Fcpa Compliance Report

On June 16, 2017, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a Declination to Linde North American Inc. and Linde Gas North America LLC (collectively “Linde”). This is the first Declination issued by the DOJ in the era of the Trump Administration. For that reason alone, it was instructive and should be studied by the compliance profession. However, the case presented several interesting factors which merit consideration so we are discussing in depth to present lessons to be learned for the Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) or compliance practitioner.  The Bribery Scheme  Linde acquired Spectra Gases, Inc. (Spectra Gases) in October 2006. In November 2006, it purchased certain assets from the National High Technology Center (NHTC) of the Republic of Georgia. One of the keys to this purchase was a piece of equipment called the ““boron column,” which were used to produce boron gas.” Sales of boron gas after the acquisition helped fund the purchase price and payout to Spectra executives who stayed on after Linde purchas