During Kara Novaco Brockmeyer’s tenure as head of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) unit brought 72 enforcement actions.
Kara Novaco Brockmeyer, FCPA chief, SEC
SEC officials report that Kara Novaco Brockmeyer, chief of the enforcement division’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) unit, is planning to leave the agency later this month.
An SEC statement offered no reason for her departure, and a commission spokesperson did not reply to an FTF News inquiry about it.
Since 2011, Brockmeyer, who joined the SEC from private practice in 2000, has been at the head of a “national unit of 38 attorneys, accountants, and other specialists focusing on violations of the anti-bribery and accounting provisions of the federal securities laws,” the commission says. She also was the founder and co-head of the enforcement division’s cross-border working group, a “proactive risk-based initiative focusing on U.S. companies with substantial foreign operations.”
During her tenure heading the unit, the SEC “brought 72 FCPA enforcement actions addressing a wide range of misconduct and resulting in judgments and orders totaling more than $2 billion in disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and penalties.”
Among the commission-highlighted Brockmeyer-era actions involved the following entities:
- “Hedge fund Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC, which paid $412 million in civil and criminal sanctions to settle charges that it used intermediaries, agents, and business partners to pay bribes to high-level government officials in Africa;”
- “Brazilian-based petrochemical manufacturer Braskem S.A., which agreed to pay $957 million in a global settlement for concealing millions of dollars in illicit bribes paid to Brazilian government officials to win business;”
- “Financial services firm JP Morgan Chase & Co., which paid $264 million in a global settlement of charges that it corruptly influenced government officials and won business in the Asia-Pacific region by giving jobs and internships to their relatives and friends;”
- “Brazilian-based aircraft manufacturer Embraer S.A., which agreed to pay $205 million to settle charges that it violated the FCPA to win business in the Dominican Republic, Saudi Arabia, Mozambique, and India;”
- “Tokyo-based conglomerate Hitachi Ltd. [which] agreed to pay $19 million to settle charges” for “inaccurately recording improper payments to South Africa’s ruling political party in connection with contracts to build power plants.”
- “Anheuser-Busch InBev, which paid $6 million to settle charges that it violated the FCPA by using third-party sales promoters to make improper payments to government officials in India and chilled a whistleblower who reported the misconduct;”
- “Wisconsin-based global provider of HVAC systems Johnson Controls, which agreed to pay more than $14 million to settle charges that its Chinese subsidiary used sham vendors to make improper payments to employees of Chinese government-owned shipyards and other officials to win business.”
Also during Brockmeyer’s tenure as FCPA chief, the SEC notes, the use of so-called “cooperation tools” was expanded. Those cooperation tools included the “first FCPA-related non-prosecution agreement … in 2013 with Ralph Lauren Corporation, and the first use of a deferred prosecution agreement with an individual in an FCPA case in 2016.”
Brockmeyer also “supervised a significant financial fraud matter that resulted in charges against Weatherford International and its executives for inflating earnings by using deceptive income tax accounting,” the SEC says, and “against Ernst & Young LLP and two of its partners for conducting failed audits of Weatherford.”
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