International Trade Law News

Sunday's San Jose Mercury News contains an excellent article entitled "What's a gift, what's a bribe?", which discusses the difficult issues that U.S. companies face in doing business in developing countries while ensuring compliance with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Among other things, the article discusses InVision Technologies' recent settlement with the SEC and DOJ, whereby the company paid $1.9 million in civil penalties to settle allegations that the company violated the FCPA in connection with sales of bomb detection equipment to China, the Philippines and Thailand. The article notes that the number of FCPA cases has "risen sharply in recent years" due to more companies "voluntarily disclosing to SEC investigators potential violations they've detected in internal audits."

The article can be viewed at the following link: www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/11125443.htm (note that a user ID will have to be established to view this article).