Brazil’s Lava Jato corruption scandal, or Operation Carwash, has altered anti-corruption enforcement in Latin America.
S&C partner Sergio Galvis and other leading Latin America lawyers discuss the scandal’s effect on advising businesses in the chapter “Roundtable: Lava Jato and Its Impact on Investigations in Latin America,” published by Latin Lawyer in The Guide to Corporate Crisis Management, First Edition.
Sergio, who heads our Latin America practice, co-edited the Guide and notes in the roundtable: “One of the most interesting and challenging issues arising in cross-border M&A transactions is how to undertake effective and thoughtful due diligence on compliance with legal matters – especially compliance with anti-corruption laws across the relevant jurisdictions. Several years ago, the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission issued a helpful resource guide for market participants navigating this challenging area. One of the great insights of the guide is that the due diligence process should be driven by a risk-based analysis that focuses on the particular facts and circumstances at play.” You may find the FCPA resource guide here.
S&C partners Robert Giuffra and Werner Ahlers edited the 189-page guide with Sergio and together they co-authored its introduction. The Guide offers practical strategies for businesses to plan for and manage a range of crisis situations, including corruption scandals, environmental accidents and government instability.
Throughout more than a century of involvement in Latin America—dating back to the creation of the Panama Canal—S&C has played an integral role in Latin America’s economic and legal history.
Today, S&C is known for:
- Being the leading international law firm in M&A deals in the region, advising on the highest volume by dollar value over the last five years
- Advising on over 50% of the market’s sovereign offerings in the last five years
- Representing more sponsors and borrowers on project financings in the region than any other firm over the last three decades
- Key litigation successes, including:
- Representing the Central Bank of Argentina in three successful arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
- Defending the Mexican airline Volaris and individual defendants against a U.S. putative class action arising out of the client’s IPO
- Dallas Airmotive Inc. in resolving a three-year FCPA investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice