Foreign Corruption

Alexion, a Boston-based pharmaceutical company, agreed to pay $21.5 million to settle charges it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). A settlement, announced by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), alleges that the company’s foreign subsidiaries in Turkey and...

On July 1, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation agreed to pay $642 million to settle a False Claims Act case brought by a whistleblower. The federal government claims that Novartis knowingly committed two kinds of fraud: first, that they funneled money through...

In spring of last year, Mislav Kotarac went public with allegations of widespread corruption and misconduct within Croatia’s Energy Efficiency and Environmental Protection Fund. He had repeatedly told Croatian authorities – to no avail – about fraud, abuse of authority,...

Today, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Novartis AG (“Novartis”), a global pharmaceutical and healthcare company based in Switzerland, agreed to pay over $225 million to resolve FCPA charges for bribery...

Over the weekend, the growing scandal engulfing the German digital payment giant Wirecard reached the point of no return. In the Bavarian city of Aschheim near Munich, police searched Wirecard’s headquarters for evidence showing whether the DAX-listed company made misleading...

In announcing a new initiative to track the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on foreign corruption and bribery, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has called on international governments to protect whistleblowers. “The high risk of corruption poses...

You would be hard-pressed to find someone who disagrees with the conclusion that U.S. whistleblower reward programs are among the most effective anti-corruption tools ever imagined. One such program alone – the False Claims Act – has helped the government...

A recent twist in a whistleblower complaint against international mining conglomerate Rio Tinto shows the power of U.S. whistleblower laws to fight fraud across the globe. The Financial Times reports that a former Rio Tinto employee who reported that managers...

Ohio-based pharmaceutical company Cardinal Health has agreed to pay $8.8 million to resolve charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). According to a statement from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), employees of Cardinal Health’s former Chinese...

U.S. prosecutors recently unsealed charges against three executives who were involved in a bribery and money laundering scheme that violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The executives bribed Indonesian officials to win a contract for a power project over...