In recent years, there has been a significant uptick in the number of prosecutions of individuals under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). From 2008 through May 2013, the Department of Justice (DOJ) charged over 80 individuals with violating the FCPA, over twice the number that was prosecuted in the 10 preceding years.1 The increase has been viewed within the DOJ as a significant component of FCPA enforcement. Lanny Breuer, the Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ's Criminal Division who oversaw this rise in FCPA enforcement, remarked last year that the Criminal Division's single most important achievement during his tenure was that "corporate executives now actually believe—for good reason—that if they participate in a scheme to improperly influence a foreign official, they face the very real prospect of going to prison."2
During this period, political pressure to hold individual executives responsible for the crimes of their companies has also been strong. For example, in 2010, a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing entitled "Examining Enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act."3 During that hearing, Sen. Arlen Specter expressed concern that, despite the successes that the DOJ had in corporate prosecutions under the FCPA, there were few examples of individuals being prosecuted and going to jail as part of those prosecutions. Among the examples Specter cited was the Siemens case, in which the DOJ and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) negotiated settlements with the company for approximately $800 million in fines and disgorgement but in which no individual executives were charged. The DOJ responded quickly and, in 2011, indicted eight former Siemens executives for conspiracy to violate the FCPA in connection with the case against the company.4
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