Corporate Compliance Investigations

What this covers

A US company carries the compliance risk of what it runs and who it deals with in India: its subsidiary or capability center, the distributor that books its sales, the agent that obtains its permits, and suppliers several tiers down. Whether a factory matches its paperwork, or where a payment to an intermediary ends up, can only be confirmed in India.

Most vetting is routine. A few situations need more, for example when a screen turns up something that could become an investigation, when the findings have to stand up before a regulator, a court or the board, or when the response needs steps under Indian law. In those cases I lead the work in India, in person, and set it up from the start to support privilege and work-product protection.

A screening platform can flag a name. By contrast, a lawyer can go and check it in person, and decide what has to follow under Indian law. The work runs under your direction, and the findings go only to you.

An engagement can cover:

• third-party and vendor screening: who controls a party, who it pays, and what the record shows;
• enhanced due diligence, with inquiries through sources in India;
• anti-bribery and corruption review of dealings with government, such as permits, customs and tenders;
• supplier verification, including tracing inputs and testing origin under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA);
• site visits, with the findings documented so they hold up later;
• ongoing monitoring of the relationships that carry the most risk;
• internal and compliance investigations, led by a lawyer from the first interview; and
• court and registry searches, and the Indian-law steps that follow.

Where you would rather keep the work under your existing outside counsel, it can run that way. If a screen has turned up something in India, do reach out and I will take a look.