Two High-Ranking Foreigners Arrested On FCPA Charges

Hong Kong’s Secretary for Home Affairs from 2002 to 2007 and the former foreign minister of Senegal were arrested in New York on Monday. They were charged with conspiring to violate the FCPA, violating the FCPA, conspiring to commit international money laundering, and committing international money laundering. According to the criminal complaint, the defendants paid bribes to help a “Shanghai-headquartered multibillion-dollar conglomerate that operates internationally in the energy and financial sectors.” They allegedly paid $2 million to the President of Chad, in exchange for which the company they represented, China Energy Fund Co., Ltd., was granted “exclusive opportunity to obtain particular oil rights in Chad without facing international competition.”  A second scheme, to bribe the President of Uganda, was also revealed when the arrests were made.