Briefing
Anti-bribery: Comprehenisve Global Report Published
Just before the Passover holiday, TRACE International published its 2017 Global Enforcement Report. This Report provides the most up-to-date statistics on cross-border bribery investigations and enforcement actions.
In total, there were 266 investigations and 26 enforcement actions in 2017. The detail behind these statistics suggest some interesting trends:
- Authorities in the United States and Europe (including the United Kingdom) together are conducting nearly 90% of the foreign bribery investigations, and are dividing the labor roughly equally between them (114 investigations in the US and 118 investigations in Europe).
- US authorities appear to be focusing most closely on US and European companies (together 75% of investigative targets) allegedly paying bribes in Asia-Pacific (home to 39% of the alleged recipients of bribery by US companies).
- Two trends to note in US activity, historically a bellwether of the direction of global bribery activity: US enforcement actions dropped from last year’s unusual spike (29) back to a more typical level (14), and US investigations in the financial services industry has just surpassed investigations in the extractive industries (22 to 21).
- As comes as no surprise to those following the news in Israel, the 2017 report notes an increase in investigations and enforcement by Israeli regulators.
With anti-bribery continuing to be a hot compliance topic, and with regulators increasingly cooperating with one another across borders, Israeli companies need to be increasingly aware of anti-bribery precautions both in Israel and abroad. Implementation of appropriate policies and procedures tailored for a company's specific business can avoid violations and mitigate consequences for a company whose employees do run afoul of anti-bribery laws.
Please reach out to a member of our team should you require further information in relation to any of the above.
