"Accidental Liability:" Ropes & Gray Attorneys Outline New Concerns for Private Equity Firms Due to Global Anticorruption Efforts
Government enforcement partner Joan McPhee and associate Amanda Raad have authored an article for the Fall 2010 edition of The Journal of Private Equity. In the article, “What Every Private Equity Professional Should Know About The Expanded Scope of Global Anticorruption Enforcement,” the authors outline a new era of "accidental liability," in which government anticorruption enforcement actions create potential areas of exposure for private equity firms. The authors also describe measures that can be undertaken at each step of the investment process to limit exposure.
“The increasing global appetite for anticorruption enforcement, combined with ever-lower thresholds for liability, signifies new frontiers of potential exposure,” the authors write. “With private equity firms invested in high-risk industries around the world, often in countries with different business customs and practices, the upstream risk of inadvertently incurring civil as well as criminal liability from the actions of portfolio companies abroad can be substantial.”
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Prosecutions under the FCPA have increased dramatically in recent years, many involving some of the world's largest and most respected companies. Ropes & Gray offers a top-tier team of lawyers, many of whom served as federal prosecutors and enforcement officers at U.S. Attorneys' Offices, the DOJ, and the SEC, to advise clients on all aspects of the FCPA, including:
- Establishment and implementation of FCPA compliance programs;
- Analysis of FCPA risks involved in multi-national transactions;
- Investigations involving suspected violations of the FCPA; and
- Defense against allegations of FCPA violations.