Top Ten International Anti-Corruption Developments For June 2018

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 will be the impact of the first coordinated foreign bribery resolution between French and U.S. authorities? Who has been appointed to lead the UK Serious Fraud Office? What changes are being proposed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's whistleblower program? The answers to these questions and more are here in our June 2018 Top Ten list.

1. DOJ Announces First Coordinated Foreign Bribery Resolution with France. On June 4, 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that French financial services company Société Générale S.A. (SocGen) and its wholly owned subsidiary, SGA Société Générale Acceptance N.V. (SGA), had agreed to pay a combined total of $860 million in criminal penalties to resolve charges by U.S. and French authorities that it bribed Libyan officials during the Gaddafi regime and manipulated LIBOR. Between 2004 and 2009, SocGen paid over $90 million in commissions to a Libyan "broker," who allegedly paid portions of the commissions to high-level Libyan officials to secure thirteen investments and one restructuring from Libyan state-owned financial institutions worth approximately $3.66 billion in total. SocGen agreed to pay a total criminal penalty of $585 million to DOJ in connection with the bribery scheme, pursuant to a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) filed in the Eastern District of New York against the parent company and a guilty plea by the subsidiary. Half of this penalty will be paid to French authorities and credited by DOJ, marking the first coordinated resolution with French authorities in a foreign bribery case. DOJ declined to impose a monitor, citing significant remediation and ongoing monitoring by L'Agence Française Anticorruption. SocGen also agreed to pay $475 million in regulatory penalties and disgorgement to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in connection with the alleged LIBOR scheme. Building on recent reforms in its anti-corruption regime (see our March 2016 and November 2017 Top Tens for more), France's involvement in this foreign bribery prosecution could mark a major turning point in international anti-corruption efforts. France has long been criticized for failing to prosecute its own companies for foreign bribery, often leaving the United States to fill the void.

2. UK Serious Fraud Office Charges Monaco-based Consulting Companies in Iraq Bribery Investigation. On June 28, 2018, the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) announced that it had commenced criminal proceedings against Unaoil Ltd. and Unaoil Monaco SAM as part of an ongoing prosecution involving alleged corruption in Iraq. Unaoil Ltd. was summonsed with two offenses of conspiracy to give corrupt payments to secure the award of a contract worth $733 million to Leighton Contractors Singapore PTE Ltd for the construction of two oil pipelines in southern Iraq. Unaoil Monaco SAM was summonsed with two offenses of conspiracy to give corrupt payments to secure the award of contracts in Iraq to its client SBM Offshore NV. In...