Category: General

25 Jul, 2024

OFAC Releases Guidance on Extended Statute of Limitations & Forthcoming Recordkeeping Changes

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has released updated guidance concerning recent legislation that doubled the statute of limitations for violations of certain sanctions and export control provisions. This updated guidance provides clarity regarding time-bars for enforcement and includes additional information about OFAC’s planned extension of record-keeping requirements. On April 24, 2024, President Biden signed into law the 21st Century Peace...

General

24 Jul, 2024

DaVita Pays $34 Million to Settle Kickback Violations

DaVita is a regular target of government enforcement actions involving fraud and illegal kickbacks. It has an extensive history of violations and settlements. here is a list of some of the highlights:: In its most recent settlement, DaVita paid just over $34 million to resolve claims that it violated the Anti-Kickback Statute (“AKS”) by paying kickbacks to induce referrals to DaVita Rx, a former subsidiary...

General

23 Jul, 2024

The Continuing Plague of Healthcare Fraud

Healthcare fraud is an ever-growing constant in our economy. It is a battle that presents new and exponential challenges. The U.S. Department of Justice, the HHS-Office of Inspector general and State Attorneys’ General all are united in this fight with the support of federal state and local law enforcement. Companies in the healthcare sector continue to operate in this high-risk environment. The war against healthcare...

General

22 Jul, 2024

SEC Suffers Major Blow in Securities Fraud Case Against SolarWinds

A New Your federal district judge handed down a significant decision dismissing much of the SEC’s securities fraud enforcement action against SolarWinds arising from its claims relating to SolarWinds’ cybersecurity policies, and disclosure of a significant cyberattack against the SolarWinds’ network. In an unprecedented case, the SEC alleged that SolarWinds, which went public in 2018, mislead the public as to the effectiveness of its cybersecurity...

General

19 Jul, 2024

NAVEX’s Report on the State of Compliance: Positive News with Serious Gaps Noted

NAVEX delivers quality studies and important insights on ethics and compliance topics. In its 2024 State of Risk & Compliance, NAVEX provides a comprehensive report on current trends and practices involving risk and compliance management. The Report reflects the survey results from over 1,000 respondents global who influence or manage their organization’s risk and compliance programs. Over half of the respondents came from the United...

General

17 Jul, 2024

District Court Rejects Challenges to ITAR Criminal Charges

On July 9, 2024, District Judge David Hale in Kentucky denied motions to dismiss and motions to suppress filed by four defendants against a criminal case involving ITAR charges for illegal exports of sensitive, defense-related diagrams to Chinese companies. The Justice Department has charged Quadrant Magnetics LLC and three executives, Phil Pascoe, Scott Tubbs, and Monica Pascoe in a nine-count indictment for the illegal shipment...

General

16 Jul, 2024

SEC Expands Internal Controls Provision to Cover Cybersecurity Incidents and Reaches $2.1 Million Settlement with R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co.

In a significant expansion of internal controls enforcement, the SEC announced a $2.1 million settlement with R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co. (“RRD”) for its handling of a 2021 ransomware attack and resulting disclosure failures. The settlement represents the SEC’s first application of its internal controls enforcement authority to include cybersecurity policies and procedures. In 2021, RRD suffered a cyber attack in which a threat actor...

General

16 Jul, 2024

OFAC Amends SDN and SSI List Entries to Incorporate Secondary Sanctions Warnings

On July 3, 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) announced that it had amended entries for a multitude of entities sanctioned under the Treasury’s Russian Harmful Foreign Activities Sanctions regime. The updated designations for the entities—all of which are referenced on either OFAC’s List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (“SDN List”) or the Sectoral Sanctions Identifications...

General

11 Jul, 2024

Supreme Court Continues to Pare Back Criminal Laws

In a pair of rulings issued near the end of the last Term, Fischer v. United States and Snyder v. United States, the Supreme Court continued to cut back on the Justice Department’s interpretation and enforcement of criminal laws. The Supreme Court continues to display a distrust or basic misunderstanding of prosecutorial discretion (one Justice referencing during oral argument the old adage that a prosecutor...

Uncategorized

9 Jul, 2024

BIS Announces Settlement Agreement with Indiana University Over Export Control Violations

On June 24, 2024, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) announced the settlement of an administrative enforcement action involving Indiana University of Bloomington (“Indiana University”) over multiple violations of export controls spanning a four-year period. According to the settlement agreement publicized by BIS, Indiana University illegally exported genetically modified strains of fruit flies containing transgenes of a certain subunit of...