"It's Not Easy Being Under Investigation for Two Years ..."

Panalpina is dealing with some FCPA issues (see here for the prior post).

Now, the company's shareholders are getting a bit testy.

According to this report, during the company's annual meeting last week, a shareholder demanded that someone "step up and take responsibility" for the company's poor performance over the last two years.

According to the report, CEO Monika Ribar said, "[i]t is not easy being under investigation for two years, and [the FCPA investigation] is not making the situation any easier."

According to the report, COO Karl Weyeneth added: “You can say the whole FCPA and Nigeria situation reflects badly on the management, but the fact is that as long as we are still involved in the investigation we will continue to lose market share, because our customers have internal regulations which prevent them from doing business with companies which are under investigation by the DoJ." “As soon as this investigation is over, we will win some of this business back. Customers have told us ‘as soon as you have settled the FCPA, we will do business with you again’.”

Time will no doubt tell whether the FCPA investigation is a convenient excuse for company management for poor performance or whether this instance demonstrates the difficulty of running a company and maintaining customer relationships during the lifespan (often times several years) of an FCPA investigation / enforcement action.

*****

The seemingly minor case involving Telecommunications D'Haiti ("Haiti Teleco") (see here) keeps on giving.

Last Friday, the DOJ announced (here) that Robert Antoine, one of the "foreign officials" (at least according to the DOJ given that Antoine served as the "Director of International Relations of Haiti Teleco" - an alleged state-owned entity), in the far-reaching case pleaded guilty to a money laundering conspiracy charge.

U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Solman (S.D. of Florida) is quoted as saying, "[t]oday's conviction should be a warning to corrupt government officials everywhere that neither they nor their money will find any safe haven in the United States."

Such get-tough language is difficult to reconcile with the BAE bribery, yet not bribery circus in which an identifiable Saudi official was widely alleged to have received from BAE over a billion dollars in a U.S. bank account (see here) and in light of this situation.