Bob Travel

American buyers beware! Beware of foreign or US clients that have significant foreign operations. Be mindful of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Better known as the FCPA. The Department of Justice alongside with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2002, significantly began enforcing the FCPA very aggressively. The FCPA lay dormant since its inception in 1977. The intention of the Act is to prevent the bribery of foreign officials. It strictly prohibits and punishes the explicit actions of giving any official of a foreign country anything of inherit value. Especially if the giver’s intentions were to influence the placing and retaining of a business.

FCPA requires all companies to maintain accurate controls with their bookkeeping and records of all dealings with foreign countries and to adhere to FCPA’s regulations by creating internal controls designed to detect and stop any illicit payments. Any violations of these regulations will be punishable with a very exacting civil penalty or criminal penalty, maybe even both. Plus, there will be a greater penalty for a company who is dependent of the US government awarding contracts and they will forever become ineligible to enter into them.

It’s important to recognize the warning signs or the red flags of a potential FCPA violation. A company now needs to have due-diligence and know how to negotiate tactics to lessen the risks of doing business globally. A good example of this is a client of a company is operating in a country that lacks in compliance to FCPA regulations or that only recently has passed a comparable statute, or this client operates in a country that is known for its corrupt practices, or the client once ran afoul of the FCPA in the past and has corrected their issues, but poorly due to the misconduct of an employee and the employee is still employed. These are all red flags.

Other warning signs, which have nothing to do with the FCPA, would be the absence of a code of ethics, a reluctance to work with due diligence or a refusal to comply with future statutes. It is of extreme importance that all US companies dealing internationally understand and implement all FCPA regulations or the consequences will be grave, starting with the directors all the way down to the individual employees.

Suspended Las Vegas Judge Elizabeth Halverson, accused of mistreating staff and sleeping during trials, denies misconduct allegations in a formal response filed yesterday.

Halverson claims the Nevada Judicial Discipline Commission fails to identify sufficient grounds of judicial misconduct, and does not point to a judicial canon or state law that she violated, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. The commission’s formal statement of charges “contains hortatory text which shall not be used to impose discipline,” says the response (PDF posted by LasVegasNow.com).

The conduct alleged “was not willful misconduct, does not involve willful or persistent failure to perform the duties of office, or habitual intemperance,” the response says.

Halverson, who uses a scooter and breathes from an oxygen tank, also claims she is protected by the American With Disabilities Act, reports LasVegasNow.com. She also cites her First Amendment right to free speech and her 14th Amendment right to due process.

Halverson has filed a separate petition that claims the discipline commission violated her due process rights by taking too long to file a complaint against her.

The complaint against Halverson contends she fell asleep on the bench three times, had improper conversations with deliberating jurors, made comments to the media that could have affected a pending case, tried to hack into a computer system to access other employees’ e-mails, and created a hostile work environment for court employees.

The complaint claimed Halverson required her bailiff to heat her meals, keep her water pitcher filled with ice, pick up objects she had deliberately thrown on the floor, and massage her feet and shoulders.

Halverson’s lawyer, Dominic Gentile, won a case in the U.S. Supreme Court that struck down limits on lawyers speaking to the press about a pending case.

Nevada lawyers and Las Vegas law firms can help you if you have a case involving the Americans with Disabilities Act, or disabled discrimination. Only the most competent Nevada law firms can bring you a positive outcome in your disability discrimination case. There are many competent Las Vegas lawyers ready and able to assist you if your disability discrimination case goes before a judge.