Securities Regulation in the Interconnected,
Global Marketplace
Chair Mary Jo White
Sept. 21, 2016
Keynote Remarks
Legal Practice Division Luncheon
International Bar Association Annual Conference
Thank you, Almudena [Arpon de Mendivil], for your kind introduction.
It is my pleasure to participate in this year's International Bar
Association Annual Conference at the request of your president, David Rivkin,
whom I first came to highly admire from our days as very young lawyers. He
is a tremendous lawyer and leader. In reviewing your conference program, I
was struck by the significant overlap with issues currently on the SEC's
agenda.
As the regulator of the world's largest securities markets, and thousands
of globally-active firms, the SEC is naturally very engaged in many issues that
extend beyond the U.S. border. Indeed, the first speech I gave as Chair –
after only three weeks on the job – was about the SEC as an international
regulator, having spent a surprising amount of time on international meetings
and issues.
[1]
The centrality of international issues to financial regulation and the SEC has
not changed during these last three and a half years.
The world's capital markets are indisputably global and
interconnected. A couple of quick metrics make the point: as of
2015, U.S. investors held nearly $9.6 trillion in foreign securities, and
foreign holdings of U.S. securities were over $17.1 trillion.
[2]
Consider as well single-name CDS activity – a truly global market where
over $7 trillion dollars in notional value was outstanding at the end of 2015:
[3]
only 12 percent of global transaction volume was between two counterparties
located in the U.S., while 48 percent was between one counterparty located in
the U.S. and the other located abroad.
[4]
Witness also the financial crisis when the collapse of the markets for certain
products cascaded throughout the global financial system, gravely impacting many
interconnected financial institutions, and then all of the ensuing efforts to
take measures, both domestically and internationally, to prevent a
recurrence.
Today, all securities regulators need to be very cognizant of our global,
as well as domestic, responsibilities, whether we are implementing standards for
the global over-the-counter derivatives markets; detecting and protecting
against new systemic risks in our financial systems; helping each other enforce
our respective laws by gathering evidence from across the globe; examining our
registrants, wherever they may be located, to ensure that they are abiding by
the rules; or raising the bar on world-wide enforcement efforts to combat
corrupt corporate payments, through our Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) or
similar regimes in other jurisdictions.
All securities regulators, around the world, share the overarching
obligation to protect investors – the end-users of the products and services
that we regulate. Fulfilling this all-important function is not possible
if we stop our work at country borders or fail in our efforts to achieve robust
international cooperation. Neither the SEC, nor other regulators, can go
it alone, and we have many avenues to facilitate working together.
The SEC communicates frequently with market regulators, central banks,
finance ministries and law enforcement authorities in other jurisdictions,
directly and through our participation in international organizations – most
notably, the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and
the Financial Stability Board (FSB). The SEC also works bilaterally and
multi-laterally with foreign authorities, both on policy issues with a
cross-border dimension and on supervisory and enforcement issues. Indeed,
the SEC has over seventy-five formal cooperative arrangements with foreign
regulators and law enforcement agencies
[5]
and is a signatory to the IOSCO Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MMOU)
on enforcement cooperation, to which there are now over 100 signatories.
[6]
All of these arrangements facilitate sharing critical enforcement and
supervisory information.
[7]
And the SEC and other countries make extensive use of them.
[8]
While international cooperation and coordination have increased
significantly in recent years, we still face significant challenges from laws
and practices that can impede strong regulation, supervision, and
enforcement. And it is incumbent upon the SEC and our international
counterparts to work through these issues in a way that provides maximum
cooperation and coordination and avoids regulatory arbitrage. We must do
this while recognizing that we do not operate in a one-size-fits-all world and
that there are, for good reason, significant differences in our domestic
markets, as well as our regulatory regimes. I will not attempt grand
solutions today. But, I will focus you on a few priority areas that
illustrate the dimensions of the SEC's international role and some of the
challenges we face in maximizing the effectiveness of national regulatory
regimes in a global market.
There is no shortage of issues to choose from. I have settled on
three topics for today – one regulatory, one supervisory, and one from the
enforcement space. The first topic is the SEC's current work to modernize
our regulation of the asset management industry, which has been one of the SEC's
core responsibilities since the 1940s under the Investment Company Act and the
Investment Advisers Act, and which is of particular interest to other domestic
and international authorities assessing potential systemic risks to financial
stability. Next, I will raise an area of significant supervisory challenge
for us in 2016 – the ability to examine our non-U.S. based registrants for
compliance with SEC laws and regulations. Finally, because of its
importance and its interest to this audience, I will briefly report on the SEC's
FCPA enforcement program, which is so dependent on international cooperation for
its success.
