Top 10 International Anti-Corruption Developments For June 2019

In order to provide an overview for busy in-house counsel and compliance professionals, we summarize below some of the most important international anti-corruption developments from the past month, with links to primary resources. This month we ask: What did a federal court have to say about the jurisdictional reach of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)? How did the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) fare in the latest FCPA prosecution to be tried to a jury? Which companies saw their FCPA investigations come to an end? The answers to these questions and more are here in our June 2019 Top Ten list.

Federal Court in Illinois Declines to Follow Second Circuit Decision Limiting FCPA Jurisdiction. On June 21, 2019, Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer of the Northern District of Illinois denied Dmitry Firtash's and Andras Knopp's motion to dismiss an FCPA conspiracy and aiding and abetting charge arising from an alleged scheme to bribe Indian officials for titanium mining rights. Although the indictment alleges that other co-conspirators took actions in the United States in furtherance of the bribery scheme, it does not allege that either Firtash or Knopp, Ukrainian and Hungarian citizens, respectively, was ever physically present in the United States, nor does it allege that either was acting as an "agent" for a domestic concern or for a foreign national who was present in the United States. On May 9, 2017, Firtash and Knopp moved to dismiss the indictment,1 arguing, among other things, that the indictment failed to state an FCPA offense based on these alleged pleading deficiencies. An August 2018 opinion by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in United States v. Hoskins lent considerable support to the defendants' position. There, the Second Circuit held that a similarly situated defendant was outside of the FCPA's jurisdictional reach and could not be convicted of aiding and abetting or conspiring to commit an FCPA violation unless DOJ could prove that he was acting as an "agent" of a domestic concern. Judge Pallmeyer, however, held that the Seventh Circuit, unlike the Second Circuit, would not require an "agency" element under these circumstances. Accordingly, Judge Pallmeyer denied the motion to dismiss. Should Firtash and Knopp ever be tried and convicted on the FCPA charges against them (neither has yet to appear in federal court, and Firtash has been fighting extradition from Austria for years), Judge Pallmeyer's...