Corruption Crime & Compliance

Bryn Sedlacek, Vice President and Product Manager at Aravo, joins us on the podcast to discuss third-party risk management focusing on holistic risks and unified visibility. In a wide-ranging discussion, Mike Volkov and Bryn Sedlacek discuss the challenges in implementing a third-party risk management program that captures holistic risks and maintains a consistent, unified line of sight across the...

In this episode of Corruption, Crime and Compliance, we delve into the complex world of sanctions compliance and enforcement. In this new era of aggressive sanctions enforcement, companies have to understand the red lines that define where criminal and civil enforcement risk increases. In contrast to the history of FCPA enforcement, DOJ and OFAC have provided helpful guidance to alert companies wh...

LRN has issued another important report. In its latest report, The 2024 Benchmark of Ethical Culture Report, LRN has focused on the critical issue of corporate culture. LRN is a pacesetter and the leader in reliable studies on complex ethics and compliance issues. If not properly promoted or maintained, a defective culture can lead to serious misconduct, government investigation, reputational dama...

Dottie Schindlinger is Executive Director of Diligent Institute, the global corporate governance research arm of Diligent - the largest SaaS software company in the Governance, Risk, Compliance (GRC), and ESG space. She co-authored the book Governance in the Digital Age: A Guide for the Modern Corporate Board Director , co-hosts “The Corporate Director Podcast,” and co-created Diligent Institute’s...

A new compliance cottage industry surrounds artificial intelligence. We are at such an early stage of AI development, and companies are still figuring out how they can employ the technology. However, some industries, such as financial institutions, have been using AI for fraud detection and other issues. These early adopters will likely set the tone for AI compliance practices. There is no questio...

With the beginning of the “New FCPA” era coined by DOJ’s Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, we now need to focus on third-party risk and sanctions enforcement. The law, the practice, and the risks are important and not just the same as FCPA legal requirements. As we embark on a new criminal enforcement era surrounding sanctions violations, companies have to address this issue and do it correctly...

Carlos Villagrán is the Director of Compliance at CMPC, a 100-year-old Chilean-based holding company, one of the worldwide leading pulp, paper, packaging, personal care, and other forest products manufacturers. With more than 20,000 employees, CMPC has industrial operations in 9 countries (LatAm and the US) and commercial offices in the US, Europe, and China, selling and distributing its products...

Over the last ten years, we have seen a marked shift from the Delaware Chancery Court chipping away at corporate board member liability claims. In a number of seminal cases involving Boeing airplane crashes (In re the Boeing Co. Derivative Litig., No. 2019-0907 (Del. Ch. Sept 7, 2021)), and deadly listeria outbreaks from tainted ice cream (Marchand v. Barnhill, 212 A.3d 805 (Del. 2019)), Delaware...

Directive 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and Council dated 23 October 2019 on the “protection of persons who report breaches of Union law” (the “Directive”) is currently being implemented by EU Member States. The directive has broad applicability to organizations operating in the EU internal market and applies to both public and private sector organizations alike. Whistleblowers are guarante...

NAVEX continues to produce high-quality compliance reports, many of which are a must-read in the compliance industry. Its annual Whistleblower Report is of particular note -- NAVEX is the leading provider of hotline services in the world, and its data is invaluable as a source of trends in this industry. This year --2024 -- is no exception. NAVEX combed through the data from 3784 organizations for...

OFAC is capable of extending a long arm of enforcement, reaching sometimes non-U.S. companies that may "cause" another company to violate U.S. Sanctions laws. If you need to find an example of this long reach, look no further than OFAC's recent settlement with SCG Plastics ("SCG"). In this settlement, SCG, a Thai company that sells plastic resins, agreed to pay $20 million for violations of the Ir...

LRN continues to set the standard for ethics and compliance program research. Volkov Law is  a supporter of, and advocate for, LRN’s research because it has consistently confirmed what we all know and believe - ethical companies perform better in the marketplace over the long run. It is an intuitive fact that employees respond better to values-based leadership than a rules-based environment a...