Regulating the Asset Management Industry
During my tenure as Chair, the SEC, as the primary regulator of the vast
majority of the asset management industry, has undertaken an ambitious agenda to
modernize and enhance our regulatory regime. On the international front,
the FSB and IOSCO have also been focusing on this critical sector of the global
markets.
The globalization of our securities markets comes during a time of
exponential increase in the assets under management by SEC-registered investment
advisers – from approximately $21.5 trillion in 2001 to approximately $67
trillion as of this month. And the asset management is increasingly a
world-wide industry: investment advisers registered with the Commission with
their principal office outside the U.S. have increased nearly 150 percent over
the last 13 years. Of the more than $37 trillion in worldwide assets
invested in regulated open-end funds,
[9]
an estimated 34 percent of those are regulated in Europe, 13 percent in Africa
and the Asia Pacific, and 5 percent in the Americas outside the U.S. As
the industry has grown and expanded globally, it has also become increasingly
complex in the range of strategies and types of funds offered, which presents
their own set of regulatory challenges.
To address the challenges and risks to investors and funds arising from
this evolution, the SEC has proposed several transformative rulemakings to
modernize our regulatory tools, as I publicly outlined in December 2014.
[10]
These proposals include: enhancing effective liquidity risk management by mutual
funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs); limiting the amount of leverage that
funds are permitted to obtain through the use of derivatives; modernizing funds'
disclosure and reporting of information; and requiring investment adviser
business continuity and transition planning. Recently, the Commission
adopted the final rules to enhance the reporting and disclosure of information
provided by investment advisers, including, importantly, new required reporting
about separately managed accounts and their use of derivatives and
borrowing. We expect the other proposed reforms to be finalized in the
near-term as well.
Throughout these initiatives, the SEC staff have analyzed a range of
options on how best to reduce potential risks, including those that may have
systemic impact, in the asset management industry, while first and foremost
protecting investors and still facilitating capital formation. Our
regulatory initiatives have reflected an activities-based approach focused
particularly on registered funds' liquidity management and use of derivatives to
obtain leverage.
Internationally, the FSB and IOSCO are pursuing a similar activities-based
approach, as evidenced by the FSB's recent request for comment on asset
management activities and potential systemic risk.
[11]
Likewise, IOSCO recently stated that a current priority is to address data
gaps on separately managed accounts generally and in relation to those accounts'
leverage and derivatives exposures.
[12]
In the U.S., the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) has also been
engaged in a review of the potential systemic impacts of asset management
products and activities.
[13]
We have been heavily engaged across all these efforts, contributing the
SEC's extensive knowledge and the rationale of our recent reforms.
In short, regulating the asset management industry is a core pillar of the
SEC's day job, and its potential impact on the global financial system also has
the attention of the SEC and authorities worldwide. The SEC will continue
to share its long-standing expertise with other regulators as we pursue our
comprehensive approach to asset management regulation and shared objective and
responsibility to the interconnected, global marketplace.
Supervising Financial Firms in a Global Marketplace: Data
Protection and the Regulators' Need for Access to Data
Another internationally important topic affecting the SEC is foreign
privacy and other data protective laws that impact cross-border data transfers
for supervisory purposes. A large and varied set of foreign firms have
chosen to register with the SEC, including brokers, investment advisers, and
other intermediaries, such as clearinghouses and platforms that facilitate
trading, disseminate information to the public, and serve a variety of other
critical functions in the securities markets. They also manage assets in
growing amounts – advisers registered with the SEC with principal offices
outside the U.S. now account for $8.7 trillion of assets under management – an
amount that has quadrupled since 2003. As a result, the SEC is confronted
with the challenge to supervise these registrants, wherever in the world they
maintain operations, personnel, and records.
