OFAC’s aggressive enforcement program continues to bear fruit.  The latest settlement involved GE and three of its subsidiaries, which agreed to pay $2.7 million for 289 alleged violations of the Cuba Sanctions Program.  (Copy of Settlement Notice Here).  So far this year, OFAC has settled 22 cases for a total of approximately $1.28 billion (Statistics Here). Between 2010 and 2014, the GE companies accepted payment...

Westport Fuel Systems, a Canadian clean fuel technology company, and its former CEO, Nancy Gougarty, agreed to settle FCPA charges with the SEC for $4.1 million and $120k, respectively. Starting in 2016, Westport, through Gougarty and others, engaged in a scheme to bribe a Chinese foreign government official to obtain business and a cash dividend from Westport’s joint venture in China.  Westport’s largest joint venture...

Quad/Graphics, a Wisconsin print and digital marketing company agreed to pay the SEC almost $10 million to settle FCPA charges for foreign bribery violations in Peru and China. (Here).  Quad/Graphics also violated OFAC sanctions violations for transactions involving a Cuban telecommunications company.  The Justice Department declined to prosecute Quad/Graphics under its FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy (Here). During the period of 2011 to 2016, Quad/Graphics failed...

Barclays joined the club of global financial institutions settling FCPA violations for hiring of relatives of foreign officials in Asia.  Barclays agreed to disgorge $3.8 million and paid prejudgment interest of nearly $1 million and a $1.5 million civil penalty. As outlined in the SEC settlement order (here), Barclays Asia Pacific Region hired 117 job candidates referred by or connected to foreign government officials or...

In an interesting SEC FCPA settlement action, Sridhar Thiruvengadam, the former COO of Cognizant Technology, agreed to pay a $50K penalty for his role in the bribery scheme involving the payment of $2 million to a government official in India in exchange for the issuance of a planning permit needed for the construction of Cognizant’s new office location in Chennai, India.  Early this year, Cognizant...

Last week, British Arab Commercial Bank (BACB), located in the United Kingdom, agreed to settle an OFAC enforcement action for $4 million.  (Here and Here).  BACB has no presence in the United States but was cited for processing 72 transactions in violation of the Sudanese Sanctions Regulations. In reaching the settlement, OFAC reduced significantly the penalty amount of approximately $228 million under OFAC Enforcement Guidelines...

We all know about the high-profile scandals that lawyers and compliance officers point to as examples of weak to non-existent ethical corporate cultures.  The case studies read like a train wreck, where everything goes wrong, controls are circumvented, crimes are committed with impunity and gatekeepers and lines of defense are either ignored or co-opted into the misconduct.  Almost every story includes failures of oversight by...

Corporate boards all want to believe that their companies maintain an ethical culture.  Each board members knows the right words, platitudes and buzz words to use.  No one can fault them there.  But like every issue in life, when push comes to shove, what actual commitment of time and effort do board members actually devote to the specific issue?  And if they do commit to...

Assent Compliance is proud to introduce Supply Chain Insight. This two-day conference inspires supply chain and compliance professionals from around the world through education and networking. Subject matter experts and thought leaders in product compliance, corporate social responsibility and vendor management will share insights to drive innovation and efficiency in your supply chain programs. Join me at the Supply Chain Insight conference this November as...

I always loved Tarzan movies, especially the movies starring Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan.  (Here is a sample).  Tarzan always had a nice house, a great tree house with vines swings for diving and jumping into the water. In the 1990s, Bill Gates of Microsoft fame correctly predicted that computing power and capabilities would eventually move from the desktop to the Internet.  In essence, Gates was...