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The Morning Risk Report: Former Alstom Executive Asks Judge to Throw Out Foreign Bribery Charges
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The case against former Alstom executive Lawrence Hoskins has brought the Justice Department’s interpretation of U.S. foreign bribery law under judicial scrutiny. PHOTO: REGIS DUVIGNAU/REUTERS
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Good morning. A federal court is facing a raft of thorny legal questions—including what it should tell jurors about the definition of a key word in the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act—on the eve of the trial of a former Alstom SA executive.
Lawyers for Lawrence Hoskins, a former Alstom senior vice president, asked a judge to dismiss charges against their client over delays that they say have violated his constitutional right to a speedy trial. Mr. Hoskins, who was arrested in 2014, is charged with helping organize a scheme to bribe Indonesian government officials to win a $118 million power contract for Alstom.
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The latest round of pretrial motions in the case—one of the longest-running FCPA cases currently being litigated—demonstrates the obstacles prosecutors face in bringing charges of bribery that occurred outside the U.S., as well as the obstacles faced by executives in defending themselves against those charges.
“Mr. Hoskins is living proof of the significant challenges faced by foreign nationals defending charges in the United States that are premised on old, extraterritorial conduct,” Chris Morvillo, a lawyer representing Mr. Hoskins, said at a pretrial hearing Wednesday.
The case has garnered interest from companies and lawyers because it has brought the Justice Department’s interpretation of U.S. foreign bribery law under judicial scrutiny. It also has given rise to a landmark legal ruling that set limits on who prosecutors can charge with conspiring to violate the law, as opposed to violating it directly.
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From Risk & Compliance Journal
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Allscripts Healthcare reached a tentative $145 million agreement to resolve civil and criminal federal investigations into its Practice Fusion unit. PHOTO: LUIS ROBAYO/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc. has reached a tentative $145 million agreement to resolve civil and criminal federal investigations into the business practices of one of its recently acquired companies.
The federal investigations revolve around Practice Fusion Inc.’s software certification, compliance with anti-kickback regulations and related business practices, according to securities filings. No additional details were given. Health-care information-technology company Allscripts acquired the electronic-health-records company last year.
Practice Fusion, under the terms of the tentative agreement with the Justice Department, would enter into a deferred prosecution agreement and civil settlement agreement in addition to paying $145 million, according to an Allscripts securities filing.
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Washington lawyer Eugene Scalia, shown in 2012, argued on behalf of the financial-services industry before a circuit court that threw out a rule that is being rewritten by the Labor Department. PHOTO: STEPHEN VOSS FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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President Trump’s pick to be the next secretary of labor would likely have to sit out the department’s rewrite of a closely watched investment-advice rule if he is confirmed, according to people familiar with the matter. Eugene Scalia, a Washington lawyer who has helped companies challenge financial rules, previously handled a legal challenge to the Obama administration’s version of the regulation, known as the fiduciary rule.
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The death of Jeffrey Epstein in a federal jail sparked an investigation into the apparent suicide of the financier accused of sexual abuse and raised the pressure to prosecute his associates in his absence. Mr. Epstein died Saturday in the Manhattan detention facility, a shocking twist in a lurid saga of wealth, power and alleged sex trafficking of minors that stretched from Wall Street to the White House.
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Italian politician Matteo Salvini, with beard, poses with supporters in Termoli on Friday, amid his push for snap elections. PHOTO: NICO LANESE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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In the U.K. and Italy, charismatic right-wing leaders are pursuing high-risk bids for greater power that entail clashes with the European Union, potentially disrupting their nations’ economies and Europe’s already faltering growth. The British economy is already taking a hit from the risk of a chaotic Brexit on Halloween, the latest date set for the U.K. to leave the EU. The U.K. economy, the world’s fifth largest, contracted at an annualized rate of 0.8% in the second quarter as business confidence plunged, according to data released on Friday.
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Life just got a fraction tidier for chip makers. The geopolitical backdrop may still be a million miles from the spotless order of a semiconductor fab, but trade relations between Japan and South Korea, two key countries for the industry, may be less messy than feared. Last month, Tokyo tightened controls on exports of three chemicals crucial for making memory chips and screens. Japan dominates the supply of those materials, and Korean giants like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix could struggle to produce semiconductors without them.
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Black Hat's network operations center must maintain and defend systems that event staff, exhibitors, presenters and attendees rely on. PHOTO: BLACK HAT USA
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For two people who have been pulling 12-hour shifts for the better part of a week, Neil “Grifter” Wyler and Bart Stump are in good spirits, even if they are berating their audience for trying to hack the cops.
“You guys, you’re like, ‘We’re at Black Hat, nothing’s illegal anymore!’ But holy crap, man,” Mr. Wyler said in an informal talk to a group of attendees at the Black Hat USA cybersecurity conference held in Las Vegas this week. He warned them about misusing hacking techniques they learn about at the conference: “I realize this may be the first time you’ve seen that tool, and you think it’s awesome, but please don’t point it at a law-enforcement website.”
He isn’t joking. He and Mr. Stump caught a conference attendee doing just that this week, Mr. Wyler said, declining to give details. The two men are in charge of what seems to be an impossible job: securing a hacker conference from hackers.
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EU Nears Decisions in Facebook Privacy Cases
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The European Union could begin to hit Facebook Inc. with decisions under the bloc’s new privacy law by the end of the year, raising the specter of billions of euros in fines and orders to change business practices. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission—which leads EU privacy enforcement for Facebook because the firm’s regional headquarters are in Dublin—says it is nearing the end of its investigations in some of the 11 cases it has opened into the tech giant under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR.
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Broadcom is buying the portion of Symantec focused on sales to companies, which contributes about half its $5 billion in annual revenue. PHOTO: DAVID PAUL MORRIS/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Broadcom Inc. struck a $10.7 billion deal to buy Symantec Corp.’s enterprise security business, as it steps up efforts to expand beyond chip making.Semiconductor maker Broadcom, which has a history of acquisitions, said the cash acquisition was the next logical step in building a business around software for companies.
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As FedEx Corp. stops shipping Amazon.com Inc. packages, United Parcel Service Inc. mulls a similar question to the one its delivery rival just faced: grow alongside one of the world’s largest shippers or cut off a looming competitor?
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Companies with charismatic leaders tend to have a higher cost of capital, which means fewer projects will be profitable. PHOTO: JON KRAUSE
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While talkative, energetic, sociable leaders may wow investors and employees, they may not be good for business. Public companies run by chief executives with extroverted personality traits have a higher cost of equity capital—the return shareholders demand for bearing the risk of owning the asset—than otherwise similar firms with less-outgoing CEOs, according to new research.
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