Of Counsel Danforth Newcomb, who started the FCPA practice at Shearman & Sterling, was quoted in a November 10 Bloomberg.com article titled "Dooney & Bourke Founder Faces 10 Years in FCPA ‘Game-Changer.’"

The article comments on the quest of Frederic Bourke, the co-founder of handbag maker Dooney & Bourke, to avoid prison when he’s sentenced for conspiring to pay bribes to leaders in Azerbaijan in what U.S. prosecutors call one of the most corrupt investment schemes in the former Soviet Union.

In the months after Bourke’s conviction, the Justice Department won guilty verdicts in FCPA cases against Hollywood film executives accused of bribing Thai officials for contracts. The Bourke prosecution has served as a notice to violators of the FCPA. “It says two things,” Newcomb said. “The Justice Department takes cases to trial, and they win.”