Tom Fox and Michael DeBernardis discuss the dubious bribery cases of financial institutions, specifically Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, and Societe Generale (SocGen), that utilized commission agents of significant political power. They also talk about why compliance committees should look closer into the backgrounds of company agents and how the Deutsche Bank kickstarted France’s fight against corruption.
▶️ Banks Behaving Badly with Tom Fox and Michael DeBernardis
Key points discussed in the episode:
(00:00:36) Michael DeBernardis gives a brief background on the Deutsche Bank case.
(00:05:10) Tom Fox examines the compliance lessons to be learned from the Deutsche Bank case. Compliance professionals should consider not only families but friends of commission agents. The worst misconduct can gain reduced penalties when companies cooperate with investigations. Michael adds how Deutsche Bank took corrective action to achieve a significant discount.
(00:11:09) Two possible discounts companies may get for compliance are (1) a cooperation discount under the US sentencing guidelines and (2) a discount under the FCPA corporate enforcement policy.
(00:12:15) Michael DeBernardis’ standpoint as a lawyer to his clients: be forthcoming and argumentative when appropriate.
(00:13:54) Michael DeBernardis gives a brief background on the SocGen case.
(00:19:28) The SocGen case was the first US-France anti-corruption collaboration. Though bribery through agents has been done by others, it’s still an effective dishonest practice. Michael adds that companies have since improved in doing background checks on their agents.
—————————————————————————-
Do you have a podcast (or do you want to)? Join the only network dedicated to compliance, risk management, and business ethics, the Compliance Podcast Network. For more information, contact Tom Fox at tfox@tfoxlaw.com.
