Testimonials

Anchoring - Ms. Dipika Sindhwani

Participants at FCPA Conference

Conference officially announced

ACFE Vice President with other Participants

Making History in Pune

On a warm Sunday morning in the city of Pune, around 45 professionals across India congregated at Le Meridien, Pune to discuss and gain knowledge about the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Their background varied, yet they were connected with FCPA in one way or the other. Some were Legal and Secretarial Heads, a few were heading compliance activities and management assurance in their companies, some in-charge of exports, few from accounts and some more senior management professionals. In short, a varied crowd all trying to understand how they can help their organizations with FCPA compliance. This is significant considering that India is ranked 72 in the 2007 Transparency International Global Corruption Perception Index, indicating a high level of corruption.

The conference was attended by professionals from many reputed companies, such as John Deere, KPIT Cummins, CapGemini, Citibank, Rohan Builders, Universal Construction, EXL and so on. The delegates were mostly senior management, compliance professionals and legal and secretarial professionals.

The FCPA is an important act that is applicable to all U.S. incorporated companies or companies with their principal place of business in the U.S., Foreign subsidiaries, owned or controlled distributors and Joint-Ventures, all U.S. nationals, citizens or residents, any person who, while in the U.S ., commits an act in furtherance of a bribe to an official outside the U.S,  FCPA violations, knowingly or unknowingly have attracted severe penalties, with companies like York International paying $22 Million recently in connection with the UN oil-for-food scam, and even individuals like former AT Kearney India President having to pay $70,000 personal fine to settle FCPA violation case with the SEC.

The most important point made at the conference was that 'the risk of non-compliance with the FCPA is extremely high, as even one encounter with the FCPA is costly for an organization. This is evident from the enforcement trends of high penalties, dedicated investigation team with FBI and DOJ, information sharing between governments and increased international co-operation on transnational bribery issues. Several examples and statistics were cited by the speakers to back up their arguments.

Anil Roy, Partner & Head, Grant Thorton (India) introduced the concept of FCPA and discussed its various provisions, such as anti-bribery and accounting and record-keeping requirements. Sidarth Khashu, Manager, E&Y, and who has taken part in FCPA investigations in India and abroad, covered the enforcement trends in FCPA compliance. Sidarth emphasised the fact that an encounter with FCPA can be very costly and time-consuming. He also mentioned that with 'disgorgement of profits' being taken into account, a small bribe may result in a penalty many times over the amount that may be earned as a result. Jagdeep Singh, Associate Director, KPMG spoke about the role of FCPA in Merger and Acquisitions. "With such a high level of M&A activites in India, it is about time FCPA is taken up seriously in all due diligence activities before signing off the deal." He also stated that FCPA issues can be a deal breaker.One of the off-beat sessions was that of Dr. Vishnu Kanhere, who spoke of the link between corruption and fraud. He engaged the audience into answering a set of questions with moral dilemmas. Dr. Vishnu Kanhere spoke about the link of corruption to fraud and highlighted the fact that dealing with corruption needs to resolve and clear quantifiable guidelines for working. "Wherever there is opportunity for discretion, there is opportunity for corruption", he said. Vidya RajaRao made a very pertinent presentation on the role of Internal Audit, which is the first line of defense against fraud in an organization, towards FCPA compliance. "It is not a one-day or even one quarter activity but compliance might be a long-drawn affair. Still, the benefits far outweigh the risks associated with non-compliance", she said.In the panel discussion,everybody at the conference agreed that increased compliance activity is required and setting the tone at the top and management culture is very important in dealing with corruption issues. 

Participants from EXL at FCPA conference

Dr.Shivaji Rao and Pradeep Akkunoor on Light Moments

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Making History in Pune 

The FCPA Blog which is maintained by a renouned international law firm Cassin Law. FCPA Blog covered this event on their blog which describes the importance of the conference in Pune

Dr. Vishnu Kanhere explaining links in corruption and Fraud

Panelists answering the specific queries

Previous Conference

Annual Fraud Management Conference

MITSOM-Indiaforensic

Jagdeep Singh from KPMG

 Star Speaker Sidarth Khashu from EY

Vidya Rajarao from PwC on FCPA Event

All speakers together @ FCPA