Bribery is a bad thing. Most people can agree on this simple statement, and yet Congress needed to pass The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) into law in 1977 in order to have the right to police the foreign corrupt practices of multi-national corporations. Corporations were found to be using company assets for bribes to obtain & maintain business, avoid paying taxes or for other anti-competitive purposes. Investigations in the 1970s by Congress and the SEC led to more than 400 companies admitting to varied forms of large, institutionalized corporate bribery schemes. These admissions amount to FCPA fraud today, as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act approaches 50 years in existence. In fact, FCPA fraud has become one of the largest, most actionable areas for whistleblowers, all based around international bribery by companies with a nexus to the United States.
FCPA fraud today is dually prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission, which covers both the criminal and civil violations of the Act. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act makes it illegal to bribe or attempt to bribe any foreign government official to obtain or retain business. The books and records provision of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act requires that issuers maintain a system of internal accounting controls to prevent any accounting irregularities related to obfuscating international bribery schemes.
FCPA fraud has been prosecuted in every industry imaginable, including telecommunications, oil & gas, defense, medical devices, agriculture, transportation, pharmaceuticals and entertainment. The creativity and breath of FCPA violations is impossible to encompass in a short list, and the sheer magnitude of the quantity of FCPA fraud is evident by the fact that recoveries under the FCPA has totaled billions of dollars in recent years.
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Protection Act created the CFTC Whistleblower Program.
The CFTC Whistleblower Office was created as a result of the Dodd Frank Act in 2010 and awards eligible whistleblowers that provide voluntary information to the CFTC about those who violated the Commodity Exchange Act. The awards can range from 10% to 30% of the monetary sanctions recouped by the U.S. government. The Dodd Frank Act also established protections for CFTC whistleblowers which prohibit employer retaliations against anyone who brings forward information about potential violations. Whistleblower Justice Network understands the complexities of being a whistleblower and can partner with you to build your information into the best possible case.
Foreign Corrupt Practices prosecuted under the FCPA include:
Bribery comes in many different forms, and targets a wide range of goals, some of which are the following:
WJN has been a reliable partner for many international whistleblowers who have chosen to come forward and report violations of the FCPA. Working systematically together, we help our clients develop the best strategy through which to pursue enforcement of the FCPA in a manner that positions them for the greatest change of success as a whistleblower. FCPA fraud appears to be seen as a “cost of doing business” by so many international companies, and we expect that FCPA enforcement and settlements will continue to grow in the coming years as a direct result of this cynical business stance.
Our case analysts help whistleblowers fully understand, organize and refine the information that they have in their possession. Complemented by our understanding of a wide array of financial fraud, Whistleblower Justice Network will help you make your best case, determine the most appropriate law firm to handle your case, and ensure that your case receives the attention it deserves every step of the way.
Contact us today and let us explain how we work with whistleblowers in pursuit of justice against those who defraud the U.S. government, and each of us as its citizens. Working with whistleblowers, and filing whistleblower actions is all we do as a company. We are whistleblowers ourselves, and we love what we do. Our clients and Whistleblower Justice Network, together we make a difference.
