A Journey From Corruption to Compliance

Richard Bistrong spent much of his career as an international sales executive and currently consults, writes and speaks on foreign bribery, ethics and compliance issues from that front-line perspective. Richard worked as the Vice President of International Sales for a large, publicly traded multinational, which also required him to live and work internationally.

​

For well over ten years, Richard traveled overseas in his sales responsibility for approximately 250 days a year. In 2007, Richard was targeted by the United States Department of Justice in a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) investigation and was terminated by his employer.

​

In that same year, as part of a cooperation agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice and a subsequent Immunity From Prosecution Agreement in the United Kingdom, Richard assisted the U.S. Government, the U.K. Government, and other enforcement agencies in an undercover capacity in their investigations of FCPA, bribery and other criminal conspiracies.

​

In 2012, Richard was sentenced as part of a Plea Agreement, and served fourteen-and-a-half months at a U.S. Federal Prison Camp, returning home in December, 2013.

​

Currently, through his consultancy, Front-Line Anti-Bribery LLC, Richard now conducts corporate workshops and keynotes to sales teams, leadership groups (including boards and c-suite executives) and compliance teams (including internal audit, finance and HR).

​

In person and virtually, Richard has presented to hundreds of diverse global multinationals in North America, South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

​

His speaking focuses on anti-bribery, ethics and compliance challenges, sharing his front-line experience and perspective on real-world corruption and compliance risk. Richard shares his journey from corruption to compliance to raise awareness and sensitivity with respect to ethical decision making.

​

Richard’s clients include Volkswagen, Novartis, Airbus, Kraft Heinz and Microsoft, among other Fortune 100 multinationals and global trade groups. Many of his clients have Richard come back year after year, on a global and regional basis, for their annual leadership, compliance and sales meetings. 

​

Richard was a former Member of the OECD, Secretary General High-Level Advisory Group on Integrity and Anti-Corruption. He is currently a faculty member of the Seton Hall Law School, Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law & Policy. Richard is also a Contributing Editor of the FCPA Blog, and his posts can be found here.