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ANALYSIS
March 2, 2009
Sagging Index no longer reflects what’s going on in the market, some say, Replacements? Google it, to start.
March 2, 2009
The latest bailout at AIG could be a preview of how the president will deal with Wall Street.
March 2, 2009
No corporate defaults. Big debt offerings. Percolating CP issuance. Things may be looking up in the capital markets.
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June 25, 2008 3:49 PM ET
The governments of the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan have been lax in prosecuting foreign bribery and should be sanctioned if they continue to drag their feet, an international anti-corruption group reported. The three nations are among 18 that are doing little or nothing to enforce the 1997 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development agreement on corporate bribery, Berlin-based nonprofit Transparency International reported Tuesday. The study looked at the 34 countries that signed the pact. The United Kingdom was singled out for particular criticism after it decided in December 2006 to drop an investigation into a BAE Systems arms deal with Saudi Arabia, citing national security concerns. The report found “a lack of political will on the part of the government to prosecute foreign bribery.” “Unless all OECD countries enforce their legal obligations on foreign bribery now, there will be a decreasing incentive for those countries currently complying to continue doing so,” Huguette Labelle, chairman of Transparency International, said in a statement. The governments of the U.K., Japan and Canada have brought a total of just four foreign bribery cases in 2007 and 2008. By comparison, the U.S., Germany and France have filed a total of 245 cases under the OECD agreement. Canada is the only OECD country to bar its tax inspectors from reporting suspicions of foreign bribery to law enforcement authorities. Japan has no central national office for bribery enforcement, and coordination among its various investigative agencies is unsatisfactory, the report said. With regard to the U.K. investigation of arms producer BAE Systems, the U.K. High Court found in April that the probe had been dropped illegally in what justices described as “a successful attempt by a foreign government to pervert the course of justice.” BAE has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in the case. The British government’s appeal of the decision is due to be heard by the House of Lords next month. “The U.K. is fully committed to action to combat corruption,” a British embassy spokeswoman told Financial Week. “The government’s Anti-Corruption Action Plan and the appointment by the prime minister of John Hutton as the government’s anti-corruption champion underlines the importance attached to this.” U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown tapped Mr. Hutton, who serves as the Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Secretary, to head up the U.K.’s anti-corruption efforts in July 2007. Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Michael O’Shaughnessy declined immediate comment on yesterday’s report, as did Japanese embassy spokeswoman Izumi Yamanaka. Transparency International did laud the U.S. Department of Justice for its focus on foreign companies registered on U.S. stock exchanges. The group also praised the Justice Department for setting up a new five-member FBI team last year to investigate possible bribery. In addition, the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act tightened protections for corporate whistleblowers, which has paid off in recent cases, the report said. The report recommended that the OECD Secretary-General prod the Justice ministers of lagging governments to beef up bribery enforcement. Those governments that do not adequately respond should be threatened with suspension from the OECD’s working group on bribery, Transparency International said. Spokesmen for the Paris-based OECD did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The 1997 treaty prohibited corporate bribery of foreign officials at a time when bribes had been tax-deductible in some countries. Monitoring by the OECD has provided the biggest spur to governments to enforce the agreement, the report said.
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