In probably one the longest-awaited decrees in recent French regulation, the French Ministry of Health published on 22 May 2013, the application decree to the French Sunshine Act (dated 29 December 2011) implementing the specific ways and means that health care companies must disclose agreements with health care practitioners (“HCPs”), a term that includes medical … Continue Reading
This post was also written by Matthew J. Thomas. Just ahead of this week’s meeting in Baghdad between Tehran and other nations concerning Iran’s controversial nuclear program, the U.S. Senate passed an Iran sanctions bill by a unanimous voice vote. This bill is the Senate counterpart to the “Iran Threat Reduction Act of 2011” (H.R. 1905), … Continue Reading
On January 24, 2012, the Federal Trade Commission announced the annual threshold adjustments for premerger filings under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (15 U.S.C. § 18a) (“HSR”). The new thresholds have increased the dollar amount required to trigger HSR notification with respect to both the size-of-transaction and size-of-person tests. The revised HSR thresholds … Continue Reading
This post was also written by Fionnuala Lynch. Earlier this month, Richard Alderman, Director of the SFO, was speaking at an international symposium on economic crime in Cambridge and made an interesting point which has been picked up by many UK newspapers. He referred to the fact that 20 years ago, it was possible for … Continue Reading
The first person to be charged under the new Bribery Act will be a magistrates court clerk who allegedly accepted £500 for fixing a motoring offence. The Crown Prosecution Service (“CPS”) has decided to prosecute Munir Yakub Patel who faces a charge under Section 2 of the Bribery Act for allegedly requesting and receiving a … Continue Reading
This post was written by Steven D. Tibbets and Lorraine M. Campos. There is a long history of federal court cases distinguishing which items of information that contractors disclose to the Government may be obtained by the public and which items may not. Currently, there is much debate regarding how well the relatively new Federal … Continue Reading
This post was written by Simon D. Hart. After months of speculation, and rumoured turf wars within the UK government, it has today been confirmed that the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (“SFO”) will not be broken up and will remain independent of the new National Crime Agency (“NCA”). The SFO will retain both its investigative … Continue Reading
Just as the 2012 political races are heating up and taking shape, Judge James Cacheris of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia expanded the reach of Citizens United v. FEC, 130 U.S. 876 (2010), by rendering unconstitutional limits on corporate contributions to federal candidates. In the opinion, filed May 26, 2011, Judge … Continue Reading
For everyone out there contracting with the State of California — here is a quick heads up. Remember way back in 2010 when Congress passed the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act? Well, it turns out that California has decided to take advantage of the Divestment part. The Iran Contracting Act of 2010 requires … Continue Reading
On 30 March 2011, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Director of Public Prosecutions published their joint guidance for prosecutors (the Guidance) for offences under the UK’s new Bribery Act, which comes into force on 1 July 2011. This coincides with the publication of the final guidance issued by the Department of Justice on … Continue Reading
The waiting is over! At last the UK Ministry of Justice has published guidance about procedures which commercial organisations can put into place to prevent persons associated with them from bribing. The Act will now come into force on 1 July 2011. The guidance offers non-prescriptive procedures and commentary on the scope of the Act. … Continue Reading
This post was also written by Suzie A. Savage. It is understood that the UK Ministry of Justice will publish its guidance on adequate procedures tomorrow, Wednesday 30th March 2011. The Act was originally scheduled to be implemented in April of this year, three months after guidance was to be published in January about the … Continue Reading
This post was written by James A. Rolfes. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that a corporation could not indemnify its CEO or CFO against liability arising under Sarbanes Oxley Act Section 304. The so-called Section 304 “clawback” provision requires a public company’s CEO and CFO to return bonuses, other equity-based incentive compensation … Continue Reading
This post was written by Andrew C. Bernasconi and Nathan R. Fennessy. After Congress and the courts have spent the past few years making it easier for private citizens acting in the name of the government (also known as “qui tam relators”) and the government to maintain False Claims Act (“FCA”) cases, and eliminating many of … Continue Reading
