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The FCPA and Personal Jurisdiction over Foreign Nationals Residing Outside The U.S.

BY Andrew M. Levine, Bruce E. Yannett, Steven S. Michaels
September 24, 2013

In last month's issue we discussed one of two recent decisions in which U.S. District Court judges considered this question: When may foreign nationals residing continuously outside the United States be prosecuted on civil Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), taking into account the due process “fair play and substantial justice” requirements of International Shoe v. Washington, 326 U.S. 310 (1945)? The two judges ' Judge Richard J. Sullivan in SEC v. Straub, 11-CV-9645 (RJS), 2013 WL 466600 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 8, 2013), and Judge Shira A. Scheindlin in SEC v. Steffen, 11-CV-9073 (SAS), 2013 WL 603135 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 19, 2013) ' came to very different conclusions on the issue. We turn now to the Steffen case.

The Decision in Steffen

The SEC's complaint in the Steffen matter alleged that, in connection with a tender that was awarded and then canceled by the government of Argentina for the design and production of a national identity card, Herbert Steffen, a former Chief Executive Officer of Siemens Argentina S.A. (Siemens-Argentina), and later a Group President of Siemens Transportations Systems (STS), a division of Siemens AG, along with six other former senior executives at Siemens AG, violated or aided and abetted Siemens AG's violations of the primary anti-bribery provisions of 15 U.S.C. ' 78dd-1, as well as the books-and-records and internal-controls provisions of the FCPA set forth at 15 U.S.C. ' 78m(b)(2)(A) and (B), as well as (b)(5). Steffen, 11-CV-9073, Complaint (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 13, 2011).

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