FCPA & International Trade – the latest on the SEC ‘crowdfunding’ rule, Siemens dismissal, Diebold Inc. FCPA violation and more.
Entrepreneurs and start-up companies looking for investors will be able to solicit over the Internet from the general public under a new proposal issued by U.S. regulators on Wednesday.
The “crowdfunding” proposal, if adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission, would be a major shift in how small U.S. companies can raise money in the private securities market.
It remains to be seen if the plan goes far enough in limiting regulatory costs so that small businesses find crowdfunding desirable… [
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NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. judge has thrown out a lawsuit accusing Germany’s Siemens AG of funneling kickbacks to Chinese and North Korean hospital officials, narrowing the ability of plaintiffs to use U.S. courts to sue over conduct outside the country.
U.S. District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan on Monday said the anti-retaliation provision of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law, which shields whistleblowers from discipline for reporting alleged violations by their employers, did not apply to conduct outside the United States.
The decision is the latest arising from the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in Morrison v. National Australia Bank, which created a presumption that U.S. civil statutes do not apply to non-U.S. conduct unless Congress suggests otherwise…. [
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The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) isn’t just for
technology companies —manufacturers can run afoul of the law as well. Automated teller machine (ATM) manufacturer Diebold Inc. has learned this lesson the hard way and now faces a $48 million settlement after foreign bribery charges.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
claims that Diebold attempted to bribe officials from China, Indonesia and Russia in exchange for government contracts on ATMs. The government estimates that Diebold spent $1.8 million on travel for foreign dignitaries and an additional $1.2 million in bribes to Russian officials to falsify books and records. In one instance, the SEC says, Diebold allegedly paid for Chinese bank officials to take a two-week trip around Europe, including stops in Paris and Rome…[
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US, British and Chinese authorities are stepping up investigations of corruption in the food and drug industry and other sectors on the mainland, according to speakers at a conference in Beijing last week.
US authorities started 10 investigations under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in China in recent years, said John Tan, counsel with Reed Smith, an international law firm. Also this year, they began investigating 11 pharmaceutical firms and medical device makers globally under the act, he added.
FCPA is a US law forbidding companies with a US connection from bribing officials in countries outside America… [
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Tags: FCPA, FCPA violations, International Trade, Legal News, SEC, Weekly Industry News