This article examines the circumstances under which traditional authorities, such as aboriginal “band” (otherwise referred to as “tribal” or “traditional authority”) leaders, may qualify as “foreign officials” under the FCPA.

More than 100 members of the Mexican legal and business communities gathered in Mexico City on March 25 and 26, 2014 to attend the American Conference Institute’s First Annual Mexico Summit on Anti-Corruption.

Examining the compliance dangers inherent in obtaining a “social license to operate” in the mining industry.

Today’s investigation of transnational criminal matters, and prosecution or defense of civil cases increasingly involves the gathering of evidence located in foreign jurisdictions.  However, national sovereignty prevents U.S. prosecutors and litigators from doing so without prior judicial approval and assistance.  This first-of-its-kind guide, which the Federal Judicial Center per its statutory mission distributed to all federal judges across the country, discusses how civil and criminal litigants can obtain such litigation or investigation-related evidence and assistance from foreign jurisdictions.

This article conducts a comparative analysis of Germany’s anti-corruption laws, and examines why its efforts to fight bribery are second only to the United States (with the U.K. Bribery Act only occupying the to-some-surprising distant third spot).

This article and accompanying flow chart examine the just-enacted “Brazil Clean Companies Act,” a groundbreaking legislative effort at stemming corruption in the world’s seventh largest economy.

A central, recurring definitional challenge facing FCPA practitioners worldwide is whether, and under what circumstances, traditional local authorities, such as tribal leaders, qualify as “foreign officials” under the FCPA. Perkins Coie Senior Counsel Barak Cohen and Partner T. Markus Funk, both former USDOJ prosecutors, provide the most comprehensive analysis on this issue to date, concluding that the one-size-fits-all analytical approach once favored by observers cannot be reconciled with present-day enforcement realities.

Perkins Partner T. Markus Funk created a chart demonstrating the flow and function of Brazil’s just-released Clean Companies Act.

We live in a world that appears smaller each day due to the ease of instantaneous electronic communication.  As a result, gathering evidence for use in litigation or criminal cases is an increasingly global challenge.  Partner T. Markus Funk and U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall describe the substance and procedure of the two primary avenues for obtaining such evidence, namely, Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (MLATs) and Letters Rogatory.

Perkins Coie Partner T. Markus Funk and Associate Sambo “Bo” Dul anticipate the top 10 compliance challenges facing businesses worldwide in 2014.  (Reprinted in vol. 22, issue 2, ABA Criminal Justice Section Newsletter (Winter 2014).

Perkins Partners T. Markus Funk and Michael Sink survey five hot-button regulatory and compliance issues worth paying attention to in 2014.

Now that 2013 has wrapped up, it is that time of year again when Markus and Bo dust off the compliance crystal ball and take a look at what might be in store for 2014. Trends examined include FCPA enforcement, supply chain compliance, OFAC actions, the conflict minerals rules, carbon copy prosecutions, and SEC actions on whistleblower complaints.

On November 14, 2012, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued their long-anticipated Resource Guide regarding the agencies’ enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

"Simmering throughout 2011, the robust FCPA reform debate can now be divided into a number of distinct drafting and public policy battle fields. . . .  We examine (1) the core criminal law theory assumptions and (2) some of the public policy objectives driving the debate, including whether reforming the FCPA is advisable on public policy grounds, and the extent to which the position that foreign governments will view even modest FCPA reform as a signal to abandon wholesale their domestic anti-corruption efforts are justified."

The ABA invited Markus to author Chapter 5 of its The State of Criminal Justice, examining the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

In most recent FCPA cases, liability has attached indirectly, through the misconduct of foreign third parties, such as agents, intermediaries, consultants, joint venture partners, suppliers, distributors, local counsel, private equity companies and franchisees. As we move into 2011, all signals indicate such liability will be an increasing target, says T. Markus Funk.

Markus Funk, together with co-author Caryn Trombino, conducts a critical comparative analysis of recent efforts to evaluate the effectiveness of U.S. anti-corruption/Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA") efforts.  Specifically, Funk and Trombino compare and contrast the reports issued by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ("OECD"), Transparency International, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Many companies might be surprised to learn that the difficult to control acts of their foreign agents, intermediaries, consultants, joint venture partners, suppliers, distributors and even outside counsel, private equity portfolio companies and franchisees can result in—and, in fact, have resulted in—potentially devastating civil and criminal Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) liability to the principal or parent company . . . even absent any evidence of the company’s actual knowledge of this misconduct. And all indications are that the government will ramp up its reliance on such third-party liability as we move into 2011 and beyond. This update examines the growing threat of third-party liability and how clients can, through precautionary steps tailored to the particular circumstances of the company, effectively fend off the potentially catastrophic effects of third-party liability.

2010 was without question the FCPA's break-out year.  In his Bloomberg retrospective, Markus discusses (1) the major 2010 developments leading to this record-breaking performance, and (2) the key trends promising that 2011 will set a new standard in FCPA enforcement.

In this blog post, T. Markus Funk and Caryn Trombino examine recent criticism aimed at U.S. global anti-corruption efforts, as both the OECD and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have offered specific proposals to amend or improve the FCPA. These proposals, as well as the recent drop in U.S. ranking on Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index, suggest that U.S. global anti-corruption efforts are still a work in progress.

After surveying the OECD's "Phase 3" review of U.S. global anti-corruption efforts, Markus concludes that U.S. diplomatic pressure, buoyed by the OECD's encouraging findings, signals an era of continued domestic and international efforts to stem the tide of global corruption. Companies that fail to appropriately adapt to this new enforcement reality risk exposure not only to massive fines and financial penalties, but also to stiffening criminal sanctions.

The OECD has criticized other signatory nations for not living up to their anti-bribery obligations, and in its just released report also identifies certain discrete areas for U.S. improvement. But the bottom line message is that the U.S. government is a leader in anti-corruption enforcement.

In this article, Pravin Rao discuss the growth in multi-jurisdictional FCPA cases. Many nations now have anti-bribery laws and countries are working more closely to pursue joint cases. Given this ever-expanding anti-bribery framework, companies will need to analyze multiple bribery laws to assess their exposure, make self-disclosure decisions and reach a suitable resolution.