JPMorgan - A Trifecta of Off-the-Rails FCPA Enforcement

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has specific elements that must be met in order for there to be a violation. However, with increasing frequency it appears that the Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission have transformed FCPA enforcement into a free-for-all corporate ethics statute in which any conduct the enforcement agencies find objectionable is fair game to extract a multi-million dollar settlement from a risk-averse corporation. An example is the $202.6 million FCPA enforcement action against JPMorgan Chase & Co. based on alleged improper hiring and internship practices in the Asia-Pacific region. After discussing the main features of the problematic enforcement action, this article highlights why the SEC’s enforcement action finding violations of the FCPA’s anti-bribery, books and records and internal controls provisions represents a trifecta of off-the-rails FCPA enforcement and why anyone who values the rule of law should be alarmed.