Various countries' laws, including blocking statutes, privacy, bank
secrecy, and state secrecy laws, are designed to achieve important national
objectives. But they also frequently create obstacles to cross-border
flows of information between regulators and foreign-domiciled registrants, thus
complicating, and in some instances impeding, the regulators' ability to carry
out their supervisory responsibilities. Some of these laws, for example,
can prohibit foreign-domiciled SEC registrants from providing the SEC with
information about clients and employees, including names and account
information. Other laws can prevent foreign-domiciled registrants in
certain jurisdictions from responding directly to SEC requests for information
without authorization by the foreign government. Finally, certain laws can
prevent the SEC from being able to conduct any type of examinations of
registrants, either onsite or by correspondence.
These legal barriers obviously raise significant issues for the SEC and our
international counterparts. Effective oversight of globally-active firms
requires that financial regulators have a robust supervision program. I
cannot emphasize strongly enough how critical the records we seek and the
examinations we conduct are to the SEC's ability to assess firms' compliance
with U.S. law and to protect investors and the markets. Examinations can
help identify weaknesses or deficiencies in a firm's compliance program that, if
addressed, can help prevent violations of law and harm to investors. Many
SEC examinations, both risk-based examinations and those initiated for cause,
also identify violations that already have occurred and that need to be
addressed to avoid further harm.
[14]
Under U.S. law, all firms registered with the SEC are required to maintain
certain records relating to their operations and provide these records to the
SEC staff upon request.
[15]
The records document how the firm and its employees conduct their business in
practice and provide critical insight into the firm's risk profile, the strength
of a firm's internal controls, and whether the firm is complying with applicable
securities laws.
[16]
The SEC staff most frequently requests these basic business operations records
from registrants, both domestic and foreign, in connection with a non-public
supervisory examination, which typically focus on a firm's compliance with its
legal obligations and its adherence to its own policies and procedures.
[17]
During examinations, SEC staff may also request information on a firm's
clients or its employees, when they are essential to the SEC's evaluation of a
registrant's compliance program. Such information is needed to allow us to
assess a registrant's compliance and to ensure that their investors are
protected, but may raise privacy concerns in some jurisdictions.
In addition to having direct access to registrant books and records, a
responsible regulator must also be able to interface directly with the firms it
regulates. During an examination, SEC staff expects registrants to make
representatives from both management and staff available to enable examiners to
learn more about the registrant's operations and the records examiners have
reviewed, as well as to prevent misunderstandings about the firm's business.
[18]
This is a core component of SEC staff's evaluation of a firm's approach to
compliance and adherence to law.
Having direct relationships with the firms we oversee also helps to
establish open and frank lines of communication with our regulated
community. Ongoing discussions with SEC registrants also generally foster
compliance within a firm and encourage a firm's support of its compliance
professionals. These discussions can also facilitate self-reporting by a
firm that has identified misconduct by its employees.
Let me be clear, I fully support supervisory cooperation among regulators
in fulfilling our respective oversight activities of globally active firms and I
am not suggesting that the SEC or any regulator should operate in
isolation. Indeed, the SEC generally carries out its examinations and
other ongoing monitoring of internationally regulated entities in close
consultation with our foreign regulatory counterparts, who, through their own
interactions with the firm, have invaluable insights about a firm's compliance
culture and practices and have developed their own risk assessment of the firms
we both regulate.
[19]
In addition to exchanging views on a firm's risk profile and disciplinary
history, the SEC and our international counterparts share previous examination
results and refer supervisory issues to each other, which assists our respective
staffs in directing their supervisory resources to aspects of the firms'
business that present the greatest risk. Supervisory cooperation has been
an excellent complement to the SEC's own oversight activities of our registered
firms.
[20]
More than ever before, it is critical that jurisdictions break down their
information-sharing walls. Regulators must be able to directly supervise
the entities registered with them to ensure compliance with the laws in their
jurisdiction. One of the important lessons of the 2008 financial crisis
was that regulators need a complete and accurate picture of the financial firms
they regulate, regardless of where these regulated entities are located or where
their regulated activities occur. As regulators, we cannot afford to have
a blind or even cloudy spot.
Strong Enforcement against Foreign Corrupt Payments
Now let me say a few words about the FCPA, both about its importance and
our current enforcement program. As a securities regulator, the SEC
oversees and enforces a robust disclosure regime, one of the fundamental
premises of which is that public companies must accurately disclose the drivers
of their business successes (and failures) and the associated risks to the
company's future performance.
