Negotiated Settlements in Bribery Cases

Negotiated Settlements in Bribery Cases
Author: Tina Søreide
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2020-04-24
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1788970411

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.

The Value of Negotiated Settlements in Foreign Bribery Cases

The Value of Negotiated Settlements in Foreign Bribery Cases
Author: Abiola O. Makinwa
Publisher:
Total Pages: 22
Release: 2017
Genre:
ISBN:

As negotiated settlements for corruption offences spread across jurisdictions, the appropriateness and value of such settlements for the sanctioning of the serious offence of foreign bribery is the subject of increasing contention. Questions are posed about the compatibility of negotiated settlements with the rule of law. Questions are also posed about the actual deterrent effect of negotiated settlements. This paper explores the 'value' of negotiated settlements and argues that we must use the right metric for this assessment. The paper argues that while metrics may indeed be developed to measure how 'effective', 'proportionate,' or 'dissuasive' negotiated settlements are as a sanction against corruption, the better metric of 'value' is probably found in Art. 1(c) of UNCAC, i.e. to 'promote integrity, accountability and proper management of public affairs and public property'. Accountability and enforcement is, and has always been, the albatross of the fight against corruption. Negotiated settlements provide an alternative mechanism of enforcement that is arguably more suited to the environment in which foreign bribery occurs. In addition, the paper argues that that the 'value' of negotiated settlements depends on the particular context from which it is viewed. Conclusions reached in one context about negotiated settlements may not be relevant with regard to another context. However, whether viewed from a corporate criminal punishment context, or, from a rule of law context, or, from a good governance context, encouraging self-policing, self-reporting and the self-regulation, may, very simply, be the only way to bridge the impunity gap of institutionalized corruption. Bridging that gap is the true value of negotiated settlements.

Resolving Foreign Bribery Cases with Non-Trial Resolutions Settlements and Non-Trial Agreements by Parties to the Anti-Bribery Convention

Resolving Foreign Bribery Cases with Non-Trial Resolutions Settlements and Non-Trial Agreements by Parties to the Anti-Bribery Convention
Author: OECD
Publisher: OECD Publishing
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2019-03-10
Genre:
ISBN: 9264677852

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.

Negotiated Settlements for Corruption Offences

Negotiated Settlements for Corruption Offences
Author: Abiola Makinwa
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015
Genre: Bribery
ISBN: 9789462364523

"EU Member states must continually review and assess their anti-corruption regulations and policies to ensure that they meet their obligation to provide effective, proportionate and dissuasive criminal penalties in the protection of the financial interests of the EU. For this reason, the development of effective enforcement of anti-corruption rules is a central element of anti-corruption strategy of EU Member States. OLAF, the European Anti-Fraud Office, bears the important role of assisting EU member states in their discharge of this obligation by providing assistance and advice. Of particular interest to OLAF is the development of mechanisms that serve to deter grand scale corruption by the use of appropriate penalties. What is the European response to this emerging practice of negotiated settlements? How does the possibility of negotiated settlements align with the particular character of European criminal law enforcement systems? What socio-economic, political, legal, and other factors should be taken into consideration in formulating a European response? These are the questions that have triggered the 2 day seminar on 'Negotiated settlements for corruption offences: A European perspective'."--Source inconnue.

Left Out of the Bargain

Left Out of the Bargain
Author: Jacinta Anyango Oduor
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 181
Release: 2013-12-11
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1464800871

Over the past decade, countries have increasingly used settlements that is, any procedure short of a full trial to conclude foreign bribery cases and have imposed billions in monetary sanctions. There exists a gap in knowledge, however, regarding settlement practices around the world and the disposition of these monetary sanctions notably through the lens of recovery of stolen assets. Left out of the Bargain, a study by the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative (StAR), provides an overview of settlement practices by civil and common law countries that have been active in the fight against foreign bribery. Using the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) as its point of reference, the study addresses concerns voiced by the international community: What happens to the money associated with the settlements, and is it being returned to those most directly harmed by the corrupt practices? And what can be done to assist those countries harmed by foreign bribery? Left out of the Bargain has found that 395 settlement cases took place between 1999 and mid-2012, resulting in a total of US$6.9 billion in monetary sanctions imposed against companies and individuals. Of this amount, nearly US$6 billion came from settlements that took place in a country different from that of the allegedly bribed foreign public officials. But only about US$197 million, or 3 percent, has been returned or ordered returned to the countries whose officials were accused of accepting bribes. Left out of the Bargain urges countries whose officials were allegedly bribed to intensify their efforts to investigate and prosecute the providers and recipients of foreign bribes, hence improving these countries' prospects for recovery of assets lost through corruption. The study also calls for more proactive international cooperation and coordination to ensure that all affected countries are afforded the opportunity to seek redress for harms suffered and for the recovery of assets thus fulfilling the principles set out in UNCAC.

The Detection of Foreign Bribery

The Detection of Foreign Bribery
Author: OECD
Publisher: OECD Publishing
Total Pages: 164
Release: 2017-12-12
Genre:
ISBN: 9264368140

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.

Too Big to Jail

Too Big to Jail
Author: Brandon L. Garrett
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 380
Release: 2014-11-03
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0674744616

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.

Extraterritoriality and International Bribery

Extraterritoriality and International Bribery
Author: Branislav Hock
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2019-09-11
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0429665482

The book presents a collective action perspective to explain how extraterritoriality functions and assess when, and to what extent, extraterritoriality is effective. A collective action perspective provides a new account of foreign anti-bribery laws and their extraterritorial enforcement that draws on theories discussed in the field of economic governance. Within this framework, the book offers an intensive analysis of US foreign anti-bribery law such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), international law as it emanates from the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, and comparative insights into UK law and German law. To test the theory in practice, the book provides a unique data set of more than 40 foreign anti-bribery enforcement actions conducted by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and other examples from comparative jurisdictions. Extraterritoriality and International Bribery is ideal reading for academics and students with an interest in global governance, economic crime, criminology, and law and economics, as well as practitioners concerned with foreign anti-bribery enforcement, including compliance officers, lawyers, investigating and prosecuting authorities, and business leaders. The book also discusses governance alternatives existing outside international anti-bribery law and offers policy and legal reforms proposals. The book suggests a decentralized enforcement model with the delegation of some enforcement tasks to an external body as the most appropriate governance alternative.