are DOJ Releases Too Public?

Posted on June 11, 2009
It's been nearly a year since the last Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Opinion Procedure Release. And we're wondering why. Release 08-03 was published in July 2008. Since then, nothing.As background, the FCPA Opinion Procedure Regulations 28 CFR Part 80 say any issuer or domestic concern can ask the Justice Department whether a proposed transaction would violate the FCPA...

More On Bourke and Jefferson

Posted on June 10, 2009
First Frederic Bourke. A witness testifying for the government this week may have hurt the prosecution's case. Christine Rastas, who worked for Viktor Kozeny in Azerbaijan, said her boss told Egyptian businessman Shafik Gabr about bribing Azeri officials...

Liberia's Graft-Busting Leader

Posted on June 09, 2009
We've never heard of an African head of state asking the U.S. to deny visas to individuals suspected of corruption. Until now, that is. It happened on Friday when Liberia's president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (left), "pleaded with the Government of the United States of America not to give U...

Big Day For The FCPA

Posted on June 08, 2009
History will be made with today's opening gavel in William Jefferson's federal trial. It will mark the first time a former member of congress has been prosecuted under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and the only time the country has seen two FCPA trials staged simultaneously -- Jefferson's in Alexandria, Virginia and Frederic Bourke's in New York City...

More Disclosure, Less Graft

Posted on June 07, 2009
CoST -- the Construction Sector Transparency Initiative --- has a simple aim: to disclose in real-time critical information about public-sector construction projects. Why? To prevent corruption, which can't live in the sunshine.One of CoST's backers is the World Bank...

Defense Contractor, Ex-Exec Settle Charges

Posted on June 04, 2009
The Securities and Exchange Commission last week filed settled enforcement actions against United Industrial Corporation (UIC), an aerospace and defense systems contractor, and Thomas Wurzel, the former President of UIC's one-time subsidiary, ACL Technologies, Inc...

Jefferson On Trial, Soon

Posted on June 03, 2009
Former Congressman William J. Jefferson's trial for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other federal laws will start on June 9 in Alexandria, Virginia. Judge Tim Ellis this week granted Jefferson a one-week delay. He's charged in a 16-count indictment with violating the FCPA, soliciting and accepting bribes, wire fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice...

Another FCPA Derivative Suit Is Tossed

Posted on June 02, 2009
For the third time, Baker Hughes has beaten back a derivative suit based on its 2007 settlement of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations. It paid $44 million to resolve enforcement actions by the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission related to bribery in Kazakhstan...

The Book On Bourke's Judge

Posted on June 01, 2009
Last week we said Judge Shira Scheindlin's preliminary rulings would protect Frederic Bourke's right to a fair trial. That, it turns out, is something she's already known for. Another defendant, John "Junior" Gotti, the alleged New York City mobster, has had three trials in her courtroom since 2005...

Bourke's Trial Is The FCPA's Big Show

Posted on May 31, 2009
There have only been a few Foreign Corrupt Practices Act trials over the years, so Frederic Bourke's is unusual to start with. What's more, this case has plenty of special ingredients. Bourke, 63, is rich. He lives in the tony towns of Greenwich and Aspen...

China's Runaway Bribe-Takers

Posted on May 28, 2009
One defense strategy adopted by some of the Chinese officials accused of corruption is to leave the country. More than 800 have bolted, according to the government, and around 300 have returned. Journalists say the number of international fugitives is a lot higher?at least 1,000 and probably more...

Court Rulings Protect Bourke's Rights

Posted on May 27, 2009
Judge Shira Scheindlin has now decided most of the pending pre-trial issues in the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act prosecution of Frederic Bourke. Her rulings generally restrict the government's use of other-acts-type evidence, while allowing Bourke latitude to tell his story...

Resignation And Reform In Russia

Posted on May 26, 2009
Most Russians think the battle against corruption is already lost. More than half believe graft is an "unavoidable and permanent fact of life." And 58% say it's impossible to fight against it. The numbers come from a survey released last month by the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center, reported by RIA Novosti here...

Ribadu Talks About Corruption

Posted on May 25, 2009
By the fourth year of Nuhu Ribadu's term as chief graft-buster in Nigeria, his Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had secured convictions in over 275 cases. "It was modest but revolutionary," he said last week, "especially since the convictions were from cases against high?ranking officials such as the leadership of the Nigeria Police, a number of state governors, ministers, legislators and top bureaucrats...

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