FCPA opinion releases can form part of your compliance program guidance arsenal, but there have only been two of them in the past seven years, so if you are relatively new to ethics and compliance, you may not be so familiar with them. In this month’s column, Mary Shirley covers some of the basics about FCPA opinion releases, offering takeaways and a deep dive from the latest release, which came out in January of this year.
A formal mechanism under 28 CFR Part 80, the opinion procedure release allows for requests to be made to the DOJ about whether certain conduct would breach the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Either domestic issuer companies or individuals are permitted to make a request, and the procedure should not be used for posing hypothetical queries.
Here’s what you need to know about FCPA opinion procedure releases:
Benefits to the requester
- Peace of mind if the misconduct is said not to violate the FCPA
- Certainty of where they stand either way, putting them in a position to know how to best proceed.
Benefits to the compliance community
- Provides broad brush understanding of how the DOJ would treat certain situations, acting as general guidance, with limitations (see next section).
Limitations for the requester
- Can result in a self-disclosure to the DOJ if the department is of the view…
