Alex Brackett, a partner in McGuireWoods’ Government Investigations & White Collar Litigation Department, is featured in a Q&A column in Metropolitan Corporate Counsel’s July/August issue focusing on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
In the article, titled “FCPA Enforcement is Here to Stay,” Brackett discussed how the Justice Department’s renewed FCPA pilot program signals a continued effort to investigate alleged corporate corruption under the Trump administration. As many governments around the globe have introduced anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws over the past decade, Brackett noted that enforcement actions by those governments have started to increase in recent years, dispelling the common notion that the FCPA creates an uneven playing field for U.S. companies.
Brackett cautioned that a significant number of FCPA enforcement matters involve either “a failure to adequately vet, understand and oversee third parties that you were inviting into your house, or a similar failure to adequately vet and integrate a new acquisition into your business. Those are where problems often arise, fester and turn into enforcement matters.”