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On September 28, 2023, the SEC announced that it had filed charges against and entered into a settlement agreement with the Illinois electric utility Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) and its corporate parent Exelon Corporation in connection with an alleged scheme to influence the then-speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives, Michael Madigan. The SEC separately filed a complaint against ComEd’s former CEO in connection with the same allegations. In an October 12, 2023 post on the Cooley law firm’s PubCo blog (here) Cydney Posner wrote about the SEC enforcement actions and raised the interesting question of whether Political Corruption is Securities Fraud? It is a question well worth asking. However, as I discuss below, there is a long-standing connection between corruption and bribery allegations and securities class action lawsuits and other types of claims.Continue Reading Can Corrupt Political Activities Support Securities Fraud Allegations?

As a result of a host of recent developments – including the War in Ukraine, trade tensions with China, and growing issues involving digital assets – several long-standing regulatory regimes have become increasingly important for companies and their executives. These regulatory regimes include U.S. sanctions, export controls, anti-money laundering (AML) and anti-bribery and corruption laws. According to a recent memo from the Skadden law firm entitled “Why Directors and Executives Need to Pay Attention to Sanctions, Money Laundering, and Export Rules” (here), boards and senior management need to be especially vigilant with respect to these laws as the company officials can become targets of enforcement actions – indeed, directors and officer have been named personally in both civil and criminal enforcement actions involving these laws and regulations.
Continue Reading D&O Risks Relating to Trade Sanctions, Money Laundering, and Export Rules

Jeff Lubitz

Jarett Sena

As I have previously noted on this site, bribery-related allegations often lead to follow-on securities lawsuits, some of which have resulted in significant settlements. In the following guest post, Jeff Lubitz, Managing Director, ISS Securities Class Action Services, and Jarett Sena, Director of Litigation Analysis, ISS Securities Class Action Services, take a detailed look at a recent significant settlement in a bribery-related securities suit involving Groupo Televisa S.A.B. The authors’ article also reviews other recent significant settlements in bribery-related securities suits. A version of this article previously was published as an ISS Securities Class Action Services client alert. I would like to thank Jeff and Jarett for allowing me to publish their article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this blog’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is the authors’ article.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Allegations of Bribery to FIFA Officials Results in $95 Million Settlement

In what is one of the largest shareholder derivative lawsuit settlements ever, the parties to the various FirstEnergy bribery-related derivative lawsuits have reached an agreement to settle the actions for a payment of $180 million and the company’s agreement to adopt a number of corporate governance reforms. The settlement amount is to be funded by D&O insurance. The settlement agreement is subject to court approval. First Energy’s February 10, 2022 announcement of the settlement can be found here. The parties’ February 10, 2022 settlement term sheet can be found here.
Continue Reading FirstEnergy Bribery-Related Derivate Lawsuit Settled for $180 Million

There is no private right of action under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. However, FCPA-related matters frequently are the subject of D&O claims, as investors file follow-on civil actions in the wake of news of an FCPA-related investigation or enforcement action. The latest examples of this type of corrupt payment-related follow-on actions are the lawsuits recently filed against Raytheon Technologies Corporation and certain of its directors and offices in the wake of the company’s disclosures of governmental investigations of alleged improper payments. The new lawsuits are representative examples of the ways in which news of corruption investigations can lead to D&O claims against the target companies.
Continue Reading Company Hit With D&O Claims Over Improper Payments Investigation

Karen Boto

Mark Sutton

In the following guest post, Karen Boto and Mark Sutton of the Clyde & Co law firm take a look at the recent stories circulating in the press about the latest data leak concerning the FinCEN files and discuss the implications of these developments. I would like to thank Karen and Mark for allowing me to publish their article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this blog’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Karen and Mark’s article.
Continue Reading Guest Post: The FinCEN Files – No Hiding from Suspicious Activities

As I have frequently noted on this site (most recently here), plaintiffs’ lawyers often attempt to fashion a securities lawsuit out of on revelations of corporate activities involving alleged violations of anti-bribery laws. A securities class action lawsuit filed this week represents the latest example of this phenomenon. In this instance, the allegedly improper conduct involved activities of an acquired company that reportedly took place prior to the merger. As discussed below, this latest example of the bribery-related securities lawsuits involves several interesting variations on the pattern of these kinds of follow-on securities suits.
Continue Reading Bribery-Related Securities Suit Based on Acquired Company’s Pre-Merger Activities