British companies hoping for a compliance reprieve from the U.K.'s key law against bribery could have a long wait ahead of them, with no promise of getting what they've asked for, say attorneys.
As prosecutors continue to accuse companies and individuals of foreign bribery, banks should be cautious about how they acquire licenses and sovereign wealth accounts, and where their clients send money abroad, say consultants.
The U.S. Justice Department's long-awaited guidance for businesses complying with a foreign anti-bribery law will do little to change its enforcement even as it sets some minds at ease, say attorneys.
As global efforts to crack down on bribery grow, financial institutions need to more closely scrutinize the accounts they maintain for politically-tied figures, according to a former senior assistant U.S. attorney.
Since its inception, some of the country's top corporations have asked lawmakers to scale back the reach of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits bribing foreign officials in conjunction with business deals, with one notable absence: the banking lobby.
Senate panel members Tuesday criticized the U.S. Justice Department's enforcement of a U.S. anti-bribery law even as representatives from the commercial sector asked Congress to better shield it from penalties.
The U.S. Justice Department plans to grow its staff of less than 10 prosecutors specializing in cases tied to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act to 15 or more, a spokeswoman confirmed.
Banks and other companies around the world are delaying deals in developing markets, in some cases canceling projects altogether, because they are afraid of being snared by anti-corruption laws, according to a private survey released today.
The number and size of fines levied annually against financial institutions and other corporations for bribery is likely to continue to rise as the global recession fuels corruption, say analysts.
Financial institutions are increasingly renegotiating or dropping planned business deals over concerns that they might violate U.S. anti-bribery laws, according to a survey released Monday.
Defendants in an international bribery case have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a case that could alter the way that the U.S. Justice Department enforces an international anti-corruption law, according to legal analysts.