Anti-Corruption & Compliance Blog

The following summarizes our team’s monitoring of key developments in anti-corruption enforcement during 2022 and what that may mean going forward in this new year:

• The Department of Justice (“DOJ”) brought 17 enforcement actions in 2022. Only 5 were against companies: Honeywell, ABB, GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes, Glencore, and Stericycle.
• The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) brought 6 enforcement actions in 2022. In addition to Stericycle, GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes and ABB, the SEC also brought actions against KT Corporation, Tenaris, and Oracle.
• Sanctions in 2022 were approximately $1.5 billion, with Glencore’s settlement with the DOJ topping the list. This was an increase over 2021, where total sanctions were less than $300 million.
• As we discussed in our April blog post, “DOJ Issues Expedited FCPA Opinion Procedure,” the DOJ issued its first opinion procedure in two years regarding payment to a foreign intermediary to ensure the safe return of a boat’s captain, crew, and vessel.
• As discussed in our March and November posts, the Russian sanctions put in place during 2022 were constantly changing and evolving, forcing companies to follow them closely in order to remain in compliance.

Throughout 2022, the DOJ and SEC continued to aggressively pursue enforcement actions and work with law enforcement agencies around the world to combat corruption. In fact, in January 2023, Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite publicly commented on the work of the DOJ’s Fraud Section, which investigates and prosecutes white collar crime, including the FCPA. He noted the numerous individual convictions, corporate criminal resolutions and corporate enforcement declinations secured by the Fraud Section in 2022, and he promised that there will be more enforcement actions in 2023. 

We will continue to monitor emerging anti-corruption trends throughout 2023. Our next post will focus on the DOJ’s recent changes to its Criminal Division Corporate Enforcement and Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy and the potential impact going forward.