Bermudian academic recounts harrowing experience in journal
A Bermudian woman with a lengthy residency in Africa has told of waking up in “horror” to a military coup and the resultant loss of her business — all in the context of an urgent need to bring changes to international law.
Cheryl Packwood’s article has appeared in the latest edition of the Rutgers Journal of Law & Public Policy, a twice-yearly publication at the Rutgers School of Law with a reach to legislators and policymakers.
The article, “Navigating International complexities: the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act’s Shortcomings in High-Risk International Operations”, is the culmination of two years’ work for Ms Packwood, who was a visiting assistant professor in international law at Albany Law School from January 2023 to June 2024.
She has also served as the overseas representative for the Government of Bermuda to the United States and Asia.
Ms Packwood said getting into print for the spring 2025 edition marked the end of a two-decade journey of thinking about her experiences and grounding them in the context of international law.
The article recounts life in Abidjan, the former capital of Côte d’Ivoire, where she practised law. She returned to Bermuda several years after the coup, in 1999, eventually split apart the West African country, leading to civil war.
An earlier version of the article was presented at the Black, Indigenous and People of Colour Conference held at Albany Law School in 2018.
It describes how US and international laws against fraud, bribery and corruption in business failed Ms Packwood and her company as Côte d’Ivoire unravelled.
She told The Royal Gazette its publication last month was “timely” in light of US president Donald Trump’s decision in February to “pause” enforcement of the American Foreign Corrupt Practices Act as legislation that had been “stretched beyond proper bounds and abused in a manner that harms the interests of the United States”.
Ms Packwood said that, in the end, the Act “failed us”, when her home country of the day descended into chaos.
She said the legislation needed to be tailored to give protection relevant to other cultural realities. “We need something else,” she added.
Thomas Stimson, editor-in-chief of the Rutgers Journal of Law & Public Policy, reflected on Cheryl Packwood’s account in an article on her experiences of corruption abroad as the manager of a business.
Mr Stimson told The Royal Gazette: “When Cheryl accepted our offer to publish with us, I think what was most exciting to the editorial board was her lived experiences that related directly to her discussion of foreign corruption.
“I feel that oftentimes discussions of policy can feel too isolated from the regions and circumstances they intend to impact.
“With Cheryl’s story of Côte d’Ivoire in particular, I find it strange that even with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in place, Cheryl was chastised by some local partners for rejecting invitations to bribery.
“To me, this reads that the expectation that United States-based companies follow American law is a trivial expectation for those who do business in foreign countries.
“As cited in this article, Makau Mutua discusses the mindset of ‘American exceptionalism’, which may be to blame for the United States’ presumed supremacy of the rule of law.
“Admittedly, the Journal of Law & Public Policy doesn’t focus on international issues as much as some of our contemporaries might.
“That said, I do know that just this last year, in 2024, Congress passed the Foreign Extortion Prevention Technical Corrections Act, which criminalises the ‘demand side’ of foreign bribery.
“My hope is that this legislation reflects the United States’ interest in enhancing anti-corruption laws.
“Yet, as Cheryl mentions in her article, the exceptions under the pre-existing FCPA statute might function as loopholes for what the average person thinks of as corruption.
“We also have to consider the cultural differences surrounding bribery. For instance, I’m sure many in the United States and outside of it view our system of lobbying as legalised bribery.
“Similarly, the normalised expectation of ‘bribes’ — or what officials in Côte d’Ivoire might see as a business transaction — cannot be resolved with just a statute on our side of the world.
“Certainly, I think Cheryl’s spotlight on something most people, other than ambassadors and specialised scholars, don’t think about is a step in the right direction for strengthening the integrity of international relationships.
“With our presidential administration flirting with apparent isolationist practices, it will be very interesting to see how the FCPA holds up in the coming years.
“Maybe we’ll see a decline in the enforcement of these laws? Or maybe it’s that exceptionalist attitude that could result in an uptick for prosecution in these matters.
“Regardless, it should go without saying that we still have a ways to go before the rule of law is as closely held as a belief as our justice system hopes it is.”
The essay analyses confronting bribery and her “encounters with armed military personnel as managing director of a [mobile] phone company in Abidjan” in May 2001, which led to the company’s closure in 2003, in the context of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
It told how in May 2001, Ms Packwood faced soldiers armed with Kalashnikovs and loyal to a businessman and alleged mercenary and arms dealer, Alexander Galley, seeking the forced handover of her telecommunications company, Cora, of which she was managing director.
The group that confronted her included a lawyer bearing documents for her to sign.
“That night in May 2001, I grew a backbone and said no — I would not sign over the company to Mr Galley,” Ms Packwood wrote.
“The soldiers were uneasy. The [lawyer] and these armed men who also seemed to be on drugs did not quite know what to do with a woman in this physically hostile situation. They actually said that they could not mistreat me because I was a woman.”
The 90-minute stand-off in her office ended with Ms Packwood and others being thrown out of their own premises.
She recalled: “Two soldiers picked me up by the arms and removed me as I kicked and hurled legal threats and various insults in French.”
With the intercession of the prime minister, Ms Packwood and others regained their company but suffered two years of intimidation at Mr Galley’s hands.
She recalled him telling their lawyer that “it would have been nothing for him to kill my colleagues and me. He was an unsavoury character to say the least”.
At the outbreak of civil war in 2002, she returned to Bermuda with her three sons and managed the company remotely.
As she recalled in an interview with the Gazette in 2004, the company ended up embroiled in “major fights with the Government over corrupt judicial decisions, retroactive licences, renegotiations of our interconnect agreement, and I was the leader of the fight”.
In October 2003, the shareholders opted to close the company and pull out of the country.
Ms Packwood ascribed the loss in part to her refusal to cave in and pay bribes, including to a Supreme Court judge, with the article asking: “At what point do anti-bribery statutes, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, American business ethics and morals become useless in dangerous situations abroad?”
The article explores the rule of law in the context of a country hit by colonisation and enslavement, asking whether “American exceptionalism ignores the realities on the ground in developing nations and, at times, risks the very lives of the people it seeks to protect”.
Ms Packwood, the daughter of the late historian Cyril Packwood, wrote: “Due to the normalised business practice of bribing in Côte d’Ivoire at the time, few people in the Government or community took pity on my plight or my company’s plight when the Supreme Court Justice solicited the bribe.”
Given the context of the death threats she faced, Ms Packwood concluded: “In retrospect and in light of the violent events that occurred, I would argue the FCPA needs to be more broadly interpreted to expand the definition of duress.”
Ms Packwood said she was ultimately successful in getting the US Government to revoke Côte d’Ivoire’s status as an African Growth and Opportunity Act designee — the “first time that any country had lost that trade preference”.
She told the Gazette that loved ones at the time were shocked that she faced down the threat of violence.
“It was the stuff of movies; people wouldn’t believe it,” she recalled.
Ms Packwood and company officials were able to get the late Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005, to issue a statement referring to their matter.
Ultimately its unsuccessful outcome provided her with the next topic to explore in writing, as the parent company agreed to a settlement with the Government, but did not pay the Cora employees severance for the expropriation of the business.
“They just turned the key and left the country,” Ms Packwood said.
“I want to work on that one for a next article.
“Some mechanism should be in place internationally so that companies cannot just leave like that.”
Brad Horwitz, the former president of Cora’s parent company, Western Wireless, said that in hindsight, a payout of “$50,000 would have saved a $26 million investment”.
He added: “We do need to rethink foreign investment operations in politically unstable economies.
“But Cheryl did the right thing under the circumstances.”
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