New Record FCPA Settlement Should Serve as a Compliance Wake-Up Call

The recently-announced $2.9 billion settlement between the DOJ and The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (“Goldman”), provides yet another reminder to all businesses that compliance is most important when it is hardest.  In other words, as the chief of the SEC’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) Unit explained, “compliance works well for smaller deals, but then gives way under the weight of a bigger deal or of higher-up people in the organization pushing it.”  This was apparently the case at Goldman, which agreed to the record fine as part of a deferred prosecution agreement (“DPA”), while a subsidiary pled guilty to violating the FCPA.  The DPA and plea deal resolved the investigation into Goldman’s role in the joint DOJ-SEC investigation into Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund.

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