Author: Norm Keith

New French Anti-Corruption Law Provides for DPAs

On Tuesday, November 8, 2016 France passed its new anti-corruption legislation, to improve its commitment to business ethics, the prevention of fraud and prohibiting the bribery of foreign public official.  The new anti-corruption law, which has taken over a year to revise and implement, is intended to reach the same standards and levels of enforcement as the United Kingdom’s Bribery Act (“BA”) and the American Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”). The most interesting aspect of the new law is that it permits corporate defendants to enter into negotiated resolutions, in a form that is commonly known as Deferred Prosecution Agreements (“DPAs”).

France has long been criticized for its weak anti-corruption law and enforcement activities.  The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (“OECD”) working group on bribery said recently that about 24 new corruption cases were opened in the past two years by French authorities yet no French corporation had been convicted of any foreign bribery offence.  In 2014, however, the United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) secured three of the ten biggest Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) enforcement actions against French companies by means of DPAs.  French corporate giants Alston paid $772 million, Total SA, paid $398 million and Technip SA, paid $338 million.  France is the only country whose corporations have appeared on the DOJ’s FCPA top ten list, three times.

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U.S. Appeals Court Upholds 180 Month Prison Term for Tax Fraud

In a case that demonstrates the remarkable contrast between the American and Canadian enforcement of tax rules, the United States Court of Appeals, for the Second Circuit, recently upheld a conviction in a sentence of 180 months imprisonment for seven counts of tax fraud and evasion. The severity of the penalty assessed against Paul M. Daugerdas (“Daugerdas”), can only be matched by the huebris of the defendant himself. The case is a cautionary tale for Canadian tax planners in an age of growing tax evasion and fraud enforcement.

Daugerdas was a certified public accountant and tax attorney, first at Arthur Anderson, then at two law firms. Throughout his career, Daugerdas developed, sold, and implemented a variety of tax reduction strategies for wealthy clients. His specialty was the so-called “short sale shelter, short option shelter, swaps shelter, and the HOMER shelter”.[1] Deugerdas’ tax planning and shelters covered a period from 1994 through to 2004.  In August of 2000, the Internal Revenue Service announced that transactions like those being offered by Dougerdas no longer provide the favourable tax treatment that he offered to his clients.  In response, Deugerdas and his colleagues developed similar transactions with different elements and strategies.

Deugerdas’ huebris was exposed in the appeal decisions when the evidence reveled that part of his tax planning strategy involved intentional back-dating documents to attempt to gain tax advantages for his clients.  Also, had his law firms issue “more-likely-than-not” opinion letters falsely stating that the tax shelters had a reasonable possibility of producing a profit, but it was clear that they would not. The letters were held to be entirely dishonest.

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Securities Regulatory Authorities Release Results of Gender Diversity and Term Limit Disclosure Review

This post was originally published on Timely Disclosure (a Fasken Martineau blog) and authored by Tracy L. Hooey.

Securities regulatory authorities in Ontario and nine other provinces and territories of Canada published CSA Multilateral Staff Notice 58-308 Staff Review of Women on Boards and in Executive Officer Positions – Compliance with NI 58-101 Disclosure of Corporate Governance Practices on September 28, 2016.  The staff notice summarizes a review of the gender diversity and term limit disclosure of 677 non-venture issuers (being those listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange with year-ends between December 31, 2015 and March 31, 2016).  As a result, these statistics do not include data regarding most banks.

Key findings of the gender diversity disclosure review include:

  • there are more women on boards than last year. Of the 215 issuers with over $1 billion market capitalization, 18% of board seats are held by women (up from 10% last year);
  • only 21% of issuers adopted a policy relating to the identification and nomination of women directors (up from 15% last year) and issuers with such a policy had higher average female board representation (18%) as compared to those with no policy (10%);
  • only 9% of issuers set a target for the representation of women on boards (up from 7% last year) and those issuers with targets had a greater number of women on their boards (25%) than those without a target (10%);
  • 66% of issuers disclosed that they consider the representation of women on their boards as part of their director identification and nominating process (up from 60% last year);
  • board and executive officer representation by women varied significantly by industry.

Key findings of the board renewal disclosure review include:

  • 20% of issuers adopted director term limits (up from 19% last year);
  • of those issuers with term limits, 48% set age limits, 23% had tenure limits and 29% had both;
  • the most common reason cited for not adopting board renewal mechanisms was that term limits reduce continuity or experience on the board.

This release follows Ontario Securities Commission Chair and CEO Maureen Jensen’s call for leadership on women on boards.  Chair Jensen highlighted the low number of women filling board vacancies.  She noted that “of the 521 board seats vacated during the year, just 15% were filled by women” and “without an improvement in the vacancy fill rate, we will never reach 30% female board representation”.

Proposed Amendments to CBCA

In addition, the Government of Canada released proposed amendments to the Canada Business Corporations Act which, among other things, would require that distributing CBCA corporations identify the gender composition of their boards and senior management and disclose their diversity policies or explain why none are in place.

Pat McCann on high profile white collar crimes, the media and the Canadian judicial system

Patrick McCann, a key member of Fasken Martineau’s White Collar Defence and Investigations Group, is featured on the cover of the latest issue of the Canadian Bar Association’s National Magazine. Pat comments in the magazine on the role of the media in high profile cases and its impact on the public and the justice system. Pat, who is an editor of the White Collar Post and counsel to Fasken Martineau, has himself been involved in many high profile criminal cases.

Head over to the National magazine to read the full article.

Anti-Bribery & Corruption Enforcement Protects Immunity of Whistleblowers

The international landscape on the law with respect to whistleblowing is changing dramatically and quickly. The Supreme Court of Canada is the first national high court in the world to recognize and protect the role of whistleblowers, their identity, and immunity, from disclosure and criminal prosecution.  In its decision involving the World Bank Group,  it addressed the subject of whistleblower immunity in an international case.

The opening paragraph of the Supreme Court Judgment, delivered by Justices Moldaver and Cote, reads as follows:

“Corruption is a significant obstacle to international development.  It undermines confidence in public institutions, diverts funds from those who are in great need of financial support, and violates business integrity. Corruption often transcends borders.  In order to tackle this global problem, worldwide cooperation is needed.  When international financial organizations, such as the appellant World Bank Group, share information gathered from informants across the world with the law enforcement agencies of member states, they help achieve what neither could do on their own”.[1]

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