Multilateral Development Banks

Our multidisciplinary team counsels entities and individuals working with Multilateral Development Banks (MDB) and associated institutions (such as including the World Bank Group, Inter-American Development Bank, European Investment Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Asian Development Bank, and African Development Bank). This spans from those situations in which our clients are seeking funding from MDBs to where they need us to defend and conduct investigations due to audit, sanctions, and debarment issues relating to MDB financing or project execution.

We bring a unique vantage to our counsel through our team’s experience:

• navigating complex sanctions systems used by multilateral development banks, including cross debarment and government referral issues;
• arguing cases before sanctions boards as well as working with the investigating arms of MDBs to amicably settle matters;
• advising on debarment issues; and
• advising on project finance, corporate and sovereign finance, risk participations and equity transactions acting for, or opposite, MDBs, including European Investment Bank, Asia Development Bank, European Bank of Reconstruction and Development and Africa Development Bank.

Clients also benefit from our team’s deep former government roster which includes former government officials with the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, general counsels, chief compliance officers, and MDB anti-corruption practitioners.

Representative Matters: 

• Represented a public multinational in World Bank debarment proceedings.
• Represented a global engineering consultancy on alleged fraud and related financial crime where the underlying project is financed by an MDB.
• Represented a U.S. engineering firm in connection with FCPA and World Bank investigations and the redesign of its anti-corruption compliance program.
• Represented a European-based engineering multinational in connection with World Bank debarment proceedings.
• Represented an Asian-based multinational in connection with World Bank debarment proceedings.
• Represented an international consulting and engineering company in connection with World Bank debarment proceedings and the redesign of its anti-corruption compliance program following a World Bank investigation.
• Served as the World Bank appointed Monitor for a global telecommunications company to review and oversee adherence to World Bank anti-corruption guidelines.
• Represented an IADB employee in relation to internal sanctions proceedings.