Recently Chadbourne & Parke issued a report that uncovers recent patterns in enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), a U.S. law that makes it illegal to directly or indirectly bribe a non-U.S. government official for a business advantage.

The Chadbourne Compliance Quarterly Special Report, authored by partner M. Scott Peeler, reviews the circumstances surrounding 61 individuals who were the subject of government-initiated civil or criminal action alleging FCPA violations in the past six years. In particular, Mr. Peeler analyzed the data concerning the individuals' job title/position, region in which the alleged misconduct took place, amount of alleged improper payments, and the impact the individual's level of knowledge had on the type of action filed.
The study found the following:

1. The majority of those studied who were charged with civil and/or criminal FCPA violations held the titles of President, Chief Executive Officer or Chief Operating Officer of their organizations.
2. Alleged bribes paid in Mexico, Central and South America were the areas most often linked to these prosecutions, accounting for 44% of the cases studied. The other regions in descending order were Asia (32%); Africa (21%); and Europe (3%).
3. While the risk of civil and/or criminal liability increased as the amount of bribes alleged paid increased, it was interesting that there were almost as many cases where the total amount of bribes were between $100,000 - $500,000 and $500,000 - $1,000,000 as there were between $1,000,000 - $2,500,000.