Category: General

ECI’s New Survey – The State of Ethics & Compliance in the Workplace

Daniela Melendez, a new Associate at The Volkov Law Group, joins us for her first blog posting.  If you want to contact Daneila, she can be reached at [email protected]. The Ethics and Compliance Initiative (“ECI”) is a terrific organization that provides important ethics and compliance insights and leadership.  Starting in 1994, ECI has conducted a longitudinal, cross-section study of workplace conduct.  ECI recently issued its...

Mary Shirley Releases New Book on Compliance

Mary Shirley, a leading voice in the legal and compliance field, has just released her new book — Living Your Best Compliance Life: 65 Hacks & Cheat Codes to Level Up Your Ethics & Compliance Program. Order Mary’s New Book Here. Mary is a well-known advocate, speaker and compliance professional. She regularly speaks at Compliance events. She is mentor to the Compliance Profession. Whether you’re...

FCPA Opinion Release Provides Guidance on Payment of Travel and Other Expenses for Foreign Government Officials

The Justice Department’s Opinion Release procedure has provided important guidance over the years.  The library of Opinion Release letters is well-organized and accessible to the legal and compliance community. In its most recent Opinion Release, 23-1, DOJ affirms its prior determinations and sets forth some best practices governing payment for foreign official travel and related expenses. The focus of the Opinion Release is the FCPA’s...

DOJ Settles Criminal Antitrust Charges with Teva and Glenmark for $305 Million

The Antitrust Division has been active – like any aggressive prosecution strategy, however, its results have been mixed.  Its record in criminal cases has taken serious hits – a stunning set of losses in the chicken price-fixing cases and defeats in criminal labor market cases. DOJ has been quietly and steadily building cases in the generic pharmaceutical industry.  DOJ’s most significant criminal case charged both...

3M Corp Pays SEC $6.5 Million to Resolve FCPA Charges

The SEC is having a good year in prosecuting FCPA cases.  The SEC’s recent settlement with 3M Corp. for $6.5 million is its seventh corporate resolution for the year.  DOJ, which has been relatively quiet so far this year, recently resolved the Corficocolombiana case, its first for the year. 3M’s conduct centered on payments for Chinese healthcare officials employed by state-owned enterprises to attend overseas...

OFAC Settles with Construction Specialties, Inc. for $660,594 for Violations of Iran Sanctions

Construction Specialties, Inc. (“CSI”), a U.S. company specializing in the sale of building materials, agreed to pay $660,594 to settle its liability for three violations of OFAC’s sanctions on Iran. CSI’s illegal conduct occurred through its United Arab Emirates (UAE) subsidiary, Construction Specialties Middle East (“CSME”), which imported building materials from the United States to the UAE and then knowingly reexported them to Iran. In...

Board Oversight and Monitoring of Artificial Intelligence Risks

Corporate boards face a panoply of risks – and the nature of these risks are quickly evolving.  Cybersecurity has quickly risen to the top of the list of corporate risks.  Add to that the new SEC regulations on cybersecurity disclosures, and board members face serious and escalating risks surrounding ransomware attacks, data breaches and other technical issues. The challenge – board members are not cyber...

Daniela Melendez Joins The Volkov Law Group

We are pleased to announce the newest addition to The Volkov Law Group — Daniela Melendez. Daniela joins us as an Associate. Daniela comes to Volkov Law after graduating from the LLM program at Duke University School of Law. Daniela is a Colombian lawyer admitted to practice in Colombia. Prior to joining Volkov Law Group, her work focused on internal investigations, corporate compliance and trade...

SEC Charges Richard Heart and His Three Cryptocurrency projects – Hex, PulseChain, and PulseX

On July 31, 2013, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) formally charged the enigmatic crypto-personality Richard Heart (whose real name, as I learned from the complaint, is Richard Schueler) and his three entities—Hex, PulseChain, and PulseX—with conducting unregistered offerings of crypto asset securities.  These securities offerings and sales raised more than $1 billion in funds from U.S. investors and investors abroad.  The SEC further charged...

The Corficocolombiana FCPA Settlement: the Bribery Scheme (Part II of II)

You can always learn a lot from reviewing the underlying conduct to an FCPA enforcement action.  Chief compliance officers can identify specific risk factors, mitigation steps and root causes for bribery schemes. The Corficocolombiana (“Corfico”) FCPA settlement underscores the significant risks when companies participate in large projects in foreign countries.  Between 2012 and 2015, Corfico paid more than $23 million in bribes to high-ranking Colombian...