Paul Calli Quoted by Anti-Corruption Report Regarding FCPA Enforcement Against PokerStars Owner
Anti-Corruption Report quoted Calli Law Managing Partner Paul Calli’s analysis in its June 21, 2023 article on the SEC enforcement action against PokerStars owner Flutter Entertainment. According to Mr. Calli, observers should ask whether FCPA enforcement is “merely a tried and true cash cow for the government.”
As Anti-Corruption Report writes, also quoting Mr. Calli:
While a $4-million penalty may be a relatively small settlement by SEC standards, Flutter may have spent significantly more than that to make the problem go away. “The amount of legal fees and costs incurred is likely more than double the fine amount,” Calli estimated. “Coupled with a lack of transparency to corporate America regarding the manner in which the SEC calculates its fines, it is hard to make sense of the SEC’s oft-parroted mantra that its FCPA enforcement aids companies in navigating FCPA issues during the acquisition process,” he noted. Then there is the length of time that TSG and Flutter were under FCPA scrutiny. “An FCPA
enforcement action that drags on for six-and-a-half years, involving companies with headquarters in Ireland and Canada, doing business in Russia, with little insight into how the government arrived at a fine amount, seems the exact opposite of transparent, predictable, government action,” Calli said.
Calli Law Attorneys Paul Calli and Chas Short have previously analyzed the DOJ’s poor track record when it charges FCPA violations and the accused fights at trial – that discussion is available in a guest post at the FCPA Professor blog.
As covered by the New York Times, Paul Calli successfully defended the first person acquitted in the government’s infamous and failed “Gabon Sting” prosecution.
