Long-Awaited FCPA Guidance is Reportedly Imminent
At a November 2011 conference on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer announced that “detailed new guidance on the [FCPA’s] criminal and civil enforcement provisions” would be released sometime in 2012. The announcement of this anticipated guidance was an unexpected but welcome development for companies and FCPA practitioners alike. In an area of the law where precedent is relatively lacking and the precedent that does exist often comes in the form of negotiated settlements and fact-specific DOJ Opinion Procedure Releases instead of litigated cases, the forthcoming guidance could be an important asset in the FCPA compliance toolbox.
Recent reports suggest that the guidance – which presumably will be jointly issued by the DOJ and the SEC, who share enforcement authority over the FCPA – is likely to be released this month. Although the DOJ and SEC have not publicly provided any indication regarding the topics that the guidance will cover, this article highlights a few areas in which additional direction from the enforcement authorities would be particularly useful.