Corruption Crime & Compliance

2019 was a big year for OFAC enforcement and compliance -- OFAC collected $1.28 billion in fines and penalties in a total of 26 separate enforcement actions.  OFAC also issued important compliance program guidance, mandating a number of important requirements for compliance programs. OFAC's enforcement record for 2019 focused on supply chain sourcing; acquisition of foreign companies engaged in tr...

Ethics and compliance had a big year -- new compliance guidance was issued by the Justice Department's Criminal and Antitrust Divisions and by the Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control.  The compliance profession continues to innovate and new automated technologies are rapidly becoming available. In this Episode, Michael Volkov reviews ethics and compliance trends.    

The Justice Department and the SEC had a record year in FCPA enforcement — the largest amount of penalties against corporate defendants and the most individuals charged in one year.  DOJ also adopted new guidance on corporate compliance programs. The Justice Department's enforcement year included several major prosecutions, including Ericsson, Walmart, Fresenius Medical and Cognizant Technology. I...

Global companies face extraordinary risks through their reliance on third-party agents, distributors, consultants and vendors/suppliers.  Federal prosecutors and regulators have had a record year in FCPA and sanctions enforcement.  To mitigate these risks, global companies are quickly adopting automated platforms to manage their third-party risks.  NAVEX Global is at the forefront of this effort t...

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OFAC's aggressive enforcement program continues.  Recently, OFAC announced settlements with Apollo Aviation and Apple.  Both of these cases underscore the importance of enhancing OFAC compliance programs. In this Episode, Michael Volkov reviews the two cases and the specific lessons learned.    

The Justice Department has been very busy in FCPA enforcement matters -- (1) Samsung Heavy Industries paid $75 million to settle FCPA violations; (2) Braskem's former CEO was indicted on FCPA charges; and (3) after a three-week trial, Transport's co-CEO was convicted of FCPA charges. In this episode, Michael Volkov catches up on recent FCPA enforcement actions.

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The Justice Department has aggressively continued to pursue False Claims Act prosecutions against healthcare companies and physicians.  By the mid-point of 2019, DOJ had collected over $800 million against pharmaceutical and healthcare professionals.  In the last few months, DOJ has brought several significant prosecutions. In this Episode, Michael Volkov reviews recent healthcare fraud enforcemen...

Corporate board members have an obligation to oversee and monitor a company's compliance program.  In two recent cases, Delaware courts have tightened the standard governing board liability under the Caremark decision.  Several months ago, in a case involving the Blue Bell Ice Cream listeria outbreak, the Delaware Supreme Court applied a heightened standard when relating to "mission-critical" issu...

Chief compliance officers are often responsible for managing a company's conflicts of interest policy. A company can suffer serious legal and reputational harm if it fails to identify and mitigate conflicts of interest. The nature and scope of conflicts of interest vary across the organization, especially at senior management and board levels. Given the number and complexity of conflicts, CCOs hav...

The government has stated that a well-designed compliance program includes “appropriately tailored training and communications.” Compliance policies cannot work unless effectively communicated throughout a company. Communications and training programs ensure that directors, officers and employees are aware of and follow compliance policies and procedures.   Indeed, the Justice Department’s recent...

In July 2019, the Justice Department's Antitrust Division issued its Guidance for Evaluation of Compliance Programs.  Based on this comprehensive document, companies need to review and enhance their antitrust compliance programs to address risks of anti-competitive cartel activity, including price-fixing, bid-rigging, territorial and customer allocations. In this Episode, Mike Volkov reviews the e...

In a record setting FCPA enforcement day, the SEC settled three separate FCPA enforcement actions on Friday, September 27, 2019.  The three cases involved: Quad/Graphics, a Wisconsin company; Barclays Bank, a global bank, and Westport Energy, a clean energy company, and its former CEO, Nancy Gougarty.  Each of the cases involved interesting enforcement facts and situations. in this Episode, Michae...

In a significant development, the Business Roundtable issued a restatement of general corporate purpose.  The restatement embraces a number of important social trends and awareness of ethical culture and broader principles.  While the statement is laudatory, the proof will be in tangible actions taken to implement the broad and important purposes. In this Episode, Michael Volkov examines the Busin...

Capital One suffered a serious data breach as a result of the actions of one individual who downloaded nearly 30 GB of 100 million Capital One Financial Corporation credit applications from an Amazon cloud data server. The Capital One data breach underscores the risk of cyber breaches caused by a single bad actor who gained unauthorized access through Amazon's could data server. This unfortunate d...

In this episode, Michael Volkov provides an update on FCPA issues, including: (1) Juniper Networks' FCPA settlement with the SEC for $11.7 million for conduct in Russia and China: (2) Deutsche Bank's FCPA settlement with the SEC for $16 million for hiring of relatives of foreign officials in China and Russia; and (3) the Second Circuit Court of Appeals decision affirming the conviction and sentenc...

On January 1, 2020, companies will be facing a compliance requirement established by the California Consumer Privacy Act. In practice, California’s CCPA will create a new “national” standard.   The CCPA is designed to give consumers more information and control over their personal information. Specifically, businesses will be required to be more transparent in their handling of personal informatio...

Bill Hauserman and Ted Datta from Bureau van Dijk, a Moody's Analytics Company, join us for an interesting discussion on third-party risk management, issues surrounding beneficial ownership, trends in the industry and the importance of validating ownership and data quality.  Bill and Ted explain their interesting perspective on third-party risk challenges, regulator expectations and a fascinating...

On July 22, 2019, Microsoft finally resolved its FCPA enforcement action with a whimper. Notwithstanding prior suggestions that Microsoft’s investigation uncovered global conduct, Microsoft’s liability focused primarily on Microsoft’s conduct in Hungary. Even with the tailored settlement agreement, DOJ and the SEC reiterated robust expectations surrounding third-party distributor networks, particu...

Global companies face significant challenges in managing their supply chain risks. Most companies incorporate a holistic supply chain risk process as part of their enterprise risk management systems.  Legal risks, while not the most significant risk, is one aspect of these risks, especially in the aggressive enforcement of anti-bribery, sanctions, anti-money laundering and speciality laws surround...

Compliance has come a long way over the last 10 years. But it still has a ways to go until it is firmly embedded into the corporate governance landscape. In this episode, Michael Volkov examines current issues surrounding compliance programs, including the state of the compliance profession, technology and new frameworks; government enforcement trends and predictions; and congressional mandates fo...

In yet another major compliance development, the Justice Department announced the adoption of a new policy to credit effective compliance programs in resolving criminal cartel prosecutions against corporations. Since the 1990s, the Antitrust Division’s policy regarding corporate compliance programs was generally fixed given the ability of companies to seek benefits under the leniency program. As p...

In celebration of the 100th episode of Corruption Crime and Compliance, Tom Fox, the Compliance Evangelist and Leader, is our guest.  Tom and Mike discuss Tom Fox's current Compliance Podcast Network, his entertaining Star Trek summer compliance podcast series, his perspective on the recent government compliance guidance, his insights into the compliance profession, technology deveelopments and th...

Companies face significant challenges in managing their third party risk programs.  As companies improve their systems and automate their programs, they continue to face difficult situations in deciding when to conduct enhanced due diligence reviews of a potential third-party.  DOJ and the SEC have provided extensive guidance in the third-party risk area, but companies have to develop and implemen...