Energy
Corruption charges threaten to take down an entire global business
In a complicated political environment, a major energy company came under government investigation both in its home country and by the United States for bribery and other corrupt misconduct.
As a result, the company’s external auditors put a hold on their financial statements, which made it impossible to file with the SEC. This in turn resulted in the company’s stock being suspended from trading on the NYSE and threatened the company’s ability to raise capital and execute on future plans.
In the wake of these issues, we were brought in to conduct a massive cross-border internal investigation on a tight deadline to avoid delisting and mitigate damage to our client's business. Encompassing a review of 13 million documents, over 600 interviews, a team of more than 300 global professionals, and multiple authorities in both the United States and the home country in question, our assistance resulted in the company’s stock being able to resume trading on the NYSE, dismissal of bad actor employees, improvement of compliance policies and internal controls, and full cooperation with the public authorities. The case was closed with a much lower-than-average penalty and no post-settlement monitor or reporting, which the agencies said was due to the level of cooperation and discipline that our client imposed in the wake of the investigations.