The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in SEC v. Cochran could usher in the end of the agency's in-house court for most cases, including Foreign Corrupt Practices Act matters, according to Richard Cassin, founder of the FCPA blog. Should this happen, Cassin said in a June 12 post, it would be hard to imagine how the SEC could maintain its current level of enforcement activity.

Technological research firm Gartner settled charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, agreeing to pay over $2.5 million, the SEC said in a May 26 order implementing cease-and-desist proceedings. The company allegedly bribed officials of the South Africa Revenue Service (SARS) to "obtain and retain business from" SARS. The SEC said a manager of Gartner's consulting wing authorized the firm to enter into subcontracts with an unnamed South African information technology consulting firm, adding that the manager either knew or disregarded the possibility that the money paid to the tech firm would be paid to the SARS officials in exchange for contracts. Under the settlement, the company will pay $1.6 million in civil penalties, $675,974 in disgorgement and $180,790 in prejudgment interest.

DOJ’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Unit is investigating U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer for its activities in Mexico, the company disclosed in an SEC filing this month. Pfizer said the agency’s FCPA Unit sent an “informal request” in March “seeking documents relating to our operations in Mexico.” The company is “producing records pursuant to this request.” The probe comes after Pfizer in 2012 reached an agreement with DOJ to resolve FCPA violation charges and as the company handles requests from the FPCA unit for activities in China and Russia, according to its SEC filing.

U.S. agencies’ enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is off to a “slow start” this year, although announcements could “accelerate through the year,” Miller & Chevalier said in its spring 2023 review of FCPA developments. The firm noted that companies are “continuing to evaluate questions” arising from recent DOJ policy changes affecting FCPA compliance, including when to disclose violations, how to manage employees’ use of personal devices and how much cooperation with the agency is required to minimize potential penalties (see 2301190031, 2303030056 and 2304050081). The firm noted DOJ officials have said “further guidance on how these policies will apply in specific facts and circumstances will come from the announcement of future dispositions.”

A U.S.-based multinational medical device company said it may have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. In a May 2 SEC filing, Stryker said it has hired outside counsel to investigate whether “certain business activities in a foreign country violated provisions” of the FCPA, adding that both the SEC and DOJ have contacted it. The company said it’s cooperating with both agencies. “At this time we are unable to predict the outcome of the investigation or the potential impact, if any, on our financial statements,” Stryker said.

Ericsson pleaded guilty to breaching its 2019 deferred prosecution agreement with DOJ relating to its violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The company admitted to violating the FCPA and agreed to pay over $206 million in criminal penalties during a proceeding at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Bloomberg reported (U.S. v. Ericsson, S.D.N.Y. # 19-00884).

Australian mining giant Rio Tinto will pay a $15 million civil penalty to the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle claims the company violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by bribing a Guinean government official to retain mining rights in the country.

Swedish telecommunications giant Ericsson announced Feb. 28 that Laurie Waddy will step down as the company's chief compliance officer after nearly four years in the role. Waddy has stood at the center of Ericsson's compliance efforts amid alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Attorneys in the Latin American practice at Miller & Chevalier said that DOJ has been emphasizing the kind of corporate oversight it expects to prevent bribery cases, and said that the agency wants to see compensation structures that incentivize compliant behavior, the use of data analytics for monitoring employees, preserving data from personal cell phones, and, if there is a violation, conducting a root cause analysis.

Multinational conglomerate Honeywell will pay $202.7 million to resolve anti-corruption Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigations with both U.S. and Brazilian authorities, the company said in a Dec. 19 press release. The conduct subject to the investigations involved Honeywell's operations in Brazil with the state-owned Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) and an intermediary, Unaoil.