White Collar Attorney Jon May Claims Department of Justice Policies Needlessly Cost American Businesses Billions of Dollars; Calls for Reform

MIAMI, Dec. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- In an article published December 5, 2011 in the National Law Journal, Attorney Jon May has accused the United States Department of Justice of needlessly costing American businesses billions of dollars in efforts to enforce the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

See, Reform the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202534206962&Reform_the_Foreign_Corrupt_Practices_Act

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act makes it a crime for a company to secure business from a foreign government by paying a bribe to a foreign official. It also makes criminal a company's failure to record such payments in its financial records. The FCPA is our nation's effort to foster the rule of law and level the playing field for American companies doing business abroad. While this is a laudable goal, the Department of Justice is seeking to enforce this law by coercing private industry into instituting expensive compliance programs that cost industry billions of dollars that could otherwise be spent in opening factories and employing new workers.

Congress is presently considering whether to amend the FCPA. Unfortunately, as Attorney May details in his article, reform proposals offered by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, specifically the Chamber's suggestion that Congress enact a reasonable compliance defense, will only make the situation worse.

According to May, a far better means of preventing fraud and eliminating these unnecessary costs would be to provide immunity to companies who uncover the crimes themselves and report them to the government. Instead of spending money to look and sound law-abiding, companies should be free to choose whatever means actually work to prevent or uncover fraud. This is a common sense approach that would be a win-win for everyone. Mr. May urges Congress to enact such reform in the coming year.

Jon May represents individuals and institutions charged with federal criminal offenses throughout the United States. He is the former Chair of the White Collar Crime Section of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and is a former federal prosecutor.

Contact:

Jon May
May & Cohen P.A.
[email protected]
Phone: 305.373.3740
Fax: 786.228.0246
http://www.crimlawfed.com

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SOURCE May & Cohen P.A.