On October 20, 2020, I filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit a brief as amicus curiae (friend of the court), on behalf of the International Academy of Financial Crime Litigators, in an unusual appeal of a criminal case being heard by that court. A copy of the my brief can be found in the Publications section of this site.

The Hoskins case is a long-running saga that has already achieved quite a bit of commentary. It involves a UK subject, who was employed by the UK subsidiary of a French company (Alstom) and who never set foot in the United States but was nonetheless charged with violating the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The trial judge, after Hoskins’s conviction, determined that the record did not support the prosecutor’s theory that Hoskins fell within a category of individuals to whom the FCPA applied and acquitted him of those charges, and the prosecutor appealed.

The gist of the amicus brief is to urge that the Court of Appeals look carefully at the extraterritorial reach of the FCPA, and to decline the prosecutor’s invitation to extend it.

The procedural issues in the case a a bit complex, you will see them explained in my article on the Hoskins case that you will find in the Publications section of this site.

The case will be argued sometime in 2021, and a decision could come down later next year or even in 2022.