The article analyzes the defense mechanisms produced by both the corporation and the prosecuted former executives of the company. Telia’s initially denial eventually changed into a partial acknowledgment in combination with a scapegoating discourse. While Telia hardly defended itself at all in the Swedish court, the company’s former executives employed a defense of legality, denial of knowledge, of deviance, and of responsibility as well as a claim of being scapegoated.

In the face of the coronavirus outbreak, the OECD Working Group on Bribery reaffirms its collective commitment to fight foreign bribery under the Anti-Bribery Convention. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is bringing unprecedented challenges, human suffering, uncertainty and major economic disruption on a global scale, which in turn can create environments that are ripe for corruption. Bribery and corruption have the potential to undermine the global response to tackle the crisis.

On April 14, 2020, for the first time, the Department of Justice (DOJ) published a list identifying all corporate monitors actively engaged by companies as a part of criminal resolutions with the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. DOJ’s monitor list names the companies and their monitors, noting the year when each monitorship began and the specific Fraud Section Unit overseeing each case.

2019 was a relatively slow year for enforcement actions in transnational bribery cases. Both global and U.S. enforcement numbers in cases involving bribery of foreign officials dropped, with a 19% decrease in U.S. enforcement actions and a 45% decrease in non-U.S. enforcement actions—though the resulting enforcement levels were not out of line with historical trends of anti-bribery enforcement.