Legal services
(US) Compliance Counsel - Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)
Through our advisory team, a non-US party can present their company as having an FCPA (anti-bribery) compliance program to the US investor/partner.
Any alleged infraction of the FCPA could be a huge problem for any US entity that is doing business with an overseas stakeholder. Penalties could including massive fines and potential jail time. Our team can design a robust compliance program pertaining to the FCPA and also answer fact-specific inquiries from your international team as they come up.
Case Study
An American drilling technology company had operations outside of the US. The company’s sales agents and international service teams needed to deal with various government representatives in obtaining permits and in negotiating with State Owned Enterprises (SOEs).
The FCPA is broadly applied and the definitions of what constitutes a “Foreign Official” is not particularly intuitive. This requires a fact specific analysis done by qualified counsel.
In this example, the definition of a Foreign Official could include a high-ranking drilling manager at China National Petroleum Corporation (which is an SOE), but the same limitations may not apply to a similar ranking drilling manager at ExxonMobil (not an SOE).
Counsel provided ongoing guidance and additional context as to when the FCPA applied starting with a series of relevant examples as to what constitutes a “Foreign Official” within the meaning of the FCPA. This allowed the overseas team to identify possible FCPA violations proactively and ask for help when they were not sure.
General Intent of the FCPA
The FCPA’s anti-bribery provisions make it illegal to offer or provide (just about) anything of value to officials of foreign governments, foreign political parties, or public international organizations with the intent to obtain or retain business.