Harvard Law Blog Features Wiley Rein Partners’ Insights on Alcoa FCPA Settlement

A prestigious Harvard Law School blog has featured an article by Wiley Rein partners Gregory M. Williams, Ralph J. Caccia, and Richard W. Smith, regarding Alcoa, Inc.’s recent $384 million settlement of charges brought under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).  The authors are members of the firm’s FCPA Practice.

The Alcoa case “serves as an important marker in what appears to be a steady progression toward a strict liability FCPA regime,” Messrs. Williams, Caccia, and Smith said in the article posted February 5 on The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation.  The Forum, sponsored by the Harvard Law School Program on Corporate Governance, is one of the leading FCPA blogs in the country.

The $384 million that Alcoa agreed to pay in penalties, forfeitures and disgorgement makes this the fifth largest FCPA case to date.  The authors noted that Alcoa was held liable for improper payments made by a subsidiary, even though there is no allegation that any Alcoa official participated in, or even knew of, the subsidiary’s actions.  “Such an enforcement approach appears to abrogate basic tenets of corporate liability,” the authors wrote.

To read the full blog post by Messrs. Williams, Caccia, and Smith, please click here.

For more information, please contact Gregory M. Williams at 202.719.7593 or gwilliams@wiley.law, Ralph J. Caccia at 202.719.7242 or rcaccia@wiley.law, or Richard W. Smith at 202.719.7468 or rwsmith@wiley.law.