"SEC’s Division of Enforcement, remarked that the SEC wanted to send a clear message thatresponding appropriately to such misconduct when discovered is beneficial to the company.Furthermore, the Ralph Lauren NPA demonstrates what the SEC views as corporate cooperationwith the SEC. While violations of the FCPA may occur despite a corporation’s best efforts,Ralph Lauren is an example of the benefits of prompt action and cooperation in light of any suchdiscovery.Prosecutions under the U.K. Bribery Act Due to the recent passage of the U.K. Bribery Act in2010, there have been few instances of prosecution. The first to be prosecuted under the BriberyAct was Clerk Munir Yakub Patel. Patel was convicted of accepting a bribe of £500 ($774) inexchange for not inputting details of a traffic summons into a court database. He was sentencedto BK-CHE-FERRELL_11E-150190-Case 18.indd Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, orduplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may besuppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressedcontent does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves theright to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.Case 18: Managing the Risks of Global Bribery in Business 605four years in prison. The second conviction levied under the Bribery Act was for MawiaMushtaq, who offered licensing officials £300 ($459) in exchange for passing him on a taxidriver test. A more recent conviction involves a student accused of attempting to bribe his tutorto change his dissertation grade. The student was sentenced to 12 months in prison. Surprisingly,none of these initial prosecutions were actually carried out by the United Kingdom’s SeriousFraud Office (SFO), which was expected to be the primary enforcer of the Bribery Act, but byother governmental agencies. The SFO’s first action under the Bribery Act was not until 2013,when it charged three men with making and accepting bribes as part of a conspiracy to defraudU.K. biofuel investors using false sales invoices and misleading accounting. Two of the menwere convicted of violating the Bribery Act and were sentenced to six and four years,respectively, in addition to sentences for other fraud-related charges. These initial applications ofthe Bribery Act—prosecution of U.K. nationals in their individual capacities—differsignificantly from the intent and history of the FCPA, which has frequently been used toprosecute foreign officials and corporations. While the United States government mightprosecute individuals found guilty of bribing non-foreign officials under fraud charges, suchbribery would not be considered a violation of the FCPA. These early prosecutions under theBribery Act emphasize the British government’s commitment to combating bribery in everysphere of life. While these initial convictions under the Bribery Act dealt with individuals, theSFO has expressed its commitment to using it against offending companies as well, and hasstated it has other investigations that are ongoing. Therefore, companies face increased pressureto carefully monitor the ethics and compliance of their operations. For example, Rolls-Royce isbeing investigated by the SFO for allegedly paying $20 million to the son of the former president of Indonesia, as well as for potential bribery in China and other countries. However, because thealleged bribery occurred before July 2011, when the Bribery Act took effect, it cannot beprosecuted under the Act. However, the firm could still be found culpable for bribery underanother law, and a civil settlement is a possibility. Despite the risks of penalties for bribery, anErnst & Young survey revealed that only about half of British firms adequately check theirsuppliers to ensure compliance with the Bribery Act. As the actions of the SFO and the penaltiesunder the Bribery Act attest, this ethical failure can result in significant costs to a firm. Alstom:Bribery Leads to Convictions in both the United States and the United Kingdom With multiplecountries passing anti-bribery laws that have a global reach, there is a serious risk that aninternational company engaging in bribery could be prosecuted, and punished, multiple times bydifferent countries for an offense. This is essentially what has happened to Alstom, a France- based power and transportation company. After an intensive, multiyear investigation, thecompany pled guilty in the United States to multiple violations of the FCPA, including payingtens of millions of dollars in bribes to secure business in many countries around the world,falsifying its accounting records to cover up its wrongdoing, refusing to cooperate with theFCPA investigation, and failing to implement proper internal controls. As part of its guilty plea,the company agreed to pay over $772 million in penalties. Several of its independent subsidiariesalso pleaded guilty to similar offenses, each with their own penalties and punishments.BK-CHE-FERRELL_11E-150190-Case 18.indd Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, orduplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may besuppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed "