Welcome to Dorsey & Whitney’s monthly Anti-Corruption Digest. In this digest, we draw together news of enforcement activity throughout the world and aim to reduce your information overload. Our London, Minneapolis, New York and Washington DC offices edit the digest and select the most important material so that you can use this digest as a single source of information.
In this edition, among the many topics discussed, we report on the $25 million settlement between Novartis and the SEC regarding allegations that the company paid bribes to healthcare professionals in China between 2009 and 2013; the sentencing of a former Arkansas Circuit Judge having admitted to reducing a jury award in exchange for campaign contributions; and the owner of a U.S. based oil and gas services companies pleading guilty to bribing officials to win contracts from Venezuela’s state-owned energy company.
Updates from the U.K. include a report on the protection of whistleblowers in public services and news that two former executives of a company that supplies technology based products for the metals industry have been charged by the SFO with alleged corruption.
Global updates include news from Brazil that one of the country’s most senior businessmen has been sentenced to over 19 years in jail following allegations of corruption linked to Petrobras; a report on the continuing anti-corruption campaign in China which has seen the former president of the Bank of Inner Mongolia face trial following allegations that he was involved in a corruption matter valued over $92 million; a ruling from the Supreme Court of India that expanded the scope of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 to be applicable to directors and other officers of private banks; reports from Iran that the businessman Babak Zanjani along with two accomplices has been sentenced to death for corruption; plus anti-corruption developments in Guatemala, North Korea, Russia and more from around the globe.
We hope you find this information useful. To view this issue, click here.
Corruption issues are also addressed in the Anti-Fraud Network’s newsletters: see http://www.antifraudnetwork.com for current and archived material; see also the Computer Fraud website at http://computerfraud.us and SEC Actions at http://www.secactions.com. To subscribe to future editions of the Anti-Corruption Digest, click here.