US government will impose blockbuster fines in companies in bribery probe

Lawyers were quoted by the South China Morning Post, who said that the US government is set to impose "blockbuster" fines on companies found guilty of bribing foreign officials this year. They also said that the probes launched by the US will most likely target China.

The Asian newspaper pointed to a report made by WilmerHale, a US law firm, who said the amount of the fines pertained by the US could run into hundreds of millions of dollars under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

"US enforcement authorities have stated there are a number of very large settlements in the pipeline," said Jay Holtmeier, a partner at WilmerHale. "Given the attention paid to China in recent years, it is a safe bet some of those large settlements will involve conduct in China," the report by the law firm read.

SCMP said the largest settlement came from Germany's Siemens, which paid out $800 million in 2008.

Holtmeier added that the focus on China was probably because of the large amounts of foreign investment in the mainland and the high level of enforcement being doing by both domestic and US authorities. Moreover, his firm had viewed confidential cases, which revealed that a number of them will be involcving China.

Shanghai-based partner John Tan at US law firm Reed Smith said, "(I had seen a) "marked increase in anti-corruption enforcement by Chinese authorities across multiple industries. It would not be surprising to see US or UK regulators leveraging this trend to bring more China-based enforcement actions."

Beijing-based partner Wang Bing at Faegre Baker Daniels shared the same sentiment, and cited the recent barring of the mainland affiliates of the Big Four accounting firms by the US Securities and Exchange Commission from providing auditing services to US-listed firms from the mainland.

"If US authorities are suspicious of the auditors, they will be suspicious of Chinese firms listed in the US," Wang added.

Tags

US Securities and Exchange Commission, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)

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