Convictions

Guest columnists F. Joseph Warin, Michael S. Diamant and Matthew P. Hampton explain that understanding the significance of the Frederic Bourke conviction and the danger it illustrates for the unwary, starts with a simple observation: Bourke’s case was not a typical FCPA prosecution. Bourke was never accused of bribing or directing others to bribe government officials. Rather, the government charged Bourke with conspiring to violate the FCPA because he invested in an entity that he knew, or at least had every reason to know, was engaged in a scheme to bribe Azeri officials. In his closing, the prosecutor stated, Bourke “had enough understanding to know that something . . . was occurring” yet “ke[pt] his head in the sand.”