fcpa

Foster Wheeler Limited a UK registered subsidiary of a complex group, part of which is listed on the USA's NASDAQ and therefore falls within the jurisdiction of many US laws even though it is a Swiss domiciled subsidiary of a UK group. Amongst those is the Foreign Corrupt Payments Act or FCPA. This relates to payments by a person with a US footprint making corrupt payments to persons outside the USA. Foster Wheeler Energy Limited is also part of the same group and is also a UK registered company. That brings its actions squarely within the remit of the Serious Fraud Office, regardless of where those actions take place. Moreover, there are agreements with Ministério Público Federal (‘MPF’), the Comptroller General’s Office (‘CGU’) and the Solicitor General (‘AGU’) in Brazil.

The USA's Federal Reserve Board is planning to fine and issue prohibition orders against two former Managing Directors of J. P. Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Limited. It follows on from the Board's fining of the bank in November 2016. The offence? Excuse us while we choke on our own laughter: giving jobs to the boys. But they did it in China. On Wall Street, it's standard operating procedure, as it is across a wide range of industries in the USA. There are several matters of grave concern to Banks regulated by the Federal Reserve Board, both domestic and foreign.

Long before his inauguration, US President-Elect Trump telegraphed a view of ethics and corruption that many consider contrarian. Is the Trump way of doing business to allow tacit approval of under-the-table deals or is it simplifying the legislative regime, putting corruption on the same footing as any other financial crime? There is justification for his abolition of the Rule requiring minerals companies to report large payments to foreign governments: it was under the wrong Act and it didn't go far enough. Perhaps inadvertently, Trump has just set the stage for the first true test of his character. Also, there is another shock that biased reporting has not made clear...