The Updated FCPA Resource Guide

In July of this year, the Department of Justice and the SEC released their first comprehensive update to the original FCPA Resource Guide published in 2012 (the “original guide”). Much of the new version (the “Resource Guide” or the “Guide”) is the same as the old one and many of the new sections essentially borrow from other DOJ and SEC guidances and pronouncements that have been issued since 2012. But this second edition also contains some new “hypotheticals” — facts of actual cases the DOJ finds important enough to focus on — and, in keeping true to its name, has included additional resources and links for chief compliance officers looking to design and audit their companies’ anticorruption compliance programs. And for those of you who think that in the age of COVID, FCPA enforcement is dead, having been replaced by investigations of companies fraudulently touting cures and vaccines, one only has to look so far as public company SEC filings and the DOJ’s website announcing large FCPA settlements to know this is no time for companies to relax their vigilance.