Here are two great stories that signify an encouraging trend for anyone working in complex FCPA litigation and e-discovery.
First, from Robert Trigaux of the St. Petersburg Times:
John Benson Wier III, 46 and president of St. Petersburg’s SRT Supply, was in Las Vegas this week hawking military equipment from Booth 26506 at the 2010 Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade show.
His sales pitch was short lived. He was one of 22 arrested in a Federal Bureau of Investigation sting Monday and charged with attempting to bribe foreign officials and money laundering.
FBI agents posing as defense officials of an African country proposed a scheme in which U.S. companies would pay 20 percent “commissions” to equip a presidential guard with pistols, tear-gas launchers, bulletproof vests and other supplies.
Wier, says the U.S. Department of Justice, was supposed to provide 1,800 grip-mounted laser sites. Also arrested was Andrew Bigelow, 40, managing partner and director of government programs for a Sarasota company called Gun Search that sells machine guns, grenade launchers and other small arms.
This week, 150 FBI agents executed 14 search warrants in locations across the country, including St. Petersburg.
The 16 indictments unsealed Tuesday represent the largest single investigation and prosecution against individuals in the history of the Department of Justice’s enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Also from Amy Miller at Corporate Counsel:
In what’s billed as the first large-scale undercover investigation into violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Justice Department has netted 22 executives, including the general counsel of a company that makes military equipment. They were charged with attempting to pay bribes to win lucrative overseas contracts worth $15 million.
“The fight to erase foreign bribery from the corporate playbook will not be won overnight,” Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer said in a press release. “But these actions are a turning point. From now on would-be FCPA violators should stop and ponder whether the person they are trying to bribe might really be a foreign agent…”
…Usually, possible FCPA violations come to the department’s attention only after companies report them, or they’re reported by the news media. So companies that may be trying to comply with the law are often hit hard. That’s not the case here, she said…
Among those indicted was Jeana Mushriqui, 30, general counsel for Mushriqui Consulting, a company in Upper Darby, Pa., that makes and exports bulletproof vests and other law enforcement and military equipment. She and her brother, John Mushriqui, the company’s director, face six counts of violating the FCPA, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering…
Both of these stories add weight to and are consistent with the Attorney General’s speech on financial fraud from roughly two weeks ago.