A company's use of illicit payments—specifically, the payment of bribes and
other things of value to obtain or retain business—masks the reality that a
company is not competing on its merits. Instead, the company has relied on
bribes to succeed. Making illicit payments also exposes a company to
potential legal liability in multiple jurisdictions, hurts a company's
reputation, and jeopardizes the company's future. Above all, corrupt
payments undermine the integrity of our financial markets and have a corrosive
impact on many institutions and businesses around the world. For these and
other reasons, the U.S. enacted the FCPA in 1977, making it illegal, both
civilly and criminally, for U.S. companies and individuals acting on their
behalf to pay bribes to foreign officials.
[21]
Vigorous enforcement of the FCPA is a high priority for both the SEC and the
Department of Justice (DOJ).
The SEC's record enforcing the FCPA is very strong and 2016 is no
exception. This fiscal year, the SEC has already filed 17 actions against
entities and individuals for FCPA violations, a nearly 30 percent increase from
last year, and obtained more than $290 million in monetary remedies. As
part of our proactive FCPA program, the SEC also makes occasional use of
deferred prosecution and non-prosecution agreements in order to promote
self-reporting, cooperation, and remediation.
[22]
To effectively combat bribes paid by global companies that benefit from
access to our capital markets by listing their stock on U.S. exchanges, the SEC
is often dependent on our international counterparts to provide vital
cooperation and assistance. And I am very pleased that the SEC has
received assistance from an expanding list of countries in FCPA cases filed this
fiscal year.
[23]
Let me illustrate with just one impressive example.
Earlier this year, the SEC, DOJ, and Dutch regulators entered into a global
settlement with a telecommunications provider based in the Netherlands, where
the company agreed to pay $795 million to resolve its violations of the FCPA in
Uzbekistan.
[24]
The SEC charged that the Dutch company offered and paid bribes to an Uzbek
government official, who was related to the President of Uzbekistan, as the
company sought licenses, frequencies, channels, and number blocks in the
country's regulated industry. We received significant cooperation from
numerous countries during this complex investigation, including the civil and
criminal authorities from Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman
Islands, Estonia, Gibraltar, Ireland, Latvia, the Marshall Islands, Netherlands,
Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates – truly, an
exceptional global effort in a very important case.
[25]
In addition to actions against companies, we prioritize charging
individuals involved in bribery schemes where we have the necessary evidence and
jurisdiction over the offender. Holding individuals accountable for their
misconduct remains one of the most powerful deterrents in any enforcement
area.
Not surprisingly, FCPA cases involving individuals requires significant and
multi-faceted cooperation from our international partners. And we are
getting it. This year alone, our FCPA cases against individuals included a
CFO who helped falsify the company's books and records, an engineer who bribed
foreign officials and enriched himself, and a CEO who used sham consulting
agreements to authorize improper payments to officials to settle a labor
dispute.
[26]
In these cases, the SEC received meaningful and substantial assistance
from our international counterparts, including civil and criminal authorities
from Austria, the British Virgin Islands, Canada, the Cayman Islands, Cyprus,
Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, and Liechtenstein.
[27]
The fight against bribery and corruption is obviously a global effort and
not limited to offending U.S. companies or their employees operating
abroad. We all recognize its importance, as evidenced by the renewed
commitment and focus on what more the entire international regulatory community
can do to be more effective and better coordinated in dealing with corruption
issues worldwide. As a first step, this requires countries to pass strong
comprehensive laws targeting bribery and many jurisdictions have taken this
crucial step. For example, according to a 2015 report by the Organisation
for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), bribery is now a crime in all
41 countries that are parties to the OECD Convention.
[28]
This is very significant because these countries—combined—cover 64 percent of
global outbound foreign direct investments and more than 50 percent of the
world's exports.
[29]
These countries are also home to 95 of the largest 100 non-financial—and all of
the top 50 financial—multinational enterprises in the world.
[30]
A quick look at the most recent statistics compiled by the Working Group on
Bribery of the OECD are also encouraging.
[31]
For example:
- Between 1999 and 2014, parties to the OECD Convention brought criminal
prosecutions against 361 individuals and 126 entities for foreign bribery;[32]
- At least 95 of the individuals were sent to prison for foreign bribery;[33]
and
- In addition, at least 110 individuals and 200 entities were sanctioned in
civil, administrative, and criminal actions relating to foreign bribery,
including accounting-related violations.[34]
The same OECD report also indicates that Germany, Hungary, South Korea, and
the United Kingdom, in particular, have had impressive results in holding both
individuals and entities accountable in criminal foreign bribery cases.
