DOJ Records Offer Window into Lucrative World of FCPA Monitorships: Kathleen Hamann Quoted in “GIR Just Anti-Corruption”

Excerpted from the July 2, 2018 issue of “Global Investigations Review: Just Anti-Corruption,” by Dylan Tokar.

In the years following a major policy shift on how corporate monitors are selected, Department of Justice records show that companies settling foreign bribery charges appeared to have little interest in fielding a diverse range of candidates, opting instead to recruit from a small group of predominantly white, male lawyers, many with backgrounds as prosecutors.

The records, obtained by GIR Just Anti-Corruption in a Freedom of Information Act filing, show that the companies and their defense counsel also largely failed to supply a demographically diverse range of candidates.

Out of the 29 US-based monitor candidates put forth by companies resolving Foreign Corrupt Practices Act offences during a five-year period, all were men, and the majority – 19 in total – were former government officials, according to records released under the Freedom of Information Act. Out of the 48 monitors selected since 2004, only three have been women, and three have been men of color. No women of color have been selected.

Pierce Atwood litigation partner Kathleen Hamann, an internationally recognized authority in the field of white collar enforcement and compliance matters and a prior member of the DOJ’s FCPA unit who helped interview potential monitors, said she looked for candidates who were both qualified and experienced in terms of FCPA compliance and the company’s industry. “I think some companies believed we were looking for people with extensive investigative or prosecutorial experience, even without compliance experience, or people with titles or prior senior roles or prominence in the white-collar bar. Those people were very often qualified, but sometimes they were not, even when they had previous monitorships.”