Category: General

4 Jul, 2018

Drawing Legal Lines in Cryptocurrency Regulation: The Importance of Decentralization

The cryptocurrency market is exciting to watch. Based on the revolutionary blockchain distributed ledger system, cryptocurrencies have exploded on the marketplace. As with any new “gold rush” to hit a market, cryptocurrency has attracted scammers and common fraudsters, as well as sophisticated hackers who attack the cryptocurrency markets to steal valuable coins or other tokens. For the law-abiding investors and exchange operators, the CFTC, SEC...

General

4 Jul, 2018

Happy 4th of July!

On behalf of the Volkov Law Group and Corruption, Crime & Compliance, I want to wish everyone, friends and families a wonderful 4th of July holiday!! Today we recognize the wisdom and forethought of our Founders!

General

2 Jul, 2018

Cryptocurrency Compliance: The Importance of Internal Investigations

Matt Stankiewicz, Senior Associate at The Volkov Law Group, rejoins us for another posting on cryptocurrency compliance. Matt can be reached at [email protected]. For those still new to the sector, Coinbase has established itself as one of (if not the) most prominent cryptocurrency exchanges operating in the U.S. Coinbase, to the delight of compliance officers everywhere, has been mostly diligent in attempting to comply with...

General

28 Jun, 2018

Karin Sweigart Joins The Volkov Law Group

I am excited to announce the addition of Karin Sweigart as a new Senior Associate at The Volkov Law Group. When I launched the firm, I was committed to providing high-quality ethics and compliance, and enforcement defense services. With the help of my existing members we have been fortunate to grow and develop our services and capabilities. I am proud to announce that Karin Sweigart...

General

28 Jun, 2018

Leadership and Compassion

In these turbulent times in our country, there is a premium on the concepts of empathy and compassion. A successful leader in any organization has to demonstrate his or her ability to feel compassion. In any relationship, a person has to have the ability to see the issues or a perspective through the other person’s eyes (and ears and heart). Once you understand another person’s...

General

26 Jun, 2018

Is Your Compliance Program Adrift?

A compliance program is a continuously evolving process. The lifeblood of a compliance program is its ability to refresh itself, to incorporate new information and data, and adjust to meet new challenges. The culture and compliance loop requires discipline – a company refreshes its risk assessment, designs and implement new policies and procedures to address the risk, adopts new compliance controls, monitors the performance of...

General

25 Jun, 2018

The Culture Bandwagon — SEC Chairman Joins the Club

Maybe I am missing something, but everyone is jumping on the culture bandwagon. Regulators like to speak about it; prosecutors like to emphasize it – everyone likes to talk about it as a way to encourage corporate leaders to commit to promoting an ethical culture. Let’s face it – talking about culture is an easy way to demonstrate your commitment to ethics and to compliance...

General

21 Jun, 2018

When Your CEO Just Does Not Get It

There are a lot of talented CEOs. Some remarkable leaders, innovators and eloquent spokespeople for their companies. In several recent experiences, I have been befuddled by some CEOs. When a CEO addresses a global ethics and compliance staff or has the opportunity to address a large staff or division meeting, the CEO should take the opportunity to reinforce the company’s culture and compliance program message. ...

General

20 Jun, 2018

Welcome! You Are the New Chief Compliance Officer: Five Basic Steps to Get Started

Congratulations on your new position as the chief compliance officer. You successfully interviewed with the company, met the senior executive team and the audit committee chair, and negotiated a nice compensation package. You are feeling “pretty, pretty good” (ala Larry David) about your new job and looking forward to starting your new position. So, now, what do you do? My first question for you is...