Latin America & Cross-Border

Latin America Compliance & Investigations

Internal investigations across Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and the region, conducted in Spanish and Portuguese.

Overview

Conducting a meaningful corporate investigation in Latin America requires more than sending U.S. lawyers with interpreters. Document custodians speak only Spanish or Portuguese. Witnesses are interviewed under local legal frameworks that differ from U.S. practice. Local law governs what can be collected, reviewed, and produced, and getting it wrong creates regulatory exposure in both the local jurisdiction and the United States.

Fridman Fels & Soto runs investigations natively. Daniel Fridman and Michael Garcia both conduct interviews, review documents, and communicate with local counsel and regulators in Spanish. Mr. Fridman reads Portuguese and has conducted major investigations, including a review of over 1.4 million Portuguese-language documents in Brazil in five months, without interpreters or outside co-counsel for substantive work.

The firm's Latin America corporate investigations track record spans the largest matters in the region: a Brazil-wide accounting fraud investigation of a U.S.-listed public company that produced a $100 million financial restatement (SEC closed without enforcement action); FCPA investigations in Brazil and Argentina involving over $120 million in alleged payments; the Toshiba International bribery investigation that resulted in federal indictments and guilty pleas in Houston; and multiple audit committee representations for multinationals with subsidiaries across the region.

Michael Garcia brings a material advantage to these matters: before practicing law, he passed the CPA exam with the second highest score in the state of Georgia. That accounting depth allows direct engagement with outside auditors and forensic accountants on the quantitative dimensions of every investigation, without the delay of translating findings through financial intermediaries.

Our Approach

We open every Latin America investigation with a jurisdiction-specific legal framework analysis: what local law governs collection and review, whether local employment or labor law restrictions affect witness interviews, what privilege doctrines apply to communications with local counsel, and how local criminal laws interact with U.S. enforcement exposure.

Interview strategy is built around the specific cultural and institutional context of each country. A witness interview in Brazil involves different dynamics (in law, in practice, and in culture) than one in Mexico or Argentina. We have conducted hundreds of interviews across the region and design our approach accordingly.

We coordinate with leading local counsel in every jurisdiction (longstanding relationships, not ad hoc referrals) to manage local procedural requirements, regulatory interactions, and evidence preservation in compliance with local law.

Representative Experience

Latin America & Cross-Border

Oro Negro bondholders Section 1782 discovery
Represent Oro Negro bondholders in an active cross-border effort to trace at least $27 million diverted from special purpose vehicles that held bonds tied to Pemex oil drilling rigs off the coast of Mexico, using 28 U.S.C. Section 1782 to compel discovery in the United States, including discovery sought from opposing counsel Quinn Emanuel over roughly $8 million traceable to client accounts.
Argentine cuadernos bribery internal investigation
Conducted an internal investigation of an Argentine energy company implicated in the Argentine cash-bribery (cuadernos, or notebooks) scandal, satisfying the company's auditors that company funds had not been used for bribes.
Cross-border internal investigations for multinationals
Led internal investigations in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, and the United Kingdom for subsidiaries of publicly traded U.S. and European companies, addressing international corruption, accounting fraud, Bank Secrecy Act violations, AML compliance failures, and senior executive misconduct, and representing companies and audit committees before the SEC, the DOJ, and other agencies.

Frequently Asked Questions

What U.S. laws create exposure for conduct in Latin America?

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act reaches any U.S. company, U.S. citizen, or company listed on a U.S. exchange, regardless of where the conduct occurs. The FCPA prohibits corrupt payments to foreign officials and imposes books-and-records and internal controls requirements. Beyond the FCPA, the Bank Secrecy Act, money laundering statutes, and economic sanctions laws can all reach conduct in Latin America. SEC disclosure obligations attach to material events wherever they occur.

What is the benefit of a voluntary disclosure to the DOJ or SEC for conduct discovered in a Latin America investigation?

Under the DOJ's FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy and the SEC's cooperation framework, companies that voluntarily disclose, fully cooperate, and remediate can receive significant benefits, including declination, reduced penalties, and non-prosecution agreements. The benefit depends on the nature of the conduct, the completeness of disclosure, and the quality of remediation. The decision to disclose is irreversible and must be made with full analysis of both criminal and civil exposure in all affected jurisdictions.

Can documents collected in a Latin America investigation be produced to U.S. regulators?

Yes, but the answer is fact-specific. Several Latin American countries, including Brazil, have data localization and privacy laws that restrict cross-border data transfers. Local employment law may affect what employee communications can be collected. Privilege doctrines vary across jurisdictions. A document that is privileged under U.S. law may not be privileged under local law, and vice versa. We analyze each jurisdiction's requirements before beginning collection.

What is the typical timeline and structure of a Latin America internal investigation?

Scope and timeline depend on the size of the matter and the jurisdictions involved. The firm led a Brazil-wide investigation reviewing 1.4 million documents and conducting 70 witness interviews in five months at White & Case. Smaller-scope investigations can be completed in weeks. The structure follows standard phases: document preservation and collection, review and analysis, witness interviews, and findings report, but the substantive complexity is higher than in a domestic investigation.