The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is currently employing bank reports of suspicious transactions for the purpose of building bribery cases. By leveraging these data sets, a task that presents a significant challenge given its more complex nature compared to those utilized in cases concerning healthcare fraud or insider trading, the DOJ hopes to pursue violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in a more robust manner.
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), filed yearly by financial institutions, come in millions and hold vast quantities of unstructured information. It is this vastness and lack of structure that make these reports a challenging resource to mine for suitable leads in FCPA cases, according to seasoned attorneys.
The ambiguity lies in the fact that these transaction records can be challenging and time-consuming to filter down to attain viable leads for potential FCPA cases. However, some lawyers have noted early signs that these data mining efforts by the DOJ’s criminal fraud section may be beginning to pay dividends in overseas bribery matters.
This endeavor by the DOJ exemplifies the potential of data-driven techniques in aiding the disclosure and prosecution of financial misconduct, a trend that is likely to expand in its application across legal and regulatory fields.
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