When it comes to OFAC sanctions violations, honesty is the best policy. Promptly and voluntarily disclosing violations upon their discovery can pay serious dividends.
...more
12/15/2023
/ Economic Sanctions ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Foreign Exchanges ,
Iran ,
Iran Sanctions ,
Nasdaq ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Popular ,
Sanction Violations ,
Subsidiaries ,
Voluntary Disclosure
The Justice Department’s Corporate Enforcement Policies and Program applies to prosecutions outside of the FCPA context. The impact of DOJ’s new approach, encouraging voluntary disclosures, applies to other federal criminal...more
The Tysers and Wood FCPA settlements reflect something old and something new in the FCPA enforcement world.
On the old side, at the core of the FCPA violations was the critical role played by the intermediary company....more
As I always say, the factual underpinnings of every FCPA enforcement action provides important insights into bribery schemes. At the core of every scheme is the misappropriation of money from the company coffers for improper...more
11/29/2023
/ Bribery ,
Corruption ,
Ecuador ,
Foreign Official ,
Intermediaries ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Reinsurance ,
Reinsurance Agreements ,
Third-Party ,
UK ,
White Collar Crimes
DOJ announced two recent FCPA settlements with U.K. based reinsurance brokers involving a long-running bribery scheme involving two Ecuadoran state-owned insurance companies. While DOJ has had a slow year in FCPA...more
11/28/2023
/ Bribery ,
Corruption ,
Ecuador ,
Enforcement Actions ,
FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy (CEP) ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Insurance Brokers ,
Reinsurance ,
Settlement ,
Statutory Violations ,
UK ,
White Collar Crimes
The Justice Department has brought three corporate FCPA enforcement actions in 2023 (if you include the Ericsson DPA breach settlement). With its recent announcement of a declination under the Corporate Enforcement Policy,...more
The Justice Department has had a slow year in FCPA enforcement (another profound grasp of the obvious). The reasons for this may be a question of timing elements in the pipeline of cases....more
11/14/2023
/ Anti-Corruption ,
Compensation & Benefits ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Corruption ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
FCPA Guidance ,
Foreign Assistance Programs ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Foreign Official ,
Third-Party Risk ,
White Collar Crimes
Rewards programs have become ubiquitous in recent years. These so-called loyalty management programs exist to nudge customers or employees in a particular direction; a company’s workers might be inclined to exercise more...more
11/8/2023
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Customer-Loyalty Programs ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Prepaid Payment Products ,
Rewards Programs ,
Sanction Violations
The Biden Administration issued a sweeping Executive Order directing a broad set of government actions addressing consumer harms, discrimination, privacy protections and other issues stemming from the widespread use of...more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has a message for publicly-traded companies that suffer a data breach: own up.
On Monday, the SEC sued Texas-based SolarWinds––and its Chief Information Security Officer...more
11/2/2023
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Protection ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Failure To Disclose ,
Information Technology ,
Investment Fraud ,
Popular ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
SolarWinds
Each quarter, we send many of our clients a quarterly trade compliance update, highlighting important developments over the last few months and summarizing key points for important sanctions programs.
About the document: ...more
11/1/2023
/ Biden Administration ,
Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Embargo ,
Export Controls ,
Foreign Policy ,
Foreign Relations ,
Foreign Trade Regulations ,
General Licenses ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
SDN List
El 18 de octubre de 2023, la Oficina de Control de Activos Extranjeros (“OFAC”) del Departamento del Tesoro de los Estados Unidos tomó varias medidas para proporcionar un alivio (limitado) de sus sanciones económicas en...more
One of the many great experiences I have been fortunate to have in my career is to meet some impressive leaders – at the Department of Justice, on Capitol Hill, and in corporations. To focus on the latter, I have met some...more
We all know the adage – Keep it Simple Stupid (“KISS”).
The principle applies to all organizations and underscores an important communications requirement. The governance landscape has become more complex over the...more
The reach of the Anti-Kickback Statute and the False Claims Act is broad. As a result, AKS liability is a real and significant risk for healthcare companies and providers. Healthcare companies and providers have to resolve...more
One of the benefits of old(er) age is perspective and experience. (As we age, we have to find the positive reasons to tout). If there is one thing (of many) the compliance profession has demonstrated, it is that compliance...more
As if corporate healthcare businesses needed an enforcement reminder, DOJ recently announced a settlement with Cigna Group for $172 million to resolve claims that Cigna exaggerated patient illnesses to extract more money from...more
10/24/2023
/ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
CIGNA ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Medical Bills ,
Medicare ,
Medicare Advantage ,
Medicare Part C ,
Settlement
On October 18, 2023, the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) took several steps to provide Venezuela with some limited relief from its sanctions. The relief includes General Licenses...more
10/23/2023
/ Compliance ,
Corruption ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Foreign Policy ,
Foreign Relations ,
General Licenses ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Oil & Gas ,
Relief Measures ,
Venezuela ,
White Collar Crimes
As The Volkov Law Group previously noted in the context of a blog post authored by Michael Volkov, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”)—at the behest of Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco—recently updated the requirements...more
I always welcome any chance to use references to The Mandalorian series on Disney (or Ashoka for that matter) in the compliance arena. My take on the issue of electronic communications and ephemeral messaging is rooted in...more
Just to play devil’s advocate (or perhaps to push my agenda), I have conflicting views on corporate use of ephemeral messaging applications. On the one hand, I understand the importance of managing electronics communications...more
Honestly, I have been avoiding this topic since it presents a real morass of risks and potential traps for the unwary company and Chief Compliance and Chief Legal Officers....more
10/17/2023
/ Compliance ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Data Preservation ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Security ,
Data Storage ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Electronic Communications ,
Instant Messaging Apps ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Risk Management ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
It looks like the days of Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” are numbered. The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) announced Thursday that it had imposed sanctions on two entities, and...more
10/13/2023
/ Economic Sanctions ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Export Controls ,
Foreign Policy ,
Foreign Relations ,
Foreign Trade Regulations ,
Infrastructure ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Oil & Gas ,
Oil Prices ,
Popular ,
Russia ,
Vessels
One thing you can count on — change. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but not to be too dramatic, we are at the precipice of some significant technology trends that will have a profound impact on corporate...more
10/12/2023
/ Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) ,
Commercial Litigation ,
Compliance ,
Data Preservation ,
Data Protection ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Electronic Communications ,
Electronically Stored Information ,
Google ,
Internal Investigations ,
Popular ,
Regular Business Communications
On September 29, 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged several firms with recordkeeping failures. These recordkeeping failures relate to pervasive and longstanding off-channel communications. Generally,...more