Anti-Corruption Enforcement Drives Need for Improved Information Gathering
Volume of electronic media makes case analysis more complex
WASHINGTON, June 8, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Control Risks, one of the world's leading business risk consultancies, warns that stronger anti-corruption enforcement and the associated potential rise in regulatory investigations will require organizations to build more advanced information gathering and analysis processes for rapid and cost effective defence strategies.
Organizations today produce and retain vast quantities of electronically stored information making the collation of case information more complex and costly.
In light of new anti-corruption legislation, Control Risks advises international companies to assess their information management processes and review their compliance policies to ensure they are robust enough to minimize the chances of an investigation, and to support their defence and plan their response if one occurs.
Jorge Montanez, Senior Vice President of Control Risks' Legal Technologies business, said: "With the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act in place, the UK Bribery Act coming on stream on July 1, and international authorities working in closer partnership to crack-down on instances of corruption, we can expect to see a steady increase in the rate of investigations against multinational companies.
"The weight of electronically stored information that organizations need to access and process for investigations is considerable and growing. Often information can be extremely challenging and costly to source. eDiscovery can play an important role in organizations' anti-corruption strategies, allowing them to rapidly collate, store and analyze the necessary data at a predictable cost."
In the USA, Department of Justice enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been extremely vigorous and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act provides a financial motivation to would-be whistleblowers of 10 per cent to 30 per cent of monetary penalties worth more than $1m.
The number of corruption investigations has risen in other Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries in recent years and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in partnership with its international counterparts is likely to step up its investigation of suspected international bribery once the UK Bribery Act comes into law in July(1).
More than a third of larger U.S. and UK company (revenues of at least $1bn) respondents to law firm Fulbright & Jaworski's 7th Annual Litigation report said they expected an increase in the number of disputes their company would face this year. The report also showed that more than 40 per cent of large companies planned to increase their spending on eDiscovery in 2011(2).
About Control Risks
Control Risks is a global risk consultancy and one of the leading providers of eDiscovery solutions. The company specializes in political, security and integrity risk and enables its clients to understand and manage the risks of operating in complex or hostile environments. Through a unique combination of services, wide geographical reach and by adopting a close partnership approach with clients, Control Risks helps organizations effectively solve their problems and realize new opportunities across the world.
eDiscovery is a web based process for sourcing, saving and reviewing unstructured electronically stored data from a range of corporate sources, such as email servers, back-up tapes, computers and laptops.
(1) In March 2010, 109 SFO staff and 44 police officers executed near simultaneous search warrants at five UK facilities of French engineering company Alstom and arrested three members of the board on suspicion of bribery and corruption, money-laundering and false accounting. The raids appeared to form part of larger co-operative effort between British, Polish, Swiss and possibly USA authorities.
(2) http://www.fulbright.com/litigationtrends.
CONTACT:
Christopher Levy
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SOURCE Control Risks Group
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