[35]
These regulatory actions are important achievements, as foreign bribery
must be a global regulatory priority. Cost alone mandates that. Another
OECD report shows that the cost of corruption equals more than 5 percent of
global gross domestic product, or $2.6 trillion, with over $1 trillion of bribes
paid each year.
[36]
The SEC will continue to do its part with our own vigorous FCPA program and
by assisting international efforts of countries committed to doing their part to
combat this particular corrosive conduct that undermines the integrity of our
markets. And we will continue to strongly support the important efforts of
the OECD's Working Group on Bribery to expand and strengthen anti-bribery laws
and enforcement throughout the world.
Conclusion
Let me stop there. While the SEC's engagement internationally
includes many other areas, including the ongoing work to enhance the resiliency
of central counterparties, over-the-counter derivatives regulation, and emerging
areas such as fintech, I hope I have provided at least a flavor of our very
robust and wide-ranging work as a regulator in and of today's global
markets. Thank you.
[5]
The SEC has MOUs for enforcement cooperation with regulators from Argentina,
Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy,
Japan, Jersey, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain,
Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The SEC also has MOUs related to
different aspects of supervisory oversight. For market participants and
markets, the SEC has MOUs with regulators from: Mexico, Brazil, EU (ESMA),
the Cayman Islands, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, the UK (FCA and BOE)
and Hong Kong. For oversight of certain entities in the asset management
industry, the SEC has MOUs with EU and European Economic Area (EEA) member state
regulators from the following jurisdictions: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria,
Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece,
Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg,
Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, the Slovak Republic,
Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. With respect to exchanging
information regarding issuers, the SEC has MOUs with regulators from: the
United Kingdom, Belgium, Bulgaria, Portugal, Norway, Germany and Spain.
Finally, the SEC has MOUs for technical assistance matters with regulators from
Argentina, Chile, China, Egypt, Hungary, India, Indonesia and Russia, as well as
an MOU with the Inter-American Development Bank and the United Nations Economic
Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.
See SEC
Cooperative Arrangements with Foreign Regulators,
available at https://www.sec.gov/about/offices/oia/oia_cooparrangements.shtml.
[6]
See IOSCO Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding Concerning
Consultation and Cooperation and the Exchange of Information (MMoU),
available at https://www.sec.gov/servlet/Satellite/goodbye/Speech/1370549377774?externalLink=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.iosco.org%2Fabout%2F%3Fsubsection%3Dmmou.
As of August 2016, there were 109 full signatories to the IOSCO's MMOU, which
enables securities regulators around the world to help each other conduct
enforcement investigations, and 17 additional regulators are seeking legal
authority in their home countries to enable them to become full signatories to
the MMOU. See OICU-IOSCO, Signatories to Appendix A and Appendix B List,
available at http://www.iosco.org/about/?subSection=mmou&subSection1=signatories;
see also, SEC Website, Cooperative Arrangements with Foreign Regulators,
available at https://www.sec.gov/about/offices/oia/oia_cooparrangements.shtml
(for a list that includes enforcement cooperation, supervisory cooperation, and
technical assistance agreements).
[8]
In 2015, the SEC made 165 requests for enforcement cooperation and received 243
requests for enforcement cooperation under the IOSCO MMOU.
[12]
See The Board of the International Organization of Securities
Commissions, "Statement on IOSCO's Priorities Regarding Data Gaps in the Asset
Management Industry" (Jun. 2016).
