SEC’s Reopening of Civil FCPA Case Could Indicate How It Will Navigate Anti-Corruption Cases

Pillsbury partner David Oliwenstein, a former SEC enforcement lawyer, said the ultimate resolution could indicate how incoming SEC commissioner Paul Atkins, who received U.S. Senate confirmation last week, will navigate FCPA enforcement.

“It could be a really big deal, because to the extent there will be a gap in DOJ prosecutions in the anti-corruption space, a big question is [to] what extent the SEC will act to fill that void,” he told Global Investigations Review. 

He pointed out that the motion did not say the parties had reached an agreement in principle. The SEC is not bound by the President’s FCPA pause, he added, and the civil charges would carry a lower burden of proof at trial than the burden on DOJ in the now-dismissed parallel criminal matter.

But he also noted that interim SEC enforcement director Antonia Apps said at a recent conference that her agency would “follow the lead” of the DOJ. The decision to drop the criminal charges “will at least be an important data point” in the commission’s internal deliberations, he said.   

“The position that the commission takes or doesn’t take…may provide a strong signal as to what the next four years are going to look like,” he said.

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