DOJ is in the midst of launching an aggressive sanctions and export control program against corporations and individuals. DOJ has warned everyone, repeated this message in various speeches and, most importantly, assigned the resources — 25 new federal prosecutors to enforce sanctions and export controls — to back up its enforcement program. The new model for sanctions corporate enforcement will look like FCPA enforcement —...
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 January. Below is a summary of events this past quarter: Venezuela – Russia – Middle East – General – About the document: This handy one-pager is designed to...
Matt Stankiewicz, Partner at The Volkov Law Group, joins us for another post discussing how the SEC’s recent settlement with BarnBridge DAO may impact the cryptocurrency industry. Matt can be contacted at MStankiewicz@volkovlaw.com. On December 23, 2023, BarnBridge DAO (“BarnBridge”) and its founders, Tayler Ward and Troy Murray, agreed to settle charges with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). BarnBridge violated Sections5(a) and 5(c) of...
A Top 5 list should be viewed with suspicion — it is often just a headline grabbing posting with the clear purpose to gain readers’ attention. In defense, however, it is interesting to compare articles on risk rankings. To start with the obvious, corporate boards face growing risks — the economy, the regulatory environment, cybersecurity threats, technology developments and stakeholder interests are all colliding and...
FCPA trends often are relatively easy to describe and often overblown as a marketing technique by the usual cast of paparazzi suspects. (Self-proclaimed prognosticators that often push incorrect themes to promote business, or those that restate profound grasps of the obvious). 2023 has been a strange year in a number of respects — socially, politically and even in the small universe of DOJ enforcement and...
I always enjoy retrospective “year in review” postings to start off the new year. For years, I have sought to identify and capture important compliance trends, typically focused on specific professionals in the compliance arena. This year, however, is a little different. Compliance is at an important inflection point. Corporate business headlines have been dominated by technology issues. I am not convinced that these headlines...
As always, I tend to repeat myself. However, one important point needs to be repeated — DOJ is in the midst of launching an aggressive sanctions and export control program against corporations and individuals. DOJ has warned everyone, repeated this message in various speeches and, most importantly, assigned the resources — 25 new federal prosecutors to enforce sanctions and export controls — to back up...
Webinar: 2024 Ethics and Compliance Priorities and Trends February 6, 2024 12 Noon EST SIGN UP HERE Companies face a fast-changing enforcement and compliance environment. In the midst of this rapidly-evolving environment, companies have to prioritize compliance elements and mitigation strategies. The Justice Department with its regulatory partners are continuing to focus on anti-corruption, sanctions, export controls, antitrust, money laundering, cyber-security and fraud. At the same...
SAP agreed to a three-year deferred prosecution agreement, in exchange for the payment of approximately $220 million in penalties for bribe payments made to South African and Indonesia government officials. DOJ’s resolution includes a criminal penalty of $118.8 million and forfeiture of $103.4 million, along with a credit of $55.1 million against amounts paid by SAP to South African law enforcement authorities, and the full...
A careful reading of the DOJ and SEC settlement documents for the SAP case will puzzle you. I know I am scratching my head trying to make sense of the whole picture here. There are a number of significant indicators of a change in DOJ’s tack, along with SEC’s aggressive push on third-party controls. DOJ’s position is even more difficult to understand as explained below....
