Note: The charts in this article were updated on 6/19/13.
The juggernaut that is enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act appeared to get off to a slow start this year: depending on how one classifies cases, there was either zero or one enforcement action taken in the first quarter of 2013, according to the latest report from Miller & Chevalier.
But to John Davis, coordinator of the firm’s FCPA and International Anticorruption Practice Group, that particular statistic is more a matter of timing than anything. “Companies should not look at the dearth of cases in the last quarter and think, ‘Now we don’t have to worry about this,’ ” he says. Rather, he adds: “Investigations take time, and [agencies] have been focusing on any number of them during that time frame.”
The firm’s analysis includes some key points for in-house counsel eyeing the FCPA landscape:
Corporate investigations are underway: From 2012, Miller & Chevalier counts 39 corporate investigations initiated by the government, “more than we have seen initiated in any prior year,” the report notes. That speaks to the number of potential cases in the pipeline, of course. But Davis says the figure points to another important trend: More companies are choosing to disclose FCPA investigations, in large part because the Securities and Exchange Commission tends to view them as material matters to investors. “More and more companies are taking the safe approach and effectively disclosing,” says Davis.
