{"id":8622,"date":"2023-04-12T18:15:52","date_gmt":"2023-04-12T18:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.americanconference.com\/fcpa-dc\/?page_id=8622"},"modified":"2023-08-08T20:44:22","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T20:44:22","slug":"how-to-handle-a-cross-border-anticorruption-investigation","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.americanconference.com\/fcpa-dc\/aci-insights\/how-to-handle-a-cross-border-anticorruption-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Handle a Cross-Border Anticorruption Investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\r\n

By Jaclyn Jaeger<\/p>\r\n

Wednesday, April 12, 2023<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

Juggling conversations with multiple enforcement agencies simultaneously in the course of a cross-border anticorruption investigation can be a difficult and daunting task for legal and compliance teams. Getting it right can mean the difference between reaching a fair outcome or causing more legal trouble for the company in the end.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

\u201cCompanies can assume that the United States, the United Kingdom, and other notable jurisdictions\u2014France, Germany, the Netherlands, for example\u2014will all be working in concert together,\u201d said Barry Vitou, head of the global investigations and enforcement practice at Holman Fenwick Willan.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

That increased coordination between agencies ups the ante for companies under investigation, because it \u201ccreates a greater risk of wrongdoing being uncovered, and also, perhaps, creates a greater degree of complexity when seeking to resolve the issue,\u201d Vitou noted.<\/p> \r\n \r\n

While the relationship between the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.K. Serious Fraud Office (SFO), in particular, certainly has seen ups and downs, \u201cIt\u2019s definitely in an up period,\u201d said Daniel Kahn, former head of the DoJ\u2019s Fraud Section and FCPA Unit, and now a partner at Davis Polk.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Camilla de Silva, former co-head of Fraud and Corruption at the SFO, said during her time at the agency, from 2014 to 2020, \u201cthere was definitely an ever-increasing development of coordination.\u201d That coordination was twofold: operationally and intellectually, from an information-sharing standpoint, she said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n \"FCPA<\/a>\r\n \r\n

The Rolls Royce case, in particular, was a real turning point, because it demonstrated how the two agencies \u201ccould work together on a matter and get a good result,\u201d Kahn said. \u201cWe have continued to see strong coordination and cooperation in recent cases as well.\u201d<\/p>\r\n \r\n

As SFO Director Lisa Osofsky highlighted in public remarks, \u201cour record-breaking resolutions with Glencore and Airbus would not have been possible if we had not invested in the relationships that enabled us to have frank discussions and identify effective ways of working side by side with our international partners.\u201d<\/p>\r\n \r\n

In Glencore, the SFO levied the biggest corporate sentence in U.K. history, while the \u20ac3.6 billion (US$4 billion) global coordinated resolution reached with Airbus in January 2020 resulted in the SFO\u2019s largest penalty under a deferred prosecution agreement\u2014a \u20ac991 million (US$1.1 billion) fine.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

In another collaborative move, the Fraud Section has, since 2017, detailed a U.S. prosecutor to the SFO and U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Deployed from and overseen by the Corporate Enforcement, Compliance, and Policy (CECP) Unit, this individual participates in FCA and SFO investigations, and advises law enforcement personnel on effective interagency coordination, \u201cand otherwise serves as a liaison between the Fraud Section and some of its most critical overseas law enforcement and regulatory partners,\u201d according to the Fraud Section\u2019s 2022 \u201cYear in Review\u201d report.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Investigation Stages<\/h5>\r\n \r\n

Kahn says there are three stages of an investigation, each of which should be handled differently. Those three stages are the initiation of an investigation, the investigation\/cooperation phase, and the resolution phase. Each of those stages is discussed in more detail below.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

During the initiation of an investigation, if the company has made a decision to voluntarily self-disclose a matter, and the issue touches upon both the United States and the United Kingdom, \u201cyou most likely will want to disclose to both agencies to get the benefit of self-disclosures from both agencies,\u201d Kahn said.<\/p> \r\n \r\n

A company should be prepared to field \u201cfact-specific questions when the investigation first kicks off around the underlying facts or issues,\u201d Vitou said.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

\u201cIn the investigation stage, the most important thing is to keep open lines of communication and to talk through any issues or any differences between each agency\u2019s demands and requests,\u201d Kahn said. If the DoJ is demanding something that is going to impact what the SFO wants or is doing, \u201cmake sure you are communicating that to both agencies, and that you are having good enough dialogue to flag things, so that the SFO and DoJ can be talking to each other,\u201d he said.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

At some point during the discussion enforcement authorities, questions will be posed about the company\u2019s compliance program, and so \u201cyou would expect the general counsel or the head of legal to be involved,\u201d and, often, the chief compliance officer as well, Vitou said. In some companies, that individual may hold this dual role.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Lastly, during the resolution stage, it\u2019s important to ensure everyone is on the same page and progressing at the same pace in order to get to one coordinated resolution. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen that in the public cases that have resolved where credit was given, so there is precedent for that,\u201d Kahn said.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Although enforcement agencies are increasingly coordinating with one another, and some degree of investigative overlap will occur, companies should still anticipate having separate conversations with authorities. \u201cThe SFO, for example, is not going to rubberstamp everything the DoJ asks. They will want to ask their own questions, as will the French and Dutch authorities, for example,\u201d Vitou said.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Because each enforcement authority\u2019s enforcement approach and legal systems differ, \u201cyou\u2019d want to have legal counsel on board that are experienced in the jurisdictions that you are dealing with,\u201d de Silva said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\"FCPA<\/a>\r\n \r\n

It\u2019s also critically important to be upfront and transparent with all the agencies. \u201cIf Agency A receives slightly different information than Agency B, that\u2019s not going to fly. It\u2019s likely to backfire,\u201d Vitou said. \u201cYou want to be transparent with everybody.\u201d<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Having \u201copen and frank conversation with both agencies\u201d and making sure to flag all relevant issues, Kahn said, also will work in the company\u2019s favor in matters where privacy issues or employment law issues arise, and the company may not be able to produce certain records because they violate the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), for example.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Looking ahead, \u201cwe\u2019re seeing more jurisdictions looking to resolve issues within their own jurisdiction, as well as pushing forward with their own anticorruption legislation,\u201d de Silva said. In some ways, that\u2019s beneficial to companies facing investigations, because it\u2019s less of a drain on corporate resources when you can respond to multiple agencies at the same time, she said.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

At the same time, however, jurisdictions new to the anticorruption regulatory or enforcement landscape present unknowns for companies as far as their expectations. \u201cIf you can get to a place where you have a good working relationship with the other side, even if it is adversarial,\u201d de Silva said, \u201cthat is better than being in a position where there is lack of trust.\u201d<\/p>\r\n \r\n

ACI will be holding its \u201cAnticorruption London\u201d conference June 20-21<\/span> in London<\/em>  | For more information, and to register, please visit:\r\nhttps:\/\/www.c5-online.com\/ac-london\/<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n

For questions, concerns or more information about ACI Insights, please contact:<\/strong>
Chris Corbin
Associate Director of Marketing
American Conference Institute |<\/span> The Canadian Institute |<\/span> C5
E: c.corbin@americanconference.com<\/a><\/p>\r\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jaclyn Jaeger Wednesday, April 12, 2023 Juggling conversations with multiple enforcement agencies simultaneously in the course of a cross-border anticorruption investigation can be a difficult and daunting task for legal and compliance teams. 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