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A Sewer By Any Other Name Would Smell As Foul

Client Alert | 1 min read | 03.24.05

Southwest Marine, Inc. (Feb. 23, 2005), concerned costs incurred by a contractor in defending a private action brought under the Clean Water Act in which the government did not intervene and in which a federal court found that the contractor had violated the act, imposed a penalty for that violation, and then remitted the penalty entirely in recognition of costs incurred by the contractor to correct the violation. The ASBCA acknowledged that there was no FAR provision that expressly made the costs of a private action unallowable, but noted that FAR 31.205-47 would make such costs unallowable if the action had been brought by the government and concluded that the costs incurred in this private action were sufficiently similar to costs incurred in an action brought by the government to make the costs of the private action unallowable as well.

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Client Alert | 4 min read | 07.22.26

FCPA and National Security Objectives Align: DOJ Announces First Settlement Related to Bribes That Benefited Mexican Cartels

On July 17, 2026, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it had entered into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with The Scoular Company (Scoular), an agricultural supply chain company based in Omaha, Nebraska, to resolve allegations that Scoular relied on customs brokers to bribe Mexican government officials to allow Scoular goods to pass customs inspections and be delivered to Mexico from the United States. As part of its resolution, Scoular agreed to pay a $9,769,521 criminal penalty and forfeit an additional $414,351. Scoular also committed to continue cooperating with DOJ on any ongoing or future criminal investigations, implement a compliance and ethics program designed to prevent and detect violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), and periodically report to DOJ on remediation and implementation of compliance measures throughout the term of the DPA....

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