On August 15, 2024, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Export Enforcement (“OEE”) announced the settlement of the latest administrative enforcement action involving TE Connectivity Corporation—a Pennsylvania-based electronics company—and its affiliate, TE Connectivity Hong Kong Limited (collectively, “TE Connectivity”), for their involvement in seventy-nine (79) separate violations of the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) arising from a series of unlicensed EAR99 exports made to Entity...

While FCPA enforcement against companies has been relatively quiet this year, despite a strong beginning to the year — the SAP case for $220 million; and the Gunvor case for $661 million — DOJ has been pushing a number of individual cases, some of which appear to be flowing from ongoing corporate investigations.  DOJ is expected to announce a new, large corporate resolution for more...

DOJ is joining the whistleblower reward sweepstakes in a big way.  While the SEC has been grabbing headlines for its whistleblower reward program since 2010, DOJ now wants a piece of the action.  DOJ cited gaps that exist under the SEC, CFTC, FinCEN and IRS whistleblower reward programs. As examples of how the program will work, DOJ cited the $4.3 billion settlement with Binance last...

DOJ is feeling the heat.  Corporate criminal enforcement numbers are down. in fairness, DOJ has been pushing individual criminal enforcement as an effective deterrent to corporate misconduct.  Criminal prosecutions, when done properly, take time. Every federal prosecutors know that you “win” your case at the investigation phase — cutting corners means greater risk of failure.    in recognition of the “success” of federal whistleblower programs,...

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 25, 2024, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) published two (2) new rules in the Federal Register that significantly expand the scope of existing “U.S. Person” prohibitions currently in existence under the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) to encompass support activities that relate to both newly defined “foreign-security” end users as well as certain redefined “military” end users. The rules—introduced...

On July 3, 2024, the Council of the European Union (“EU Council”) officially promulgated a new set of best practices (“best practices” or “guidance”) for organizations seeking to comply with the latest sanctions regulations (also known as “restrictive measures”) adopted by the EU to advance critical foreign policy objectives—including, but not limited to, the EU’s ongoing support for Ukraine against Russian Federation aggression. The issuance of...

By: Sam Finkelstein and Daniela Melendez, associates at the Volkov Law Group . Sam can be reached at [email protected] and Daniela can be reached at [email protected]. On June 28, 2024, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network released a notice of proposed rulemaking. The purpose of the proposed rule is to strengthen and modernize Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (“AML/CFT”) processes for financial institutions (including, but not...

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) has released a $7.45 million penalty against State Street Bank and Trust Company and its non-bank, fintech subsidiary Charles River Systems for 38 apparent violations of the Ukraine/Russia-Related Sanctions Regulations, which occurred between December 2016 and May 2020. State Street is a global financial services and bank holding company headquartered in Boston, and is...

Gentiva, the renamed former Kindred at Home, agreed to pay $19.4 million to resolve claims that its predecessor company, Kindred at Home and related companies, violated the False Claims Act by retaining overpayments for hospice services provided to patients. Gentiva’s hospice operations, based in Atlanta, include various organizations that previously operated hospice locations under various brand names including Avalon, Kindred, SouthernCare and SouthernCare New Beacon....