With the recent pandemic and shifting political and economic conditions, Chinese companies, as they continue to grow internationally in size and stature, have had to deal with the complexities of managing an international conglomerate. Part of this has involved dealing with cross-border corporate misconduct across different jurisdictions. In this article, we share some practical guidance based on recent case experience on how to structure, plan and manage international white-collar offence investigations.
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Red Tape | Corruption contagion – tip of the iceberg
By Dorothy Murray, Natalie Caton , Richard Wigley , Shamilee Arora, Jane Menzies King & Wood Mallesons
Much has been written in recent years about the scope and costs of regulatory investigations and the powers of regulators. A company implicated in, for example, a corruption issue can expect to spend huge sums on investigations,
Internal Compliance Audits – the Why and How?
By Liu Xiangwen, Monique Carrroll, Yang Jianyuan and Zhu Yuanyuan
The ‘why’
Due to the sensitivity of commercial bribery, corporations can be reluctant to instigate internal anti-commercial bribery investigations as a check on the effectiveness of their compliance program. Often an internal investigation will only be commenced when a serious problem emerges in the internal management system, a judicial or governmental investigation is initiated or a complaint is received accusing the corporation of serious compliance issues. However, given the increasing global focus on anti-bribery and corruption compliance, the value of regular internal compliance investigations or ‘audits’ has increased. The objective of a compliance audit is to identify and deal with any problems or risk areas before they are obvious to third parties and escalate to the media’s attention. Where the audit uncovers a serious problem that must be reported to regulators, the company will be in a much better position to pro-actively manage the situation – hopefully with the result of minimizing any penalties imposed on the company.
Over the medium to long term, regular compliance audits will strengthen the compliance and risk awareness of both the company and its employees and therefore contribute to an enterprise culture of compliance. Such a culture would in turn contribute to the long-term and sustainable development of the company.
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China Clean Tech at Risk– Initiation of the Recent Section 301 Investigation
By Meg Utterback and Ding Liang of King & Wood’s Cross border dispute resolution Practice
As the United States mid-term elections draw near, we can expect greater protectionist measures from the US government in an effort to appease voters who are demanding an improvement in the US unemployment statistics. One such protectionist measure is the initiation of the recent 301 investigation relating to allegations that the Chinese clean technology and renewable energy sectors are being unfairly advantaged by government subsidies. Almost all countries are subsidizing the renewable sector in one form or another in hopes of easing the world’s dependence on fossil fuels. It seems however that the US has taken umbrage with the extent of Chinese programs supporting the clean technology and renewable energy industries.Continue Reading China Clean Tech at Risk– Initiation of the Recent Section 301 Investigation