Why Ericsson DPA Breach is Precedent-Setting
Law360
Law360
James Koukios and Sarah Maneval authored an article for Law360 about the impact of Sweden-based telecommunications company Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson agreeing to plead guilty to Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations and pay over $200 million for breaching its 2019 deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) involving alleged bribery schemes and other misconduct in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
“The DOJ [Department of Justice] seems to have concluded that Ericsson intentionally withheld damaging documents related to China and Djibouti before entering into the DPA,” the authors wrote. “But in some cases, inculpatory documents can be innocently missed when companies reasonably focus on documents from certain jurisdictions, time periods or data sources, or those written in certain languages, in response to data privacy concerns, technological challenges, or a desire to maximize investigative resources.”
They added: “Being abundantly clear with the DOJ about the review and production parameters used in an investigation could help a company avoid creating a perception that later-discovered documents had been strategically withheld.”
Read the full article.
Practices