On the heels of the Gunvor FCPA settlement for $661 million, DOJ announced its settlement with Trafigura, the latest commodities trading company to fall under DOJ's FCPA Sweep against the industry. Trafigura joined the list of international commodity trading companies to suffer FCPA enforcement actions like Vitol, Sargeant Marine, Glencore, Freepoint, and Gunvor. DOJ's corporate resolutions are co...

In a recent speech on March 7, 2024, Deputy Attorney General Monaco announced that, in the next 90 days, DOJ would implement a new whistleblower program to reward reporting of criminal misconduct at public and private companies. In particular, DOJ will encourage reporting of potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA") and the recently enacted Foreign Extortion Prevention Act...

Boeing continues to struggle with its core business activities. As troubles mount for Boeing, it is clear that it continues to suffer from real and pervasive culture issues that have been reflected in serious safety failures, financial difficulties, regulatory violations, and serious reputational damage. Boeing's troubles permeate every part of its organization -- from the board to senior executiv...

You have to give the Justice Department credit - after two slow enforcement years, DOJ is starting off 2024 with a relative "bang;" first, DOJ reached a large settlement with SAP in January, and now, DOJ has reached a blockbuster settlement with Gunvor S.A. for $661 million. Gunvor is one of the world's largest commodities trading companies. DOJ's settlement represents a "return" to its long-stand...

Whatever the cause, criminal sanctions enforcement will be an interesting area in 2024. The DOJ's planned aggressive push against companies and individuals for sanctions violations is about to be unleashed. There is no question that DOJ's enforcement initiative is coming—it is just a question of when. We have already seen several examples of what aggressive sanctions enforcement will look like --...

Companies have a vested interest in preserving internal communications for a variety of reasons -- to hold actors accountable and to protect the organization from potential private and government claims or investigations that may have serious direct or collateral consequences. Companies that want to use ephemeral messaging systems can do so, but they have to understand the risks involved and tailo...

In this special episode of Corruption, Crime, and Compliance, Michael Volkov joins colleague and long-time friend Tom Fox as they delve into the intricacies of recent FCPA enforcement actions, shedding light on the evolving landscape of corporate compliance. From the ABB case to the SAP settlement, Michael and Tom dissect the nuances of voluntary disclosure, extensive remediation, and the shifting...

Christian Focacci is a leader in the artificial intelligence world and harnesses the capabilities for risk management. He is the founder and CEO of Threat. Digital, which has launched a new product DiligenAI.  Threat. Digital is leveraging large language models and real-time data feeds to empower organizations to identify risk information confidently and efficiently, setting a new standard in...

On December 31, 2021, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. signed the the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (“UFLPA”) into law to address the ongoing exploitation of the ethnic minority Uyghur population by the government of the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”). Among other things, the UFLPA creates a rebuttable presumption that all goods, wares, articles, and merchandise mined, produced, or manufact...

Gabrielle Griffith, Director BPE Global, is an expert in trade compliance issues. Gabrielle assists clients in implementing effective trade compliance programs by addressing improvements within organizations’ people, processes, and systems. In the area of U.S. export controls, she advises clients on compliance with the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, the U.S. Export Administration Regul...

The Justice Department and the Office of Foreign Assets Control had a big year in 2023. Criminal and civil enforcement continue to increase. The DOJ has warned corporations that aggressive sanctions enforcement actions are coming -- to that end, the DOJ assigned 25 new prosecutors to the National Security Division to execute on its promise. Meanwhile, OFAC had a record year in collecting $1.539 bi...

For the Justice Department and the SEC, 2023 was a slow year in FCPA enforcement. Despite promises of aggressive enforcement, DOJ and the SEC failed to achieve increases in FCPA enforcement. DOJ and the SEC issued no blockbuster enforcement actions or settlements. The SEC's number of enforcement actions was steady and eclipsed its 2022 number by one. Equally significant was DOJ's reduction in indi...

Bribery is rampant in many countries around the world, and in this episode of Corruption, Crime, and Compliance, we take a look at a recent FCPA case involving SAP, a global software company. SAP’s violations spanned multiple countries, including South Africa and Indonesia, and resulted in prosecution and a hefty $220 million dollar penalty. However, many people were baffled with the resolution of...