Rahman Ravelli appear on podcast dedicated to their Foreign Corrupt Practices Act article

Rahman Ravelli were a guest on the FCPA Flash podcast, which focused on one of their articles about the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

They were invited onto the show to discuss an article they wrote recently, “The Continuing Facade of FCPA Enforcement: A Critical Look at the Telia DPA.”

The 66-page article, which was published by the New York University Journal of Law and Business, assesses the theory proposed by Professor Mike Koehler, who said that most FCPA allegations are resolved via private negotiation. This, Professor Koehler argued, leads to companies to accepting liability for charges – even ones which are weak and have little supporting evidence – simply because they want to bring an end to the investigation.

Rahman Ravelli analyses what Professor Koehler calls the façade of enforcement. They weigh up the argument that companies have prioritised ending investigations when devising their compliance policies.

The article focuses on the case of Swedish telecommunications firm Telia Company AB. The deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) that Telia concluded with the US Department of Justice was based on facts that were subject to challenge in the Swedish courts. This, they argued, was a case where the company accepted a DPA that was based on unsupported allegations in order to bring an end to the investigation. 

You can listen to the podcast by visiting the FCPA Professor.