Antitrust Monitor Blog: Influential Think Tank and Opinion Driver Recommends Harsher Antitrust Fines

The American Antitrust Institute, a Washington D.C. organization, has written a letter to the United States Sentencing Commission recommending that fines for antitrust violations be increased.  The recommendation grows out of work done by Professors John Connor and Bob Lande, who have been studying whether the penalties (including fines, jail time, and civil liability) adequately deter would-be price fixers.  Their study, which looks at a significant amount of data over many years, suggests that price fixing is under-deterred, and that it therefore can be a rational business decision for firms to illegally fix prices, even in the current era of large fines, big jail sentences and private treble damages cases.  They specifically point out that while the Guidelines assume that price fixing raises prices by an average of 10% over what prices would be in a competitive market, there is evidence that this estimate is too low, and should be revised to 20%, if not higher.

http://www.antitrustinstitute.org/~antitrust/sites/default/files/USSCAAILetter.pdf

The Hill: Lobbying World

 

Click Here:  The Hill: Lobbying World (June 25, 2013)

Tanzania’s Contract Registration Board Holds First Procurement Fraud Best Practices Workshop With Assistance From GeyerGorey LLP

From February 25 through March 1st 2013, at the Grand Hyatt in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the Contractors’ Registration Board (CRB) of Tanzania hosted the first in a series of comprehensive multi-day procurement fraud training programs.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRLog (Press Release) – Mar. 21, 2013 – From February 25 through March 1st 2013, at the Grand Hyatt in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the Contractors’ Registration Board (CRB) of Tanzania hosted the first in a series of comprehensive multi-day procurement fraud training programs.

Chief Executive Officer Bonaface Megage announced that the CRB intended this program to be the beginning of a national procurement fraud initiative established to promote the early detection, prevention and prosecution of procurement fraud associated with increased contracting activity for government programs necessary to support a growing Tanzanian economy.  “In the weeks and months to come, we will be reaching out to other agencies within Tanzania and asking them for their support in our continuing efforts to eliminate fraud from the procurement process,” stated CRB’s Chairman of the Board Consolata Ngimbwa.  “We wanted to create the leading best practices contracting program in our region of the world and that is why we invited business sector leaders in the Tanzanian economy to incorporate their experiences and help us shape a fraud enforcement program that is in parity with other international programs and yet still unique to Tanzania.”
Conceived and coordinated under the capable guidance and supervision of Professor Charles Inyangete, of T-Mortgage Limited, a noted scholar, advisor and consultant on the African continent involving procurement, finance, economic policy, banking and financial risk, the conference incorporated three full days of instruction and included a final day “Master Class” that blended US case hypotheticals with Tanzanian enforcement experience.  “We were immensely pleased with the advice, counsel and three days of instruction provided by Bradford L Geyer (from GeyerGorey LLP, an American law firm based out of New York and Washington D.C. that specializes on international fraud enforcement programs, compliance and white collar defense).  “Mr. Geyer used a five year period of American experience of Overseas Contingency Operations Contracting and compared and contrasted it with the challenges we face here in Tanzania.  While doing so, he familiarized our participants with cutting edge technologies in best contracting practices and compliance that focused on competition, antitrust, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), anti-money laundering, reporting structures, document control and preservation, and risk management.”

CRB Vice Chairman Joseph Tango stated that “[Tanzanians] and the international community are committed to preserving our ethical contracting environment in Tanzania.  We recognize that the companies we need to engage desire to operate in a competitive environment that is predictable, ethical and safe from corruption. This should be a welcome call especially to European and American companies who seek to become responsible business partners in our development efforts, but it is also a warning shot to those who would seek to corrupt and pervert our system.  Currently, our system like every other on the globe faces challenges in this regard, but we stand committed to overcoming these challenges.”

The participants in the first Tanzanian Contract and Procurement Fraud Workshop were selected from inside and outside of Tanzanian government for their expertise, experience and leadership qualities and had agreed by consensus to incorporate the technologies they learned at the conference back to their home offices to share with colleagues.