The Department of Justice has laid down a marker – companies would be smart to understand the significant change in ethics and compliance program expectations. Companies that ignore this new landscape are gambling with their financial security and their reputational value. Every company that has suffered through a DOJ investigation knows how damaging and draining such an experience can be. The purpose of an ethics...
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. Click here to download the quarterly update for July. Below is a summary of events this past quarter: About the document: This handy one-pager is designed to be used by our clients to provide a quick...
On July 13, 2023, U.S. prosecutors unsealed an indictment against Alexander Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of beleaguered Celsius Network LLC (“Celsius”) charging him with securities fraud, commodities fraud, and wire fraud. The DOJ alleges that Mashinsky defrauded customers by misleading them about Celsius’s operations, specifically related to the company’s success and profitability, along with the investments that Celsius ultimately made utilizing customer funds. ...
Bank of America joined the club of consumer abusers – Wells Fargo had been the well-established leader of this club and the poster-child for abusive consumer practices. For years, Bank of America avoided federal enforcement for abuses and could distinguish itself from the poster-child, Wells Fargo. Bank of America’s conduct is inexplicable. In response to the Wells Fargo scandal, you would have expected that Bank...
On July 13, 2022, Judge Analisa Torres issued her long awaited ruling on the summary judgment motions in the SEC’s case against Ripple Labs, Inc. (“Ripple”). The 34-page order provided a win for both the SEC and for Ripple Labs, suggesting that some sales of Ripple’s XRP token constituted securities, but that other sales did not. Proponents of the cryptocurrency industry celebrated this ruling, as...
We often read about lucrative bonus payments made to CEOs and other senior executives. With refinements in corporate governance structures, shareholders and investors are raising concerns over executive bonuses. To bring balance to the equation, companies have to punish executives through clawbacks for misconduct. The Wells Fargo scandal is an example of how clawbacks can be effectively used to punish wrongdoing. In the aftermath of...
The Justice Department’s recent revisions to its Corporate Enforcement Program and its Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs stressed the importance of compensations systems and consequence management. The theoretical underpinning of DOJ’s expanded focus is to increase the consequences to individuals who engage in misconduct or supervisors who turn a blind eye to misconduct. Individuals already face potential criminal prosecution for engaging in misconduct but the...
If you ask corporate board members and senior executives to list their number one risk (other than financial operations), the answer in today’s risk environment is clear – cybersecurity and data privacy. The rapid elevation of this risk is reflected in weekly headlines announcing ransomware, cyber-attacks and data breaches. Companies that have experienced a cyber-attack are forever changed. The board and senior executive team quickly...
Alex Cotoia, Regulatory Manager and Senior Consultant at The Volkov Law Group, rejoins us for a posting on recent Bureau of Industry and Security’s export control restrictions and the impact on the medical device industry. Alex can be reached at [email protected]. Among other things, on May 19, 2023, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) issued a sweeping new set of...
We are all familiar with the mantra on the importance of managing third-party risk to prevent anti-corruption, sanctions, money laundering and associated risks. Over the last ten years, however, we have observed a new and important addition to the third-party risk plate – cybersecurity and data breach. And of course we have a posterchild for this risk – the 2013 attack on Target’s financial and...
