LAWYER
Wall Street
Securities in the Electronic Age
May 2013 n Volume 17 n Issue 5
In the Crossfire
Why Private Equity Firms,
Investment Funds & Their
Managers Should Beware of the
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
By Lauren J. resnick & Marco MoLina
Lauren J. Resnick is a New York-based litigation partner in the White Collar and Corporate Investigations
Group of BakerHostetler. She has frequently represented executive management and corporate boards in
internal investigations on FCPA issues and has also directed numerous government-imposed monitorships
imposed by the Department of Justice. Marco Molina is a litigation associate with BakerHostetler in New
York. Contact: lresnick@bakerlaw.com or mmolina@bakerlaw.com.
REPRINT ARTICLE
Lance Armstrong and the world of com-
petitive cycling has come under great scru-
tiny in recent days with the domination of
the U.S. Postal team now undermined by
the systematic doping that appears to have
helped spur the team to victory year after
year. Cheating, or getting an unfair edge
over the competition, is antithetical to the
American public’s view of sports, where an
equal playing field is considered the ethi-
cal baseline. The Foreign Corrupt Practices
Act (FCPA),
1
which prohibits commercial
bribery of foreign government officials, is
the U.S. Anti-Doping Association’s equiv-
alent for U.S. firms engaged in overseas
investment activity. Designed to eliminate
corruption in the global marketplace, the
FCPA has become a priority enforcement
tool for the U.S. government to ensure a
level commercial field by punishing the
rule-breakers.
It is long past time for private equity firms
and investment funds to learn the rules. In
physics, it is said that to every action there
is always an equal and opposite reaction.
2
This maxim applies with equal force to the
