A Clear Limit On FCPA Successor Liability

A post from Chadbourne & Parke looks at a recent case that helps clarify when there is or is not successor liability for a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violation after the acquisition of a foreign company. In this case, the acquiring U.S. company reported the results of its own due diligence, which had raised some alarms, to the government and asked for assurance that the government would not bring charges after the acquisition. It got what it asked for in a formal opinion, with, one might guess, as much assurance as is likely to be provided in such documents: The government, the opinion said,  “does not presently intend to take any enforcement action.” This post explains why.