Previously for BriberyMatters, I covered the first financial sanctions issued against a firm by the French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA), in conversation with Valentina Lana, who teaches law at Sciences Po and is an in-house private sector ethics and compliance attorney. The same July week that decision was announced, the AFA also issued its 2025 Activity Report (in French), offering a broader look at its work...

In the nearly 10 years since its creation, the French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA) had never issued a financial penalty pursuant to its authority under Article 17 of the Transparency, Anti-Corruption and Economic Modernisation Act, known as Sapin II. That changed this July with a €350,000 fine against an unnamed company, and a €60,000 personal fine against its legal representative.

Since January 2025, the federal government has seemingly stepped back from a range of good governance, transparency, and anti-corruption measures, from the February 2025 executive order pausing FCPA enforcement, to the March 2025 rule by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) exempting nearly all US companies from Corporate Transparency Act beneficial-ownership reporting, to the shifting enforcement priorities of the Foreign Agents Registratio

In a previous post for BriberyMatters, I covered the so-called Flamingo Revolution protests, which erupted in Albania against the construction of two resorts, one on a stretch of formerly-protected coastline and the other on a nearby island that was formerly a military site. For this second part of the series, to better understand the underlying dynamics of the situation, I spoke with Esmeralda Ballesha, an Albanian consultant with deep experience in governance, business deve

While the promise of dramatic reforms following Hungary’s April elections has captured headlines, that same month saw another major anti-corruption development in Europe. On April 22, a Moldovan court sentenced former politician, oligarch and power broker Vladimir Plahotniuc to 19 years in prison for his role in the 2014 theft of $1 billion from three Moldovan banks, which had also implicated a number of other business and political leaders.

While the promise of dramatic reforms following Hungary’s April elections has captured headlines, that same month saw another major anti-corruption development in Europe. On April 22, a Moldovan court sentenced former politician, oligarch and power broker Vladimir Plahotniuc to 19 years in prison for his role in the 2014 theft of $1 billion from three Moldovan banks, which had also implicated a number of other business and political leaders.