By Samuel Rubenfeld and Christopher M. Matthews
The Rolls-Royce probe is yet another high profile case being taken by the U.K. Serious Fraud Office. Rolls’ potential corruption costs could depend on timing. And the investigation is looking at an alleged bribe to the son of former Indonesian president Suharto, who could not be reached for comment. (Financial Times sub req, Bloomberg, Guardian)
IBM’s IBM -0.50% March 2011 settlement with the SEC over FCPA allegations it bribed Chinese and South Korean officials still hasn’t been approved by a federal judge in Washington. (Bloomberg)
Is the next Bribery Act case another incident of small-time bungs? (Manchester Gazette)
An Indonesian businessman is expected to provide testimony in the investigation into alleged bribery by banknote businesses owned by the Reserve Bank of Australia. (Sydney Morning Herald)
The cash-for-grades scandal at Curtin University in Australia widened. (Sydney Morning Herald)
A U.S. Marine pleaded guilty to taking $150,000 in bribes from contractors while stationed in Iraq. (AP)
Thebriberyact.com looks at bribery from the Russian perspective.
A client alert from Sheppard Mullin says the Justice Department’s opinion releases provide additional guidance on the FCPA.
Among police officers in Jamaica, bribery is down but extortion is up. (Jamaica Gleaner)
The FCPA Professor has a guest post on Friday’s oral arguments in the FCPA cases against Mark Jackson and James Ruehlen. Mike Volkov says companies need to spend more time on complying with the False Claims Act. Tom Fox looks at the declinations outlined in the FCPA guidance.
The U.S. Treasury Department finalized a FATCA agreement with Ireland. (Reuters)
The U.K. and the Isle of Man signed a tax information sharing agreement. U.K. lawmakers are warning multinational corporations about dodging taxes. (news release, BBC)
A Bulgarian Constitutional Court nominee faces allegations of money laundering. She doesn’t appear to have been contacted for comment. (Sofia Globe)
A boiler room money launderer was ordered to pay more than 320,000 pounds by the U.K. Financial Services Authority. (news release)
Sanctions:
A report for the U.S. Congress found Iran is no closer than it ever was to obtaining a long-range missile. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R., Fla.) doesn’t like the waivers Washington issued on Iran sanctions. More coverage of the renewal of exemptions to U.S. sanctions on Iran is here and here. (Reuters, news release, Wall Street Journal, Reuters)
Russia stepped up its opposition to international intervention in Syria. European ministers are going to meet the opposition. Ankara and Moscow won’t risk economic ties over Syria. The U.S. and Russia talked about the future of Syria at a meeting in Geneva. The United Nations chief warned Syria about its chemical weapons movement. The U.K. thinks there’s proof Damascus intends to use them. Could Iran’s Qods Force be the one to do it? A Syrian rebel group with ties to al Qaeda that the U.S. may label as a foreign terror organization has proven to have some of the most effective fighters against the regime. (Al Monitor, Wall Street Journal, Al Monitor, Guardian, Wall Street Journal, BBC, Iran Focus, NY Times)
Japan, the U.S. and South Korea are all eyeing tougher sanctions on North Korea. (Nikkei)
Whistleblowers:
A whistleblower at Deutsche Bank DBK.XE -2.71% went public last week. (Corporate Counsel)
The passage of the Magnitsky Act is going to test the ties between Washington and Moscow. A personal column on the law’s effects is here. (Reuters, Foreign Policy)
Transparency:
Chinese party officials are being urged to come clean about their wealth. (The Economist)
General Anti-Corruption:
Sunday was International Anti-Corruption Day. Lots of statements were issued to commemorate or contextualize the day. Among them were from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Global Integrity and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.
Trace International ran a blog post about anti-corruption partnerships acting as agents of change.
A client alert from Herbert Smith analyzes the latest Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index.
Analysis of the TI index continues to pour in. Perceptions of corruption in emerging economies continue to be high. Should China study Singapore’s anti-corruption strategies? Is corruption getting worse? Abuse of power is still high in many countries. (Forumblog, Business Insider, Huffington Post, VOA)
How is corruption stifling U.S. innovation? Can a populist movement fix the problem? (Harvard Business Review, AlterNet)
How can we curb corruption in supply chains? (Transparency International)
A review of the book “Waging War on Corruption” is here. (Financial Times sub req)
Iraq’s anti-corruption commission may summon Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for questioning over a scuttled arms deal with Russia. (Al Monitor)
Peter Johnson, a man who fought union corruption and Tammany Hall, died at 91. (NY Times).
This article was written by Samuel Rubenfeld and Christopher M. Matthews and originally published on blogs.wsj
