Statoil Charges Dismissed

In October 2006, Statoil ASA (a Norwegian company with shares traded on a U.S. exchange - and thus an "issuer" under the FCPA) settled an FCPA enforcement action by agreeing to pay $21 million in combined DOJ and SEC fines and penalties for improper payments that assisted the company in securing contracts for the South Pars field in Iran.

The DOJ action was settled through a three-year deferred prosecution agreement (see here).

Under a deferred prosecution agreement, criminal charges against the company are filed with a court, but prosecution of the charges is deferred if the company adheres to the requirements of the agreement (such as acknowledging and accepting responsibility for the alleged conduct, cooperating with the DOJ's continued investigation, engaging a compliance monitor, and implementing more stringent FCPA policies and procedures, etc.) throughout the term of the agreement.

At the end of the term, usually 2-3 years, and if the company has complied with its obligations, DOJ agrees that it will seek dismissal of the charges.

Deferred prosecution agreements and non-prosecution agreements have become the most common method of resolving corporate FCPA enforcement actions.

The Statoil prosecution was precedent setting at the time as it was the first time the DOJ brought criminal FCPA charges against a non-U.S. company.

The DOJ announced today (see here) that Statoil satisfied its obligations under the deferred prosecution agreement and that a court has formally dismissed the charges.

In this respect, Statoil may again be precedent setting as I am not aware of any other instance in which the DOJ has issued a press release announcing the end of a deferred prosecution agreement (even though it would seem that several others have ended).

If my recollection is correct and if this perhaps is a change in DOJ policy, "hear-hear" as it increases transparency.

Other posts which have mentioned Statoil can be found here and here.