Shedding More Light on Its Cooperation Initiative, the SEC Announces Its First Deferred Prosecution Agreement
In connection with an investigation concerning possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) by Tenaris, S.A., a global steel pipe company, the SEC this week announced its first ever deferred prosecution agreement. According to this agreement, Tenaris violated the FCPA from 2006 through 2008 by bribing government officials in Uzbekistan in connection with a bidding process for oil and gas pipelines. The agreement was entered pursuant to the initiative the SEC unveiled last year to encourage and reward cooperation with SEC investigations and enforcement actions. Like the non-prosecution agreement announced in January 2011 between the SEC and Carter’s, Inc., the children’s clothing company, this agreement sheds light on how the SEC is implementing an initiative that received widespread attention when it was launched but whose details remained uncertain. Perhaps most significantly, the agreement signals that the SEC will not always require cooperating parties to admit to any wrongdoing, which is often required by criminal authorities in the cooperation context.