Like what, paying your taxes?

My job almost exclusively revolves around investigating potential FCPA violations by companies you've heard of. Fines imposed due to FCPA violations can be company ending, and I ensure you that people do go to jail. Now, that being said these violations do happen all the time. It is usually an individual, or group of individuals trying to get ahead while under massive pressure to perform and the violations are rarely clear cut. We always joke that we're going to find an email containing the words "bribe" "government official" and "FCPA violations." But sadly they never come. A lot of times the person responsible for the violations isn't even aware that they are breaking the law, sometimes flagrantly. I can think of one instance where the country manager for a company proudly showed a file to the government appointed auditor demonstrating how well they handled one situation where a government official more or less tried to extort money from their operation. Unfortunately as we went over their file they had clearly violated FCPA unintentionally. The good new in all this is that the Lawyer involved lost their job. FCPA violations are professional hazard when doing business in a corrupt country. However, the law also gives corporations leverage against corrupt officials. All they need say to a corrupt official is, "sorry, but my government will fine me far more than I can possible profit from bribing you, so lets find another way of doing business." FCPA fines are common, but they are easy to minimize. As long as upper levels aren't involved, the fines won't be company ending, and as long as the company has an FCPA education program and proper internal auditing, the fines shouldn't be particularly damaging. Why is this coming out now? Mergers and acquisitions are always preceded by intense investigations of each company, like kicking the tires of a used car. These issues always exist, and get factored into the deal. Judgeing by what they said in their 10Q (copied below) it looks like they self reported to the government, hired an outside firm to investigate (someone like me), figured out who did what when and how, fired people, changed bussiness practices, then reported to the government. Now they're waiting to see how much the government wants to fine them. We have identified potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the resolution of which could possibly have a material effect on our business. During fiscal year 2009, we identified activities in a certain foreign country that may have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). We initiated an independent investigation with the assistance of outside counsel and took remedial action. We recently made a voluntary disclosure with respect to this and other matters to the Department of Justice (DOJ), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the applicable governmental agencies in certain foreign countries regarding the results of our investigations to date. We are cooperating with the DOJ and SEC in connection with their review of these matters and the outcome of these, or any future matters, cannot be predicted. The FCPA and related statutes and regulations provide for potential monetary penalties, criminal sanctions and in some cases debarment from doing business with the U.S. federal government in connection with FCPA violations, any of which could have a material effect on our business.

SMAH used to have a Foucalt Pendulum in their main entrance lobby right in front of the original Star Spangled Banner. Damn if that wasn't one of my favorite things in Washington. Sadly, it was removed after being modded -1 off topic.

I am most intrigued by the idea of hamsters wearing jackets.

People certainly didn't seem to be reducing their usage. I was in area closest to the capitol (the infamous Purple section) and made four or five calls successfully. I generally needed to make two attempts to make it happened, but it always happened. The woman next to me also had Verizon and her phone was ringing...ahem..."off the hizzy" Certainly it wasn't a typical Tuesday on the mall, but I was impressed on how easy it was to make a call. I'd say of all the things that should be improved in the future for large gatherings of humanity, cell reception is probably good enough now to be towards the bottom of the list.

I agree, my girlfriend reached a far greater frequency when she found a spider in the bath tub. Old news.