Domestic bribery and code of conduct waivers

It was – at least according to this Blog – the most interesting COI story of 2015 (as of February of that year): the head of the New York/New Jersey Port Authority (the PA)  – David Samson – had persuaded United Airlines to reinstate a money-losing route that was convenient for his personal use in return for his giving them favorable treatment on certain PA matters. But what has happened since? And what can C&E professionals learn from it?

In July of 2016, Samson “pleaded guilty to one charge of bribery for accepting a benefit of more than $5,000 from” the airline. “At the same time, United–which was not criminally charged–agreed to pay a fine of $2.25 million and pledged to institute ‘substantial reforms’ to its compliance program.”  And earlier this month the airline settled related charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Above all, that settlement – which involved violations of the FCPA’s books-and-records and internal accounting controls provisions – is a reminder that an effective anti-corruption compliance program must be addressed to domestic  bribery, as well as the foreign kind. In that regard, it is worth remembering that the US is not at or near the top of the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index: it is tied for 16^th. And for certain parts of the country – including New Jersey, where Samson worked (and I live) – the picture is worse.

Yet, in my experience some companies don’t address domestic bribery risks with the same rigor that they do foreign ones – even those involving “cleaner” countries than the US.  So, this settlement may be a useful opportunity for companies to consider whether their anti-corruption policies and procedures – including risk assessment – are sufficient to address domestic bribery.

Less significant but perhaps more interesting to C&E practitioners is the SEC’s discussion of the issue of code of conduct waiver – and specifically the failure to get a waiver of the code’s gift provision in connection with the reinstatement of the unprofitable route. The SEC noted that a companion document to the code had provided that: “exceptions would be granted only in accordance with the following procedure: Generally, requests for exceptions must be submitted in writing to the Director – Ethics and Compliance Program.  Approvals for an exception will also be in writing and must be obtained in advance of the action requiring the exception.”  Yet “no one at United sought a waiver of United’s Code of Business Conduct prior to initiating the … Route for Samson’s personal benefit. Nor did anyone at United seek or obtain an exception to Continental’s Ethics and Compliance Guidelines [which was still in effect following the merger of the two carriers]  prior to initiating the … Route. As a result, no written record reflecting the authorization for the … Route was prepared or maintained, as required by United’s Policies.”

Code of conduct waiver-related requirements are based on, among other things,  rules of the New York Stock Exchange and SEC . They derive,, to some extent, from the Enron case.  Yet in recent years I’ve heard very little about them. That may be because the NYSE and SEC standards apply to a narrow band of senior officials at public companies. Yet waiver requirements can go beyond this, as United’s ostensibly did.

So, is there any takeaway for C&E professionals from this aspect of the United case? One idea would be to include questions about waivers in audit interviews – which might pick up information that a question about violations might miss. A second is to include a discussion of waivers in training boards and senior executives – who may have at one point known the Enron-related origins of the waiver provision requirement but have likely forgotten this piece of C&E history.

Finally, for those revising their codes of conduct, one might consider requiring that waivers be granted only upon a clear showing that doing so would be in the best interests of the Company – and that all meaningful circumstances surrounding a waiver be documented in a complete and accurate way. Indeed, given that the SEC has taken the occasion of the United case to speak about code waivers, this is an area where companies should take a moment to make sure they are doing everything right.