Andrew Ceresney, Director, SEC Division of Enforcement, recently spoke at the 31st International Conference on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Andrew discussed the latest developments in the SEC’s FCPA enforcement. His remarks focused on four areas:
Focus on Individuals
Individual accountability is critical to FCPA enforcement — and imposing personal consequences on bad actors, including through bars and monetary sanctions, will continue to be a high priority for us.
Importance of FCPA Compliance Programs
Nothing situates a company better to avoid FCPA issues than a robust FCPA compliance program. The best companies have adopted strong programs that include compliance personnel, extensive policies and procedures, training, vendor reviews, due diligence on third-party agents, expense controls, escalation of red flags, and internal audits to review compliance.
The bottom line is that the benefits from cooperation are significant and tangible.
This risk of suffering adverse consequences from a failure to self-report is particularly acute in light of the continued success and expansion of our whistleblower program.
Cooperation
There has been a lot of discussion recently about the advisability of self-reporting FCPA misconduct to the SEC. Let me be clear about my views — I think any company that does the calculus will realize that self-reporting is always in the company’s best interest.
Items of Value
…bribes come in many shapes and sizes. So it is critical that we carefully scrutinize a wide range of unfair benefits to foreign officials when assessing compliance with the FCPA — whether it is cash, gifts, travel, entertainment, or employment of the family and friends of foreign officials. We should and will continue to pursue a broad interpretation of the FCPA that precludes bribery in all forms.
You can view the complete text from Andrew Ceresney by clicking the link below:
Nov. 19, 2014 Remarks at 31st International Conference on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act