FCPA Update: Mid-Year 2013

Keywords: FCPA, SEC, Steffen,Straub,foreign nationals

Continuing a seven-year trend, 2013 has seen a continued surge in activity on the Foreign Corrupt Practice Act ("FCPA") front, both with respect to noteworthy new judicial decisions impacting the FCPA's applicability and significant enforcement actions brought by the Justice Department ("DOJ") and the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). Below, we briefly recap some of the most important FCPA happenings of the year so far.

Steffen and Straub—Defining the Reach of the FCPA

The year started with a pair of major decisions out of the Southern District of New York that provide guidance on the reach of the FCPA to foreign nationals. The decision in the first case, SEC v. Straub, et al. ("Straub"),¹ largely vindicated the government's long-held position that the FCPA applies broadly to foreign nationals involved in overseas bribery schemes, regardless of whether the individual defendant had direct