Bribe, Swindle or Steal

Journalist and author Nicolas Niarchos discusses the current state of compliance in battery metal mining, political and regional challenges in the industry, and his forthcoming book on the topic.

Chuck Duross, former head of the DOJ's FCPA unit and now a partner with Morrison & Forester, walks us through the many compliance challenges associated with employee use of messaging apps, together with a few suggestions on how best to manage the risk.

James Heinzen joins the podcast to talk about his book, The Art of the Bribe: Corruption Under Stalin 1943-1953 and how bribery, extortion and embezzlement in Russia have changed—or not—over the last 70 years.

Kevin G. Hall, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project's North America editor, reflects on how the Panama Papers have shaped investigative journalism over the past six years and the biggest challenges journalists face today.

Paul Massaro of the U.S. Helsinki Commission provides an animated overview of current policy initiatives, U.S. support for Ukraine and what's next in the fight against global kleptocracy.

Jared Bibler joins the podcast to discuss his lively book about the complete meltdown of Iceland's banking sector and, as a result, its economy. It was a brazen scheme equal in size to three Enrons and, although it happened in 2008, it remains a timely cautionary tale for the banking sector and regulators today.

Investigative reporter Sam Cooper describes the waves of drugs and laundered money from China crashing on Canada's shores. Sam's book is "Wilful Blindness: How a Network of Narcos, Tycoons, and CCP Agents Infiltrated the West." (This episode was originally published in 2021.)

With new foreign bribery charges announced against Sam Bankman-Fried this week, we're revisiting our discussion with Jim Campbell, author of "Madoff Talks." Having studied both men, he compares what we know about Bankman-Fried and Madoff.

Olivia Swaak-Goldman, Executive Director of the Wildlife Justice Commission, joins the podcast to discuss the impact of corruption and the role of organized crime in the illicit trade in wildlife.

Today's podcast is the second episode in a two-part discussion of the compliance and human rights implications of spyware. After hearing from Chaim Gelfand at NSO Group last week, we asked Khadija Ismayilova, an investigative journalist in Azerbaijan who is alleged to have been monitored for four years by spyware installed on her phone, to speak to the privacy and human rights issues.  (The first...

Chaim Gelfand, Vice President, Compliance, at NSO Group joins the podcast to talk about managing compliance for a product that has, baked into its design, complex privacy, corruption and human rights implications. Because of the controversial nature of spyware, we will hear from journalist Khadija Ismayilova next week about the allegation that spyware was installed on her cell phone and her concer...

Hentie Dirker, Chief ESG and Integrity Officer with SNC-Lavalin, speaks to Jonathan Drimmer of Paul Hastings about building a culture of compliance in the aftermath of a bribery scandal. (This episode was originally published in August 2019.)

Nobel Peace Prize winning journalist Maria Ressa joins the podcast to talk about corruption, disinformation and how to stand up to a dictator.

Rob Koehler, WADA veteran and current Director General of Global Athlete, joins the podcast to discuss the epidemic of doping in sports, the imbalance of power between athletes and administrators and the IOC's startling decision to allow Russia to compete in the Paris Games in spite of its invasion of Ukraine.

Laura Harth with Safeguard Defenders joins the podcast to talk about the more than 50 illegal Chinese police stations operating around the world, including in the United States and Canada. These violate both the sovereignty of the inadvertent 'host' countries and the rights of the Chinese citizens abroad who are stalked and coerced to comply with government demands to return to China or risk the p...

Jim Campbell, author of "Madoff Talks" and featured in the recently released Netflix documentary, "Madoff:  Monster of Wall Street," joins the podcast to talk about FTX.  Having studied both men, he compares what we know about Bankman-Fried and Madoff.

Diana Henriques describes Madoff's Ponzi scheme, discusses how difficult it is to uncover fraud by those who prey on the trust of others and addresses the simple, consistent controls that saved some investors from losses. Diana is featured in the new Netflix series MADOFF: The Monster of Wall Street .

Ruth Ben-Ghiat joins the podcast to discuss her book Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present , which examines 100 years of authoritarian rule. She describes the characteristics of a strongman and the strange virility cult surrounding these leaders before turning to the central role of corruption in the autocrat's playbook. (This episode was originally published in November 2021.)

Reflecting on the year as it draws to a close, we note with great sadness the recent loss of sports journalist, author and inimitable soccer analyst, Grant Wahl. We're replaying today our podcast with Grant from 2017.  He was generous with his time, happy to share his expertise and invariably good humored. He is missed.

As we near the end of the year, we asked nine experts in the field to provide us with their compliance predictions for 2023. Surprisingly, no prediction was duplicated.  We hope you enjoy these prognostications and we wish you all a wonderful holiday season and all the very best in the year ahead!

Dan Kahn, former Chief of the FCPA Unit, joins the podcast to discuss the September Monaco Memo now that the compliance community has had some time to debate it.  Dan discusses the good news, and some concerns, associated with cooperation credit, voluntary disclosure, recidivist companies, monitors and ongoing concerns about personal devices and ephemeral apps.

Casey Michel with the Hudson Institute's Kleptocracy Initiative joins the podcast for a very lively discussion about his book,  American Kleptocracy: How the U.S. Created the World's Greatest Money Laundering Scheme in History . Casey discusses America's role in the problem of global kleptocracy and shares some optimism about the path ahead. (This episode was originally published in 2021.)

Dr. Magnus Öhman of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) joins the podcast to discuss how corruption undermines free and fair elections. He discusses his recent publication: "Vote for Free: A Global Guide for Citizen Monitoring of Campaign Finance," which provides an eight-step model for civil society organizations seeking to monitor campaign finance.

Mykola Murskyj with Razom for Ukraine joins the podcast to discuss the organization's work in Ukraine, the anti-corruption climate there prior to the invasion and steps that can be taken now. Mykola also discusses the Enablers Act.

As we approach the 2022 World Cup, we're revisiting our 2018 episode with Ken Bensinger, who discusses his fascinating book, Red Card , and the decades of misconduct by FIFA eventually uncovered by the FBI. We play "violation bingo" as Ken describes the bribery, self-dealing, conflicts of interest and money laundering that were business as usual at FIFA.