If any of your clients conduct or plan to conduct business in any foreign country, then you should read this blog.

The U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (FCPA) makes it a crime for a business or any of its officers, directors, employees, agents or shareholders to bribe a foreign official, foreign political party or candidate for political office, for the purpose of influencing a foreign official in order to obtain or retain business.

The U.K. Bribery Act of 2010 (UKBA), which is due to take effect on July 1 and has been described as “the FCPA on steroids,” takes this further by giving the U.K. jurisdiction over any commercial organization that conducts operations in the U.K., regardless of where the bribe is paid.

This means, for example, that if an agent of a U.S. company with operations in multiple countries, including at least one U.K. country, pays a bribe to a foreign official in any of those countries (U.K. or not), the U.S. company could be convicted under the UKBA. The UKBA also prohibits facilitation payments and certain entertainment and promotional expenditures permitted under the FCPA.

Recently, the Securities & Exchange Commission, U.S. Justice Department and FBI have aggressively investigated and prosecuted companies for FCPA violations. In 2010, the top eight FCPA settlements (with either the SEC or DOJ) totaled more than $1.5 billion. As of December 2010, the U.S. Justice Department had about 150 ongoing investigations and prosecutions.

Both the SEC and DOJ have also been focusing on prosecuting individuals, including company management, in addition to the financial settlements. In one recent case, the SEC brought claims against both the CEO and the CFO of a large nutritional/personal care products company for failing to adequately supervise the miscreant employees of a foreign subsidiary. The U.K. Justice Ministry, instead of providing specific written guidance regarding the key provisions of the UKBA and the applicability of the UKBA to non-U.K. companies, has decided to let the U.K. courts decide these issues.

All of this means that a company currently conducting or planning to conduct business in any foreign country could face a significant financial risk and a risk of prosecution of its management under either the FCPA or UKBA.

So, how does a company minimize this risk? The answer is to put in place an effective and robust FCPA/UKBA compliance program and to actively audit and/or monitor compliance, especially in high-risk locations. Having such a program will minimize the risk of violating the FCPA and UKBA and is the only acceptable mitigating factor to reducing the size of financial settlements and penalties if a company is convicted of violating either statute. Forensic accountants can assist you in this role.

In the next edition of this blog, I’ll address the key components of an effective FCPA/UKBA compliance program. Stay tuned.

– See more at: http://thelegalintelligencer.typepad.com/tli/2011/05/are-your-clients-at-risk-under-the-foreign-corrupt-practices-act-or-the-uk-bribery-act.html#sthash.zTEiO6Ek.dpuf