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Sarah Bishop

Sarah Bishop advises companies on compliance best practices and enforcement risks arising under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the UK Bribery Act, U.S. and UK anti-money laundering laws, and other financial crime laws. Qualified in the United States and as a Solicitor of England & Wales, she is able to help companies navigate risks arising in both jurisdictions. She also has experience of other anti-corruption laws (e.g., France’s Loi Sapin II) and works with trusted local partners to deliver coordinated advice that takes into account the requirements of multiple legal regimes. Sarah’s compliance advisory practice includes helping multinational corporations develop and test the robustness of compliance programs, conduct risk assessments, conduct transactional and third party due diligence, navigate post-acquisition compliance integration projects, and deliver compliance training.

As a member of Covington’s Business and Human Rights practice group, Sarah advises companies on evolving developments and best practices related to the corporate responsibility to respect human rights, including in relation to supply chain due diligence and responsible sourcing, reporting and transparency obligations, and strategies for integrating human rights elements into existing compliance programs.

Sarah also helps clients navigate internal and government-facing investigations involving allegations of bribery and corruption, money laundering, export control and sanctions violations, fraud, and other forms of misconduct. She has handled matters before major international enforcement authorities, and she has been recognized by the Global Investigations Review as being among the leading women investigations practitioners worldwide. In addition to government enforcement matters, Sarah assists clients in suspension and debarment matters before the World Bank and other international financial institutions.

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In a recent client alert, we explored the U.S. Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) June 2020 update to its guidance on Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs (the “DOJ Guidance”).

In this series of posts, our Africa Anti-Corruption Practice will be focusing on the key takeaways from the DOJ Guidance through the lens of companies operating in Africa, starting with a foundational question: Why does guidance issued by U.S. law enforcement authorities matter to companies operating in Africa?

Strictly speaking, the DOJ Guidance does not “require” anything of companies, regardless of where they are headquartered, incorporated, or operate. Even for U.S. companies, the DOJ Guidance is not a prescriptive regulation with the force of law. Rather, it is a guidance document that is “meant to assist [U.S.] prosecutors in making informed decisions as to whether, and to what extent, [a] corporation’s compliance program was effective at the time of [an] offense, and is effective at the time of a charging decision or resolution.” This evaluation by prosecutors can impact various aspects of a DOJ enforcement action, including the form of resolution (e.g., guilty plea vs. deferred prosecution agreement), the monetary penalty imposed, and other compliance-related obligations imposed in a settlement (e.g., self-reporting requirements or independent compliance monitorships).
Continue Reading Africa Compliance Minute Series – What Does DOJ’s Recent Guidance on Compliance Programs Mean for Companies Operating in Africa?

In a recent contribution to the CovAfrica blog, our Africa Anti-Corruption Practice outlined key considerations for handling internal investigations in Africa.  Here we take a deeper dive into one of the most important, and challenging, aspects of internal investigations – remediation, drawing on a longer article we recently published in Global Investigations Review’s 2020 Europe, Middle East, and Africa Investigations Review.

Key Takeaways:

  • Taking corrective action during the course of an investigation can put a swift end to any ongoing misconduct and help a company avoid further losses or liability.
  • A company will often have enough information early in its investigation to take steps to mitigate the risk of continued harm to the company.
  • Promptly investigating and addressing identified risks can help to narrow the scope of the investigation and save a company time and money.

Continue Reading Africa Compliance Minute Series – Acting Early to Save You Later: The Importance of Taking Corrective Action During the Course of an Investigation

Commencement of the AfCFTA. The landmark African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is slated to go into force on July 1, 2020. When fully implemented, the trade agreement will eliminate tariff and non-tariff barriers, and substantially increase intra-regional trade to volumes worth over $3.3 trillion. Twenty-nine countries have deposited their instruments of ratification, and Eritrea…

In our experience, compliance professionals spend a significant amount of time and resources focusing on the “how” – designing, implementing, sustaining, and improving effective compliance programs. This focus is no doubt warranted given recent emphasis by enforcement authorities on the need for corporates to test the effectiveness of their compliance programs. However, we believe it…

Companies today face increasingly complex regulatory frameworks globally and intense levels of corporate scrutiny from government enforcement agencies around the world. As government agencies embrace sophisticated crime-busting technology and the world shrinks through greater inter-agency cooperation, there are more ways than ever for governments to identify misconduct and hold companies to account through criminal prosecutions…

  1. Africa’s Growth Prospects. Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow at 3.8 percent in 2019, which is a significant improvement over last year’s regional growth rate of 2.6 percent. Excluding the continent’s largest economies (Angola, Nigeria and South Africa), which are growing collectively at an average of 2.5 percent, the aggregate growth rate

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In March 2017, World Bank Group president Jim Yong Kim announced that the World Bank would provide a record $57 billion in financing for projects in sub-Saharan Africa in the 2018–2020 fiscal year period. Consistent with that commitment, the World Bank’s most recent annual report indicates that $19.8 billion was issued to partner countries and…

On June 3, 2018, French tycoon Vincent Bolloré warned investors that Groupe Bolloré—a logistics provider with extensive operations in former French colonies in Africa—may suffer negative commercial and financial consequences as a result of a corruption investigation initiated by French authorities. Mr. Bolloré was questioned for two days by French police in April 2018 over…