Appeals Court Says Non-Citizen Can’t Face FCPA Charge

Lawrence Hoskins, a British citizen based in Paris, was charged with FCPA offenses involving a scheme to win a $118 million project to build power stations for Indonesia’s state electricity company. He allegedly approved payments to “consultants” retained to bribe Indonesian officials. A federal district court dismissed one count of the indictment. The DOJ appealed, but on Aug. 24, a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit affirmed the court’s decision. The question it considered was whether a person can be guilty as an accomplice or a co-conspirator for an FCPA crime that he or she is incapable of committing as a principal? The three-judge panel ruled that since the accused was never a U.S. citizen, national, or resident, and wasn’t accused of having acted in furtherance of the bribery scheme while in the United States, he could only be charged as an agent of a domestic concern. He still faces money laundering charges.