PRACTICE OVERVIEW
Anti-Corruption
Analytics is one of the few local Thai firms that regularly advises clients on compliance with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) and other anti-corruption laws, handles compliance investigations and conducts compliance training programs in Thailand. Most international firms that do this sort of work position their compliance specialists outside of Thailand. Analytics’s FCPA expert is not only resident in Thailand but is also a dual U.S. and Thai national. He therefore does not have to worry about compliance with Thailand’s opaque work permit regulations.
Mr. Mancill conducted his first compliance investigation in California before he was seconded to Thailand in 1998. Since that time, he has conducted scores of compliance investigations. He has decades of experience handling FCPA work.
Mr. Mancill has written extensively on corruption issues in Thailand, He also regularly speaks on FCPA compliance challenges outside of Thailand. He has, for example, spoken in Washington, D.C., Singapore and regularly speaks on this topic at events organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Thailand.
He has conducted compliance investigations of automobile parts manufacturers, electronic parts manufactures, computer components manufacturers, hotels and hospitality businesses. The investigations have involved local subsidiaries of Fortune 50 companies and SMEs. He has worked with foreign outside counsel in the U.S., Japan and Singapore and in-house in the U.S. and Singapore.
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- Top 12 Things to Keep in Mind When Planning on Doing Business in ThailandThe top 12 things to keep in mind when planning to do business in Thailand: 1. Foreign Ownership of Companies and Land: This is often a surprise for business people and lawyers operating in more open economies, but foreigners are prohibited from owning land (absent narrow exceptions) and foreign majority owned businesses are prohibited from engaging in a ...Read more
- Serious and Real Reform of the Thai FBA is Overdue.The Bangkok Post reported on 21 May 2018 that the foreign business community is (again) pressing for reform of the Foreign Business Operations Act (FBA). We are seeing that again now. Reform is absolutely necessary, but the foreign business community needs to look carefully at reform proposals, because many past proposals, if they had been enacted, would have made ...Read more
- Compliance in the Time of CovidCovid-19 has created a perfect storm for regulatory lapses and failures: an unprecedented combination of business and regulatory disruption in a condensed time of period. Compliance requirements and safeguards are ignored, and compliance investigations hindered, delayed, or canceled. But do not expect the Department of Justice or the Securities and the Exchange Commission(“SEC”) to relax enforcement ...Read more
- Compliance Investigations in Thailand: Caste and CandorThere is one word that should start any real discussion about corruption in Thailand, and that word is Sakdina (ศักดินา). Sakdina is a historical system of social hierarchy that went so far as to assign a specific numerical rank to every person in Thailand depending on their status. Although officially abolished, it persists, in a less recognizable ...Read more
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The Bangkok Post is reporting that the convictions of the former Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), Ms. Juthamas Siriwan, and her daughter, Jittisopa Siriwan, have been held up on appeal to the Thai Supreme Court. This presumably brings an end to the long saga of the Bangkok Film festival corruption case.Read more - Corruption & Defamation: The Recent TripAdvisor ControversyThe press reports about the American jailed for allegedly posting a defamatory review on TripAdvisor about the Seaview hotel in Koh Chang have cast a spotlight on Thailand’s strict defamation laws. Reports about the jailing of the American appeared on the BBC website, the New York Times and the Bangkok Post.Read more
- International Anti-Corruption LawsEven before Barrack Obama became the 44th President of the U.S, a sea change in the enforcement of international anticorruption laws had started. The extent of that sea change became evident in December 2008 when Siemens AG and three of its subsidiaries agreed to pay a record U.S. $1.6 billion in fines to U.S. and ...Read more