[14]
See e.g., SEC Press Release,
SEC Charges Scotland-Based Firm for
Improperly Boosting Hedge Fund Client at Expense of U.S. Fund Investors,
(May 10, 2012),
available at https://www.sec.gov/News/PressRelease/Detail/PressRelease/1365171489060;
SEC Press Release,
Apollo Charged with Disclosure and Supervisory
Failures, (Aug. 23, 2016),
available at https://www.sec.gov/news/pressrelease/2016-165.html;
SEC Press Release,
SEC Charges Investment Adviser With Failing to Clearly
Disclose Additional Costs to Investors, (Jul. 14, 2016),
available
at https://www.sec.gov/news/pressrelease/2016-143.html;
SEC Press Release,
SEC: Financial Adviser Defrauded Pro Athletes and Lied to
SEC Examiners, (May 6, 2016),
available at https://www.sec.gov/news/pressrelease/2016-83.html;
SEC Press Release,
Guggenheim Partners Investment Management LLC Settles
Charges it Failed to Disclose Conflict to Clients, (Aug.10, 2015),
available at https://www.sec.gov/news/pressrelease/2015-162.html;
SEC Press Release,
Edward Jones to Pay $20 Million for Overcharging Retail
Customers in Municipal Bond Underwritings, (Aug. 13, 2015),
available
at https://www.sec.gov/news/pressrelease/2015-166.html;
SEC Press Release,
SEC Charges KKR With Misallocating Broken Deal
Expenses, (Jun. 29, 2015),
available at https://www.sec.gov/news/pressrelease/2015-131.html;
SEC Press Release,
Blackstone Charged With Disclosure Failures, (Oct.
7, 2015),
available at https://www.sec.gov/news/pressrelease/2015-235.html;
and SEC Press Release, SEC Press Release,
SEC Charges Investment Adviser
With Fraud, (Sep. 29, 2015),
available at https://www.sec.gov/news/pressrelease/2015-218.html.
[15]
See, e.g., Securities Exchange Act of 1934 §17(a) and (b) (15 U.S.C. §
78q) and Rules 17a-3
et seq. thereunder (17 C.F.R. § 240.17a-3
et
seq.); Investment Advisers Act of 1940 § 204 (15 U.S.C. § 80b-4) and Rule
204-2 thereunder (17 C.F.R. § 275.204-2).
[16]
The records requested can include information about business lines, trading
activities, financials, and a firm's compliance program, as well as information
about the firm's owners, clients, and employees.
[17]
As the Commission has stated in rulemakings, "[t]he requirements [of the books
and records rules] are an integral part of the investor protection function of
the Commission, and other securities regulators, in that the preserved records
are the primary means of monitoring compliance with applicable securities laws,
including antifraud provisions and financial responsibility
standards."
Commission Guidance to Broker-Dealers on the Use of
Electronic Storage Media under the Electronic Signatures in Global and National
Commerce Act of 2000 with Respect to Rule 17a-4(f), 66 FR at
22917.
[19]
To carry out these cross-border examinations and information exchange with
foreign counterparts, the SEC staff often uses the MOUs related to supervisory
cooperation,
supra note 4.
[20]
Supervisory cooperation "is not a mechanism for altering regulatory obligations
or limiting regulatory responsibility with respect to regulators that have
regulated entities in common." IOSCO Final Report on Principles Regarding
Cross-Border Supervisory Cooperation at (May 2010), at 15
available at
http://www.iosco.org/library/pubdocs/pdf/IOSCOPD322.pdf.
[23]
See e.g., SEC Press Release,
VimpelCom to Pay $795 Million in
Global Settlement for FCPA Violations, (Feb. 18, 2016),
available
at https://www.sec.gov/news/pressrelease/2016-34.html;
SEC Press Release,
SEC Charges Medical Device Manufacturer With FCPA
Violations, (Jun. 21, 2016),
available at https://www.sec.gov/news/pressrelease/2016-126.html;
SEC Administrative Release,
SEC Charges Engineer and Former Employer with
Bribe Scheme in Russia, (Mar. 3, 2016),
available at https://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2016/34-77288-s.pdf;
SEC Administrative Release,
Airline Executive Settles FCPA Charges,
(Feb. 4, 2016),
available at https://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2016/34-77057-s.pdf.
[27]
See SEC Press Release,
SEC Charges Medical Device Manufacturer With
FCPA Violations, (Jun. 21, 2016),
available at https://www.sec.gov/news/pressrelease/2016-126.html;
SEC Administrative Release,
SEC Charges Engineer and Former Employer with
Bribe Scheme in Russia, (Mar. 3, 2016),
available at https://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2016/34-77288-s.pdf;
SEC Administrative Release,
Airline Executive Settles FCPA Charges,
(Feb. 4, 2016),
available at https://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2016/34-77057-s.pdf.
[35]
For instance, a U.K. Court sentenced the former Chief Executive Officer of an
oil and gas exploration company to prison for paying $200,000 in bribes to a
director at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. That
same year, Switzerland sanctioned a German company by requiring it to pay over
$10 million for bribes paid to officials of a Russian gas company.
See id.