Compliance professionals are always looking for ways to collaborate and support internal business partners. Through the years, compliance professionals have devoted significant energy to building partnerships with the...more
5/17/2022
/ Compliance ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corruption ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Military Conflict ,
Risk Management ,
Russia ,
Supply Chain ,
Third-Party Risk ,
Ukraine ,
White Collar Crimes
Hold onto your hats – while we are on the cusp of more FCPA enforcement actions, the Justice Department and OFAC are gearing up for real and significant sanctions enforcement actions. The dye is cast, so here we go. ...more
5/11/2022
/ Compliance ,
Corruption ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Export Controls ,
FCPA Guidance ,
Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Foreign Policy ,
Military Conflict ,
National Security ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Regulatory Violations ,
Russia ,
Ukraine ,
White Collar Crimes
Prosecuting white collar crimes is a “mind game” in more ways than one. This is another in my long series of profound grasps of the obvious. -
As a former federal prosecutor, the difference between a crime and compliant...more
In the FCPA and white collar defense community, we have seen buckets and buckets of ink spilled on the coming wave of aggressive enforcement. Justice Department officials have made so many statements about the “new” approach...more
5/9/2022
/ Anti-Corruption ,
Bribery ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Corruption ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
FCPA Guidance ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
White Collar Crimes
The Stericycle FCPA case is yet another example of a complete culture and compliance breakdown. As I often repeat myself, there is no more important control than an ethical culture. When a culture veers into the unethical...more
The Justice Department ended its FCPA enforcement drought by announcing its first corporate settlement in 2022. In a parallel action, the SEC announced its settlement with Stericycle for $28 million for FCPA violations. The...more
The Justice Department announced the arrest and indictment of Charles Hunter Hobson for violating the FCPA, money laundering and receiving kickbacks arising from a bribery scheme to pay government officials in Egypt in...more
4/5/2022
/ Bribery ,
Coal Industry ,
Criminal Conspiracy ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Guilty Pleas ,
Indictments ,
Kickbacks ,
Money Laundering ,
Wire Fraud
The Justice Department continues its enforcement “silence” with no major corporate prosecutions announced this year. It is an interesting question but it appears that the wheels have ground to a halt, with one major...more
4/4/2022
/ Bribery ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Corruption ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Disgorgement ,
Enforcement Actions ,
FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy (CEP) ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Serious Fraud Office (SFO) ,
White Collar Crimes
Unsurprisingly, we’ve been fielding a significant number of inquiries regarding the latest Russian sanctions. Most companies seek black and white answers – what can we do and what can’t we do. However, sanctions are very...more
Even though the size of the KT Corp. SEC enforcement action is relatively small, the underlying misconduct provides a number of important lessons learned. ...more
2/24/2022
/ Bribery ,
C-Suite Executives ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Corruption ,
Due Diligence ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Political Contributions ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Third-Party Risk ,
White Collar Crimes
When you look under the hood of FCPA enforcement actions, the schemes employed by corporate actors can be shocking. The “creativity” of bad actors can provide important lessons learned and help future investigators when...more
The SEC announced its first FCPA enforcement action in 2022. South Korean telecommunications company, KT Corporation, agreed to pay $6.3 million to settle FCPA violations. As part of the settlement, KT Corp. agreed to pay...more
2/22/2022
/ Anti-Bribery ,
Anti-Corruption ,
Books & Records ,
Bribery ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Corruption ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Failure to Comply ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Internal Controls ,
Regulatory Violations ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
South Korea ,
Telecommunications ,
White Collar Crimes
Even with the absence of any major DOJ FCPA enforcement actions, DOJ issued an interesting FCPA Opinion Letter last week addressing application of the FCPA in circumstances where organizations face imminent serious bodily...more
2/18/2022
/ Anti-Bribery ,
Anti-Corruption ,
Bribery ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Corruption ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Detention ,
FCPA Guidance ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Foreign Governments ,
Legitimate Business Purpose ,
Opinion Letter ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Vessels ,
White Collar Crimes
Federal prosecutors enjoy flipping through the United States Criminal Code, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1 et seq., to pick out tools to charge defendants. Over the last ten years, DOJ’s reliance on criminal charges in FCPA cases has...more
2/18/2022
/ Anti-Corruption ,
Bribery ,
BSA/AML ,
Corruption ,
Criminal Code ,
Criminal Liability ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Jurisdiction ,
Financial Transactions ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Money Laundering ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
White Collar Crimes
Economic sanctions enforcement is a fast-rising risk for global companies. For many years, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (“OFAC”) focused primarily on financial institutions. Over the last ten...more
Ethics and compliance professionals believe in their mission – if they did not, they would not be in the field. E&C professionals believe in the power of positive thinking, ethical conduct, and in the overall ability of an...more
This was a strange year. Not just because of the continuing pandemic and economic disruption. The Biden Administration took over after an unusual and delayed transition. The apparatus of government was slow to transition....more
The new United States Strategy on Countering Corruption includes several important statements of interest to legal and compliance professionals. ...more
12/16/2021
/ Anti-Corruption ,
Bribery ,
BSA/AML ,
Compliance ,
Corruption ,
Digital Assets ,
Enforcement Guidance ,
FinCEN ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Money Laundering ,
Real Estate Transactions ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) ,
White Collar Crimes
While we wait for the coming FCPA enforcement storm, DOJ and the SEC have quietly continued to rack up and resolve several enforcement actions....more
12/8/2021
/ Adoption ,
Bribery ,
Compliance ,
Corruption ,
Criminal Conspiracy ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Money Laundering ,
Odebrecht ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Statutory Violations ,
White Collar Crimes
FCPA practitioners, In-house counsel and compliance officers, and yes, even the FCPA Paparazzi, have been patient enough. As the saying goes, talk is cheap. It is action that counts....more
On October 28, 2021, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco—a veteran of government service in previous Administrations and a champion of corporate accountability—announced several significant changes to current...more
11/10/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Chief Compliance Officers ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Culture ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Corporate Monitoring ,
Corruption ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Priorities ,
Ethics ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Policy Statement ,
Prosecutorial Discretion ,
White Collar Crimes
We have heard it over and over, again and again – third-parties pose significant risks of bribery for all global businesses. Almost every FCPA enforcement action includes some form of third-party misconduct. The current...more
The Credit Suisse case highlights the significant impact that global corruption and fraud can have on developing economies. Mozambique’s economy suffered serious harm from the scheme, which started to unravel when the IMF...more
10/26/2021
/ Bonds ,
Bribery ,
Corruption ,
Credit Suisse ,
Due Diligence ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Fraud ,
IMF ,
Mozambique ,
Offerings ,
Securities Fraud ,
White Collar Crimes
Credit Suisse Group AG (“Credit Suisse”), a global financial institution, and its London-based European subsidiary, Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Limited (“CSSEL”) resolved a wide-ranging bribery and fraud scheme...more
10/25/2021
/ Banking Sector ,
Books & Records ,
Bribery ,
Corruption ,
Credit Suisse ,
Criminal Conspiracy ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Deferred Prosecution Agreements ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Fraud ,
Financing ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Investment ,
White Collar Crimes ,
Wire Fraud
My old adage – when it comes to enforcement initiatives, the government always tells you what they are going to do and then they do it. It is always baffles me when targets of enforcement actions complain that they did not...more