FCPA Blog
Published: Aug. 18, 2011
His name hasn’t come up yet in the News Corp case. But these days the go-to guy for high-profile corruption investigations is Louis J. Freeh.
He’s a former FBI director, federal prosecutor, and U.S. district court judge. Now he’s a private citizen, running Freeh Group International Solutions, LLC, “an independent global risk management firm,” and partnering at the law firm Freeh Sporkin & Sullivan, LLP (with two other former federal judges including Stanley Sporkin, the ‘father of the FCPA’).
FIFA — soccer’s international governing body — hired Freeh in June to investigate allegations of bribery within the organization.
When Jack Warner, FIFA’s vice president from Trinidad and Tobago, found out Freeh was on his way there to interview him, Warner quit. He said he’d rather “die first” than meet with Freeh.
Freeh then went to FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich, reportedly “with a team of ex-Federal agents to start the inquiry.”
The Telegraph said of Freeh,
His expertise does not come cheap and he comes fresh from advising Saudi Arabian Prince Bandar bin Sultan, a former ambassador to the US and a close associate of President George W Bush, in connection with the controversial Al-Yamamah arms deal which last year saw British defence company BAE Systems plead guilty to charges of false accounting and making misleading statements.
Lowell Bergman interviewed Freeh on camera in 2009 about allegations that Prince Bandar received $2 billion and an Airbus 340 from BAE as part of the Al-Yamamah arms contract.
On its website, the Freeh Group promises “an uncompromising commitment to integrity through ethical behavior in all matters while providing independent counsel and guidance based on the assessment of facts without prejudice or external influence.”
Freeh last year was named Daimler’s compliance monitor as part of its $185 million FCPA settlement.
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