On August 24, 2018 the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected the Department of Justice's expansive jurisdictional theory of prosecution in United States v. Hoskins.
The government contended that Hoskins violated FCPA provisions by targeting American companies and their agents, officers, directors, employees, and shareholders without ever being present within the United States. The issue was whether a foreign person, who is not present within the United States, can be liable for conspiring or aiding and abetting a U.S. company to violate the FCPA if that individual is not in the categories of persons covered in the statute. In other words, can a person be guilty as an accomplice or a co-conspirator for an FCPA crime that he is incapable of committing as a principal. The Court strictly construed the statute’s territorial limitations, holding that to find Hoskin's liable the government must demonstrate he falls within one of the statutes enumerated categories.
This article was written by Tim Piscatelli.
