Laundering Act 2010 Of Britain, Canada And China

In today’s ever changing and competitive modern world of business, it is critical for the companies to have activities internationally. In order to prohibit frauds and illegal activities, several acts and documents have been elaborated. One of the documents is Foreign Corrupt Practices Act that has been enacted in the 1970’s, as a result of SEC investigation of several U.S. companies that made illegal payments to foreign governmental officials, politicians, and political parties (Barnes 73). The FCPA had a critical impact on the way U.S. firms do business. Companies that did not comply with FCPA have been subject of criminal and civil enforcement actions that later resulted in huge fines and sentences for

Establishing corporate policies and addressing issues of corruption within the organization that set an example for all employees to follow is important. Canada may prosecute the individual and the business involved in bribery.

OECD published Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions and Related Documents to prevent bribery and corruption. The aim of this convention was making the bribery of a foreign public official a crime under their laws (International Monetary Fund, OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions, 2001). This document recommends to member countries that:

Evidence of bribery or erroneous accounting is enough proof for the government to file a case against an individual or company regardless of intent, under the FCPA laws (Clayton, 2011). There are three types of improper violations for the anti-bribery provision and they include: the issuer, domestic concern, the foreign national and businesses. The issuers are the ones that are registered in the US or are required to file Security and Exchange Commission. Domestic concern is any person or business that has their place of business in the US or is under the US law. Lastly, the foreign nationals and business in which deals with corrupt payments that are made in the United States, there are also the third parties and agents that are as well included and have the same conditions apply to them as they do to the issuer, domestic concern, and the foreign national and businesses. The second provision that is involved with the FCPA is the Accounting provision and that consist of contracts enforcing Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC enforces the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by bringing the civil actions against the issuers and their officers, directors, employees, and agents. FCPA has two accounting requirements that are recordkeeping and internal controls. The recordkeeping is there to ensure that the books, records, and accounts are held at the standards of what the company should be at. This is designed to cover business

Apart from it, the business law in Australia has their own Guidelines and effective and consistent decision. The aim of government regarding to the Guidelines is to give a positive impact to the business conduct for companies in Australia (Australian Government 2011). Similar with German, Australia also categorized as one of the world least corruption by 2012 (Transparancy International 2012). Australian Government is concerned about corruption. Moreover, people in Australia also considered corruption as a harmful action for the environment (Bowman and Gilligan 2009, 438-452)

Many companies are trying to expand economically in the market by doing business with an individual or another company in foreign countries. These businesses are engaging in into using improper ways of payments that are leading to secret bribes to the foreign public officials. Foreign countries are not always in compliance with the laws and they tend not to follow them. Having these problems with the US and all the millions of dollars that have been passed they wanted to take a more affirmative approach and be able to correct the problem. That is when congress decided to introduce the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act to prosecute foreign companies for corrupt payments within the United States. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is a federal

While reading this case analysis, The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act came into discussion as an underlying factor in Weihardt’s decision. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was enacted for the purpose of making it unlawful for certain classes of persons and entities to make payments to foreign government officials to assist in obtaining or retaining business. This practice applies to Weinhardt in the fact that he was given the opportunity to give Lee a bribe to obtain Lees’ business.

Author Scott Nette clearly explains that in July 2007, Anthony Tesvich, Melissa Tesvich, James P. Robinson and Ronald K. Jonston was Investigated, charged and convicted on the Foreign Corrupt Act. “The Foreign Corrupt Act States that it is illegal for an US person, entity and certain applicable foreign entity to make and/or accept bribes or offer any inducement for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business with an US firm.” – Scott Nette

There are many corporate organizations that have expanded their business opportunities outside of the U.S. Consequently, these global organizations are required to conform to The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (FCPA). Under the FCPA, anti-bribery and accounting provisions exist for companies to identify unlawful acts and comply with requirements by maintaining accurate records of transactions and implementing internal controls. (DoJ, 2015a, FCPA: An Overview section, para. 2-3).

The impact the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act had on society was pleasant since it restored buyer confidence in the United States and restored the integrity of the United States market by implementing honesty in transactions. Yet it imposed too many disadvantages for the economy and corporations. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act focuses on large fraudulent payments made by a business, therefore anyone involved in the financial, accounting, and executive department are impacted the most. Other major stakeholders affected include the board of directors, shareholders, employees, government officials involved, and foreign officials or foreign companies involved. Everyone is affected because the codes of conduct, and the companies’ values needed

The Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) was enacted to safeguard against those acts of persons which are aimed at making tainted money appear as untainted. To take a simple example, if a person earns money through, say, dealing in narcotic drugs and thereafter takes some steps whereby it appears to have been earned through some legitimate business, such as running a laundry shop (the classic example), it is money-laundering . Thus, the ingredients of the Act are clear: there has to be an offence, monies have to be earned through such offence and then an act should be made delinking such earnings from the offence and linking it with another act that is not an offence .

It would be convenient to start this research paper by stating that corruption is a challenge mainly for businesses in developing countries and that it is unrelated to the current affliction of the economy in the United States. It would also be convenient to claim corruption has declined in America as a result of awareness raising campaigns and the numerous anti-corruption laws. But none of those aforementioned statements would be true. Corruption is not the exception, but rather the rule in today’s business practices. In 2004, Daniel Kaufmann, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution and former director at the World Bank, calculated an index of "legally corrupt" manifestations which is defined as the extent of undue influence

Since the phenomenon of globalization, companies that decided to broaden their horizons have to face multiple challenges and their management functions need some adaptations. While going abroad, companies may become concerned with the subject of corruption that makes the business with foreign countries even more complicated. Even if there is a willingness to fight and reduce the corruption across the world, companies must be aware that this subject exists and must take it into account while dealing with foreign companies, their efforts to understand and adapt to local corruption influencing their success of

This does not set a good example for the employees and can be harmful to the future of the company. Ensuring that bribery stops can solve many of the problems discussed above. Some feasible solutions are being recommended to help the company in both short term and long term. First of all, all employees including managers should be given training and education about bribery, corruption and what’s deemed illegal according to the law. Explicit measures should be suggested on how they can avoid supporting corruption and also where they can report to in case a situation where dishonesty is involved arises.

There is one statement that “Bribery and corruption in the public sector, is endemic and unavoidable in all societies”. This essay will make critical analysis of this statement, targeting the public sector. Especially taking the example of US and UK regulatory framework, it will make clear understanding of this statement. Through current academic literature by comparing, contrasting and critiquing views, this essay will develop a critical understanding of the high possibility of bribery and corruption.