Tag Archives: Nicolas Bourtin

Deputy Assistant Attorney General Matthew Miner Announces that FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy Will Apply to Mergers and Acquisitions

by Nicolas Bourtin, Theodore Edelman, Sergio Galvis, Aisling O’Shea and Nathaniel Green

During a speech delivered on July 25, 2018 at the American Conference Institute 9th Global Forum on Anti-Corruption Compliance in High Risk Markets, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Matthew Miner, who oversees the U.S. Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) Fraud Section (which includes the DOJ’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) Unit), announced that successor companies that identify potential FCPA violations in connection with a merger or acquisition and disclose that conduct to the DOJ will be treated in conformance with the DOJ’s FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy (the “Policy”).  Continue reading →

Fighting Hindsight Bias in White-Collar Investigations

by Nicolas Bourtin

Hindsight is 20-20. Ask any quarterback, risk manager, or meteorologist. What happened in the past often seems to have been inevitable—and eminently predictable.

This is more than folk wisdom. Decades of psychological research have proven the universal tendency not only to look for evidence to confirm a conclusion you have already reached, but also to greatly overestimate how foreseeable an outcome was once you know that the outcome has taken place. The effects of this phenomenon—known by psychologists as hindsight bias—are particularly significant in criminal investigations and in white collar investigations most of all. The problem is not insoluble, but solving it requires a broader awareness of hindsight bias, a greater understanding of the depth and dimensions of the issue among the white collar community, and consideration of the range of potential solutions. Continue reading →