Welcome to Dorsey & Whitney’s monthly Anti-Corruption Digest. In this digest, we draw together news of enforcement activity throughout the world and aim to reduce your information overload. Our London, Minneapolis, New York and Washington DC offices edit the digest and select the most important material so that you can use this digest as a single source of information.
In this edition, among the many topics discussed, we report on the sentencing of two former managers of Direct Access Partners to two years in prison for conspiracy, money laundering and FCPA violations; the filing of a class action against the telecommunications company, VimpleCom, in the federal court regarding allegations that the company offered bribes and committed other FCPA violations in connection with its conduct in Uzbekistan; and disclosures by Parametric Technology Corporation that it is in the process of negotiating settlements with the DOJ and SEC to resolve potential FCPA violations.
Updates from the UK include a report on the Crown Court’s approval of the UK’s first Deferred Prosecution Agreement, under which proceedings against ICBC Standard Bank Plc regarding its alleged failure to prevent the bribery of officials in Tanzania will be suspended; Sweett Group’s admission that its staff paid bribes to win contracts in the Middle East; and allegations that British American Tobacco illegally paid government officials and civil servants in countries in East Africa in order to undermine a UN anti-smoking treaty.
Global reports include news from Argentina regarding its former President, who is reported to have received a prison sentence for allegedly overseeing the embezzlement of public monies during his tenure; updates from China regarding the country’s continuing anti-corruption drive, including a report on corruption in the education sector; the investigation into the governing body of soccer where it has been alleged that bribes were paid by a sports marketing company in return for television and marketing rights; the settlement agreement between the African Development Bank and Hitachi following a three year investigation into the company following allegations of corruption regarding a works contract for the Medupi Power Station; plus anti-corruption developments in Ghana, Indonesia, New Zealand and more from around the globe.
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Corruption issues are also addressed in the Anti-Fraud Network’s newsletters: see http://www.antifraudnetwork.com for current and archived material; see also the Computer Fraud website at http://computerfraud.us and SEC Actions at http://www.secactions.com.
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