Pune, December 16 Stop encouraging bribery if you are doing any business with USA, otherwise the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) will land you in a serious trouble. The message was given to the corporate world during the day-long first international conference in India on FCPA, held at Hotel Le Meridien on Sunday.
FCPA is an important Act that is applicable to all US incorporated companies or companies with their principal place of business in the US. Speakers at the conference warned that violation of FCPA, whether knowingly or unknowingly, attracted severe penalties. Some of the recent examples being the York International company paying $ 22 million recently in connection with the UN oil-for-food-scam. In another case, the former chairman of AT Kerarney India paid $ 70,000 of personal fine to settle the FCPA violation case with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), it was stated.
The conference started with a presentation by Anil Roy, partner and head, Grant Thornton India. He discussed the fundamentals of FCPA compliance. While Sidarth Khasu, manager, E & Y, India spoke about the enforcement terms in FCPA compliance. Later, Joginder Singh, associate director, KPMG gave a presentation on FCPA in merger and acquisitions, while Dr Vishnu Kanhere, director of KCPL explained the link between Corruption and Fraud. Also, Vidya Rajarao, Associate Director of PWC India shared her knowledge on the role of FCPA in internal audit.
Dr Kanhere said that fraud and corruption have a close link. “Both reflect a deviant behaviour that corrupts a moral democratic society based on the rule of law. Hence they should be curbed and controlled at all levels,” he said.
Finally, the seminar concluded with a panel discussion on the practical problems while dealing with the FCPA. The panel held that corporates should highlight the importance of FCPA to their organisation. Big companies should make even the small companies aware of the act, as they might merge or would be aquired in future.
It was learnt that the US government is currently investigating about 50 companies for possible violations of FCPA. In the penalisation for anti bribery violation of FCPA, an individual can face imprisonment upto five years and fine upto $ 2.50 lakh. While a company can be fine upto $ 2 million or two times the benefit.

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