Over the last ten years, we have seen a steady increase in the coordination and cooperation among international prosecutors and law enforcement to prosecute bribery cases. In a recent example, the Justice Department unsealed criminal charges against two former diplomats from Chad for taking a $2 million bribe from Griffiths Energy International, Inc., a Canadian energy company.  The indictment was originally returned in 2019 and...

The Justice Department continues to pile up victories out of the world soccer FIFA federation bribery scandal.  Julius Baer Group, the Swiss banker, agreed to a three-year, deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) and to pay nearly $80 million to resolve money laundering charges. Julius Baer laundered approximately $36 million in bribes between February 2013 and May 2015 in which sports marketing companies bribed soccer officials for...

The Department of Justice is starting to launch its FCPA enforcement profile after a brief lull in DOJ’s transition to a new administration.  This enforcement lull occurred in the transition to the prior administration in 2016, and there is nothing to glean from it since it is a natural occurrence when a new Justice Department administration takes the reins of power. Last week, we had...

Andre Bywater and Jonathan Armstrong join us for a guest posting on the EU Speaking Up regime. André and Jonathan are lawyers with Cordery in London, United Kingdom, where they focus on compliance issues. André Bywater can be reached at [email protected] and Jonathan Armstrong can be reached at [email protected]. In 2019 the EU introduced new rules to enable whistleblowers to report about EU law irregularities...

Thank you to the brave men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice. We honor their service, their courage, and their memories. Let us use this holiday to remind us all of our heroes and to honer them for their service.

When you look at the core of several major financial scandals, it is easy to point to problems with sales incentives and corporate culture. A company can rapidly grow due to the extraordinary performance of a company’s sales culture. In many cases, this sales culture creates real and significant risks for misconduct. To address such potential for misconduct, companies rely on internal controls to constrain...

The Justice Department’s criminal prosecution of the chicken producing industry took another significant turn.  Step-by-step, the Antitrust Division is building a large and comprehensive criminal prosecution of a significant cartel. Claxton Poultry Farms refused to plead guilty and cooperate in the Antitrust Division’s sprawling criminal prosecution.  Instead, Claxton Poultry Farms became the second producer to be charged and the first to be indicted rather than...

The Ethics & Compliance Initiative (ECI) is fielding a confidential survey about the applicability of compliance guidance documents issued by the US Department of Justice. A summary of the results will be shared publicly, and with the DOJ. If you are a Chief Compliance Officer, Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer or Chief Ethics Officer (or the equivalent) and want to share your views, please participate...

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California recently announced a settlement of a False Claims Act case against Tungsten Heavy Powder of San Diego (THP), which was filed and prosecuted by the Volkov Law Group on behalf of two relators, Global Tungsten & Powders Corporation (GTP), and Greg Caputo, a former employee of THP.  GTP and Caputo filed the original lawsuit under...

Corporate boards face exponentially escalating risks – at the heart of this development is the rapid escalation of board member accountability.  Board members are no longer operating in a sinecure, free from legal risks.  The walls are changing. A perfect example of the changing landscape of risk is the importance of cybersecurity oversight and protections.  The criminal cyberattack against the Colonial pipeline and the acknowledge...