The SEC recently released “its enforcement results for the past fiscal year which ended September 30.”
Under the heading “Impactful Enforcement,” the release states:
“Enforcement actions filed in fiscal year 2026 demonstrate the Division’s continued commitment to rigorous, effective enforcement that focuses on serious and consequential violations of the federal securities laws—including fraud, market manipulation, insider trading, failures and misconduct by gatekeepers, and violations that compromise the integrity of disclosures and financial reporting. The cases emphasize the nature and severity of misconduct, magnitude of investor harm, and pursuit of meaningful remedies. Two-thirds of all standalone enforcement actions filed in fiscal year 2026 included charges against at least one individual, reflecting the Division’s continued commitment to maximizing deterrence and holding wrongdoers accountable.”
As highlighted in this prior post, in April 2025, shortly after President Trump issued an Executive Order titled “Pausing Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Enforcement to Further American Economic and National Security,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a “Legal Advisory” titled “Alert to Businesses on Violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act” to remind businesses that “violations of the FCPA are actionable under California’s Unfair Competition Law.”
As sure as dogs bark, some commentators pounced suggesting that a “new chapter of FCPA enforcement” has begun as California (and perhaps other states) may become a “new sheriff in town” and bring FCPA-related enforcement actions. (It is sometimes amusing to look back at certain commentary isn’t it).
As noted here, it was all a bit strange and the challenge was issued (and still remains) for anyone to identify any “FCPA-like” enforcement action ever brought by the Attorney General of California or any state for that matter.
Attorney General Bonta has struck again issuing this Legal Alert titled “Alert to Businesses on Violations of Federal Anti-Corruption Laws.”
The narrative continues, there is no Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement.
A recent example, in the aftermath of last week’s elections, was the hope that the “next administration can announce the immediate reinforcement of tools like … the FCPA.” (See here).
Set forth below is an update to a post previously published approximately six weeks ago which provided a brief overview of FCPA enforcement during the second Trump administration.
It is true, that on February 10, 2025 President Trump signed an Executive Order Titled “Pausing Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Enforcement to Further American Economic and National Security.” As highlighted in this post, several of the substantive issues discussed in the Executive Order had been festering in the FCPA space (and openly discussed by politicians in both parties) for approximately 15-20 years prior.
This recent post highlighted the FCPA enforcement action against Charles Finkel (a former executive of Sicpa (a Swiss technology company which provides governments with banknote security inks and secured identification, traceability and authentication solutions).
In October 2022, Charles Finkel was charged in a criminal complaint filed in the S.D. of New York with Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations in connection with an alleged bribery scheme in Brazil.
In October 2022, Finkel was arrested and appeared before a judge and released on bail. The judge issued an order directing that filings and docket entries be filed under seal and the case had remained under seal for over four years with numerous continuances filed.
This post highlighted the recent decision by Judge Kathleen Williams (S.D. Fla). granting in part Smartmatic’s Motion to Compel Discovery in connection with its previously filed Motion to Dismiss on the basis of “vindictive and selective prosecution.” (See here for additional background on the FCPA enforcement action).
In her order, Judge Williams stated that there is “some evidence tending to support” the motion to dismiss and listed several factors including the DOJ’s dismissal of the FCPA enforcement action against former Cognizant Technology Solutions executives Gordon Coburn and Steven Schwartz as well as “the Government also elected to close FCPA investigations into multiple companies.”
Much like certain recent FCPA commentary (see here for a prior post), Judge Williams’ reference to these two factors was a bit shallow.