The gritty truth? The accused should be thankful that their scheme was uncovered when it was. New legislation that was enacted after their trial took place sets the minimum fine for “monopolistic business practices” at 10 times what they paid, or nearly $19 million.

While none of the 20 executives appeared in court, all plan on appealing the decision. “We have full confidence in the Egyptian legal system, and the appeal will prove that we are innocent and that there is no case,” Omar Mohanna, chairman of Suez Cement and one of the executives facing fines, was quoted as saying by the Daily News Egypt.

The SEC stated:

“Although Textron knew of endemic corruption in the Middle East, it knew or was reckless in not knowing that illicit payments were paid in connection with all of these transactions.”

Textron is the second U.S. company to settle charges on cases dealing with the Oil-for-Food program. The natural gas pipeline company El Paso Corp. agreed to pay $7.73 million in charges last February.

Textron announced that it “disciplined or fired several employees connected to the scandal.”

Read the complete story here.

This new online tool, called BRIBEline, is backed by many leading organizations and companies such as Wal-Mart, International Paper, the World Bank, UPS, Tyco International, and Rolls-Royce.

BRIBEline (the acronym stands for the “Business Registry for International Bribery and Extortion”) is essentially an online survey that is available in 14 languages. While no names are required or collected, the survey asks participants to respond to ten multiple-choice questions. All information is kept anonymous so that reports cannot be used for legal investigations or prosecutions.

Ultimately, the information gathered through BRIBEline will be collected and publicly reported by TRACE in hopes of highlighting where the worst offenders reside in terms of country, ministry, or sector. This in turn will help companies target their compliance and anti-corruption efforts.

Commentary: We think that this is a fabulous tool that reflects the excellent leadership in anti-corruption demonstrated by TRACE’s leader, Alexandra Wrage. There has been a real dearth of information about where bribes are occurring, with companies limited to examining only their own experience and DOJ prosecution and investigation records.

We strongly encourage companies to get involved with BRIBEline and look forward to some of the interesting trends and information that come as a result.

British newspaper The Daily Mail obtained legal documents under the Freedom of Information Act which covered a meeting between Britain’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia (Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles) who told the director of Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) at a meeting on November 30, 2006 that ‘British lives on British streets were at risk’.

As a result, then Prime Minister Tony Blair had the SFO investigation closed on December 14, 2006.

Commentary: BAE Systems however remains under investigation in the United States relating to the same bribery charges and we doubt that the U.S. government will as easily cave to any possible political pressure. On another note – we are very impressed how quick the UK FOIA dictated release of meeting notes that only happened seven months ago. We suspect that such notes would not have been released as quickly stateside.

The Commission’s complaint alleged that 25 to 30 cents per barrel purchased by El Paso was illegally kicked back to Iraq in the form of a secret oil surcharge and that El Paso knew, or was reckless in not knowing, that illegal surcharges were made.

Without admitting or denying the Commission’s allegations, El Paso simultaneously consented to the entry of a court order ordering it to pay $5.4 million in disgorgement of profits and a civil penalty of $2.3 million.

Commentary: El Paso was at the mercy of DOJ and SEC on this one, as recorded telephone calls of El Paso officials and oil traders showed that the company knew that the surcharges that it was paying on purchases were being kicked back to Iraqi government officials. This case underscores the importance of maintaining an adequate system of internal controls to detect and prevent such payments, as well as to properly to record the nature of the any such related payments.