Negotiated Settlements In Bribery Cases

This thought-provoking book examines the scope, benefits and challenges of negotiated settlements as an enforcement mechanism in bribery cases, and demonstrates the need for a more harmonized and principled approach to deterring corporate bribery. Written by a global team of experts with backgrounds in legal practice, policy work and academia, it offers a truly international perspective, considering negotiated settlements in view of a variety of different legal systems and traditions.

Non-trial resolutions, often referred to as settlements, have been the predominant means of enforcing foreign bribery and other related offences since the entry into force of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention 20 years ago. The last decade has seen a steady increase in the use of coordinated multi-jurisdictional non-trial resolutions, which have, to date, permitted the highest global amount of combined financial penalties in foreign bribery cases. This study is the first cross-country examination of the different types of resolutions that can be used to resolve foreign bribery cases.

The OECD Anti-Bribery Convention focuses on enforcement through the criminalisation of foreign bribery but it is multidisciplinary and includes key requirements to combat money laundering, accounting fraud, and tax evasion connected to foreign bribery. The first step, however, in enforcing foreign bribery and related offences is effective detection. This study looks at the primary sources of detection for the foreign bribery offence and the role that certain public agencies and private sector actors can play in uncovering this crime. It examines the practices developed in different sectors and countries which have led to the successful detection of foreign bribery with a view to sharing good practices and improving countries’ capacity to detect and ultimately step-up efforts against transnational bribery. The study covers a wide range of potential sources for detecting foreign bribery: self-reporting; whistleblowers and whistleblower protection; confidential informants and cooperating witnesses; media and investigative journalism; tax authorities; financial intelligence units; other government agencies; criminal and other legal proceedings; international co-operation and professional advisers.

American courts routinely hand down harsh sentences to individual convicts, but a very different standard of justice applies to corporations. Too Big to Jail takes readers into a complex, compromised world of backroom deals, for an unprecedented look at what happens when criminal charges are brought against a major company in the United States. Federal prosecutors benefit from expansive statutes that allow an entire firm to be held liable for a crime by a single employee. But when prosecutors target the Goliaths of the corporate world, they find themselves at a huge disadvantage. The government that bailed out corporations considered too economically important to fail also negotiates settlements permitting giant firms to avoid the consequences of criminal convictions. Presenting detailed data from more than a decade of federal cases, Brandon Garrett reveals a pattern of negotiation and settlement in which prosecutors demand admissions of wrongdoing, impose penalties, and require structural reforms. However, those reforms are usually vaguely defined. Many companies pay no criminal fine, and even the biggest blockbuster payments are often greatly reduced. While companies must cooperate in the investigations, high-level employees tend to get off scot-free. The practical reality is that when prosecutors face Hydra-headed corporate defendants prepared to spend hundreds of millions on lawyers, such agreements may be the only way to get any result at all. Too Big to Jail describes concrete ways to improve corporate law enforcement by insisting on more stringent prosecution agreements, ongoing judicial review, and greater transparency.

Addresses the most central debates in contemporary investment law and policy.

Anti-Corruption Regulation, edited by Homer E Moyer Jr of Miller & Chevalier Chartered, captures the growing anti-corruption jurisprudence that is developing around the globe and comprises expert summaries of 29 countries' anticorruption laws and enforcement policies plus, contributions from Transparency International and the OECD. Topics covered include: foreign and domestic bribery, financial record keeping, liability and sanctions. In an easy-to-use question and answer format, trusted and reliable information on key topics of law and regulation in this area is provided by leading practitioners around the world. As well as in-depth comparative study of the topic from the perspective of leading experts, there are also editorial chapters covering anti-corruption developments affecting Latin America's mining industry; combating corruption in the banking industry - the Indian experience; calculating penalties; risk and compliance management systems; corporates and UK compliance - the way ahead; current progress in anti-corruption enforcement; and finally a global overview. "e;The comprehensive range of guides produced by GTDT provides practitioners with an extremely useful resource when seeking an overview of key areas of law and policy in practice areas or jurisdictions which they may otherwise be unfamiliar with."e; Gareth Webster, Centrica Energy E&P

It is a conservative estimate that every year, through corruption, between 20 billion dollars and 40 billion dollars are diverted from developing countries and find safe haven in foreign jurisdictions. In several countries that are party to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) anti-bribery convention, a very high proportion of cases of foreign bribery and related offenses have been resolved short of a full trial. Anticorruption practitioners and policy makers in countries where officials were allegedly bribed have (along with other interested stakeholders) therefore raised concerns about whether settlements might impede their own criminal or enforcement investigations and affect the liability of multinational companies in third countries. This study seeks to fill knowledge gap by: (i) informing policy makers and practitioners about the frameworks for settlements in various legal systems, (ii) examining settlements in practice and their implications for international cooperation, and (iii) analyzing how settlements relate to asset recovery in foreign bribery cases. An additional goal is to inform the general public (including civil society organizations) about these frameworks. This study describes and analyzes, both qualitatively and quantitatively, settlements in cases of foreign bribery and related offenses, and their implications for international cooperation and asset recovery. This report is structured as follows: chapter one adopts a broad definition of settlements as various procedures short of trials and analyzes the legal frameworks in a number of civil and common law countries. Chapter two traces the general trends and developments in settlements and considers the rationale for settlements. Chapter three analyzes the impact of settlements in one jurisdiction on pending and future investigations in other countries. Chapter four explores the link between asset recovery and settlements through the lens of United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). Chapter five offers conclusions. Chapter six presents detailed summaries of 14 significant cases.

Den Erwagungsgrunden der Rom I-VO zufolge ist es "im Interesse eines reibungslos funktionierenden Binnenmarkts" notwendig, "den Ausgang von Rechtsstreitigkeiten vorhersehbarer zu machen und die Sicherheit in Bezug auf das anzuwendende Recht sowie den freien Verkehr gerichtlicher Entscheidungen zu fordern". Um diese Argumentation zu durchdringen, ist eine Vorgehensweise notig, die sich kritisch mit dem komplexen Verhaltnis zwischen Rechtsverfahren und Marktprozess auseinandersetzt. Der vorliegende Band konzentriert sich auf die moderne okonomische Analyse des Vertragsrechts sowie auf den Konflikt zwischen Rechtssicherheit und Rechtskongruenz. In seinem Fazit weist der Autor auf die dringende Notwendigkeit einer neuen Vertragsrechtstheorie hin.