The recent proliferation of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) enforcement has brought about fundamental changes for companies engaged in international commerce. The FCPA makes it unlawful for American companies, their agents and joint venture partners to make payments to foreign officials to assist in obtaining or retaining business.
Many manufacturers responded to this seismic shift by recognizing the need to implement FCPA-specific compliance programs. But all too often compliance strategies assume that FCPA violations follow normal, bell-curve distribution, where the majority of employees are responsible for the majority of violations. In reality, however, FCPA violations reflect precisely the opposite configuration: They follow a power law, or "hockey stick" distribution, where a select few individuals -- only those with both the opportunity to run afoul of the statute and the inclination to do so -- commit virtually all of the violations.
