Some were surprised by the recent move by the Department of Justice in focusing on the importance of incentives and disincentives as an important factor in an effective ethics and compliance program. Others, however, had been waiting for years to this occur. To these compliance professionals, DOJ was finally arriving, although late to the game. If we take a step back, the issue is nothing...
The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division continues its aggressive pursuit of enforcement and recently succeeded in blocking a controversial acquisition in the book selling market. After a string of losses in the merger arena, Judge Florence Pan in the District of Columbia agreed with the Department of Justice and blocked Penguin Random House’s (“PRH’s”) proposed $2.18 billion acquisition of Simon and Schuster (“S&S”). Shortly thereafter,...
To all our clients, friends, colleagues, partners and family, Happy Thanksgiving. Please enjoy the holiday and take a moment to share your gratitude with others in your life. All the best for a wonderful holiday.
This is a very complicated case, Maude. You know, a lotta ins, a lotta outs, a lotta what-have-yous. And, uh, a lotta strands to keep in my head, man. Lotta strands in old Duder’s head. – The Dude, The Big Lebowski Each FCPA case provides valuable lessons in the mechanics of bribery schemes and the common techniques used by violators to secure funds and make illegal payments to...
Talk about a reminder of the past, Asante Berko, a former Executive Director in Goldman Sachs, recently was arrested in London on criminal FCPA charges arising from his involvement in a bribery scheme in Ghana. The surprising part of the case was the delay in his arrest – over 2 years. In 2020, Berko was charged by the SEC for FCPA violations. He settled the...
Alexander Cotoia, Regulatory Manager and Senior Consultant at The Volkov Law Group PC, rejoins us for a posting on Myanmar AML risks. Alex can be reached at [email protected] On October 21, 2022, the global Financial Action Task Force (“FATF”) added the nation of Myanmar to its so-called “blacklist” of jurisdictions with “strategic deficiencies” in their legal and regulatory regimes that permit illicit financial activity such...
The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security promised aggressive enforcement of export controls. BIS’s promise extended beyond the Russian-Belarus export controls. BIS has kept its promise. WEBs Electronics Trading Company In a recent charging letter, BIS stated that WEBS Electronics Trading Company, a United Arab Emirates company, violated U.S. export controls by shipping or trying to ship $50,000 worth of U.S.-origin telecommunications items...
The Justice Department continues to pile up healthcare enforcement actions — false claims, anti-kickback, and fraud. DOJ is on its way to a record year. In a recent enforcement action, Modernizing Medicine (“ModMed”), an electronic health record (“EHR”) vendor, agreed to pay $45 million for AKS and False Claims Act violations for receiving bribes in exchange for referrals and causing users to falsely report information...
The “hot” regulatory and compliance issue is incentives (and conversely disincentives). The Justice Department has launched an initiative to require compliance programs to institute clawbacks and other measures to recover bonuses and benefits from senior executives and managers that commit misconduct. The Justice Department directed the Criminal Division to study this issue and propose additional measures to ensure that bad actors are punished financially. Right...
In yet another indication of the renewed, aggressive antitrust enforcement program, the Justice Department recently announced the first attempted criminal monopolization case in decades — Nathan Nephi Zito, the president of a paving and asphalt company in Billings, Montana, pleaded guilty to attempting to monopolize the market for highway crack-sealing services in Montana and Wyoming. In a famous civil prosecution in the 1980s, Robert L....
