Pinkerton Government Services (PGS), a company that specializes in security, fire and emergency services for government agencies and contractor companies, has agreed to pay just over $1 million in order to settle allegations that it overbilled the government on health insurance costs. PGS, a subsidiary of the large security firm Securitas Security Services, was providing [...]

President Obama today signed into law the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009 (FERA), a bill that extensively ramps up anti-fraud measures, including authorizing new funding to fight fraud, adding protections to federal whistle-blowers and expanding the power of

A former Department of Energy employee pleaded guilty to one count of false statements, after the Department of Justice accused him of writing his own annual review. He did so, according to news reports, in order to justify an annual performance award that he also managed to give himself. According to the DOJ, no individual [...]

The Department of Justice announced last week that it filed a forfeiture action against approximately $3 million in accounts held in Singapore. The DOJ alleges that this money was used to pay off officials in Bangladesh. The kicker is that some

Just in case you forgot that the U.S. government applies the FCPA to foreign companies that operate within the United States, here is a reminder.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced new Departmental guidelines today that repeal restrictions to attorney-client privilege between corporations and their employees embroiled in federal cases. These new guidelines will

Willbros Group, Inc. and its subsidiary, Willbros International, agreed to pay $32.3 million in a settlement with the Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve allegations of FCPA violations. Of that

A new bill that will further regulate the federal acquisition process, called The Close the Contractor Fraud Loophole Act, was approved by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last week, according to a report by Federal Computer Week, and is now

The CEO of Denver-based Grynberg Productions is trying a new strategy to escape possible FCPA violations: suing a bunch of his rivals. This month Jack Grynberg, the eponymous chairman of the oil company, sued British oil company BP, BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward, Former BP Chief Executive John Browne, Norway’s Statoil and others, accusing them [...]

Who says random airport searches don’t work? United States customs officials discovered that Hanjuan Jin, 37, a China-born U.S. citizen, was allegedly trying to leak confidential trade secrets from her former U.S. employer to a China-based rival when they searched her luggage at

Last year Stryker Corp came under fire for illegal payments to U.S. doctors. This year, that might be topped. The company announced in an SEC filing last month that it is being investigated by the Department of Justice for “possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.” While not many specific details have been announced [...]

Alcoa was sued yesterday by Aluminum Bahrain BSC in a U.S. federal court for allegations of overcharging, fraud and bribery. Aluminum Bahrain BSC, better known as Alba, says it was overcharged by Alcoa for alumina (pictured), a key ingredient in creating aluminum. The company says it paid excesses of about $65 million per year for [...]

Will there ever be an end to the Oil-for-Food abuses? Flowserve Corporation announced last Thursday that it will pay nearly $10.6 million to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice for violating the United Nation’s Iraq Oil-for-Food humanitarian program. A Dutch and French-based subsidiary of the company, Flowserve Pompes SAS, [...]

The European engineering firm Siemens just learned that it might be fined as much as €4 billion (close to $6 billion) by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission as the result of a large bribery investigation that began in 2006. The number is about three times the amount of bribes that were uncovered coming [...]

Joining private life hasn’t saved former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft from public scrutiny. He’s back in the spotlight after New Jersey top prosecutor Christopher Christie recently gave Mr. Ashcroft’s consulting firm, the Ashcroft Group, the contract to monitor a settlement between Zimmer Holdings, a medical supply company, and the Department of Justice. What raised [...]

Bribery, according to the DOJ. Lucent technologies helped wrap up a DOJ investigation on Tuesday by agreeing to pay $1 million for FCPA violations. From 2000 to 2003 the company reportedly spent over $10 million on about 315 various trips for approximately 1,000 Chinese government officials. This included all expense paid trips to Disneyland, Universal [...]

A new case this week proves that the FCPA doesn’t just cover the back offices of large, powerful businesses. Even individuals and small businesses can and will be prosecuted for violations. Gerald Green, a Hollywood producer, and his wife Patricia were arrested for allegedly bribing a Thai official as much as $1.7 million in order [...]

Stolt-Nielsen’s amnesty has been reinstated and the company’s Chief Executive, Niels G. Stolt-Nielsen, is “pleased” that he doesn’t have to go to jail – a fate suffered by three top brass of the company’s co-conspirators in a 2002 antitrust case. This is the latest (and final?) development in an ongoing case of “he said, she [...]

She’s mad as hell and she’s not going to take it anymore…and now she’s going to “fight like hell” to do something about it. Apparently a record-breaking fine of $1.3 billion against elevator cartels didn’t get the message across as clear as she’d like (note: fines levied against cartels could be as steep as 10 [...]

David Brooks, the former CEO of DHB Industries, was recently indicted by the Department of Justice for insider trading, fraud, obstruction of justice and tax evasion. Even after all those charges, the most gripping piece of information is what Brooks allegedly spent company money on, including $101,500 on an armored vehicle for himself and his [...]

Two major settlements relating to oil spills were reached this week. Polar Tankers, a subsidiary of ConocoPhillips, was fined $2.5 million dollars for an oil spill in the Pacific Ocean in 2004. A criminal penalty represented $500,000 of the fine, and the other $2 million went to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, a nonprofit [...]

York International agreed to pay $10 million to the U.S. government on Monday to resolve allegations that some of its employees paid bribes to Iraqi officials.

Thomas Barnett, the head of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division who was recently thrust in the spotlight for his protest of the EU decision to throw out Microsoft’s antitrust appeal, further explained his position during a recent speech at Georgetown University.

Paradigm BV, a provider of “enterprise software solutions” to the oil and natural gas industry, entered into an agreement with the Department of Justice (DOJ) yesterday regarding Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations. Illegal payments Paradigm made to China, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Mexico and Nigeria were self-reported to the Department of Justice by the company through [...]

After Microsoft’s sound legal defeat at the hands of the EU’s Court of First Instance on Monday, experts debate the future impact and role of the European Commission (EC) in world business. The conflict stretches from legal experts in support of the ruling to U.S. government officials such as Thomas Barnett, the Assistant Attorney General [...]