This Week in FCPA-Episode 81

Jay and I return for a wide-ranging discussion on some of the top compliance and ethics related stories of the week, including:

1. A former Embraer employee cops a guilty plea for his role in bribery in Saudi Arabia. Dick Cassin reports in the FCPA Blog.
2. A host of luminaries pen an article entitled, “Oral Downloads of Interview Memoranda to Government Regulators Waive Work Product Protection” on NYU’s Compliance and Enforcement Blog. This is scary stuff if you care about privilege.
3. An Italian judge orders ENI and Shell to a criminal trial for their alleged role in a massive bribery scandal in Nigeria over payment to obtain concession rights. Scott Tong reports in NPR’s Marketplace.
4. The German company Bilfinger seeks a comeback after a disastrous bribery and corruption scandal and sustaining a FCPA violation. Henry Cutter reports in the WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal.
5. Sam Rubenfeld explains that compliance with the Magnitsky Act is easy in the WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal.
6. George “Ren” McEachern, with the FBI’s international corruption unit, will retire and become a managing director at Exiger. Sam Rubenfeld reports in the WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal.
7. The former heads of the Paraguayan and Brazilian soccer associations guilty of racketeering conspiracy and other charges. Zachary Zagger and Sindhu Sundar report in Law360 (sub req’d)
8. Jay Rosen previews the Jay Rosen Weekend Report, What's in a Number and Are You More than a Just a Link Collector?
9. Join Tom’s monthly podcast series on One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program. In December, I conclude my discussion of written standards in a best practices compliance program. It is available on the FCPA Compliance Report, iTunes, Libsyn, YouTube and JDSupra.
10. Mike Volkov has published a new eBook, Pointing the Finger — How Corporate Boards Are Dodging Accountability and What CCOs Can Do About It. It was published by Corporate Compliance Insights and is available here.
11. Check out May the Podcast Be With You-the intersection of Star Wars and Compliance. The five-part series premiered on December 11. Episode 1-what is risk?, Episode 2-due diligence, Episode 3-effective training, Episode 4-disruption in compliance and Episode 5-myth of the rogue employee. The series is sponsored by Affiliated Monitors.