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...
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...
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...
The Department of Justice has been relatively quiet this year in bringing corporate FCPA enforcement actions and settlements. Aside from the Ericsson breach of its Deferred Prosecution Agreement, the Corficocolombiana (“Corfico”) and Grupo Aval settlement is the first in 2023 involving a corporate FCPA resolution. For the SEC, the Corfico and Grupo Aval settlement is the sixth corporate resolution in 2023. Corfico is a subsidiary...
In another significant step notifying global businesses of the new realities – companies are about to face aggressive coordinated criminal and civil prosecutions for sanctions and export control violations. The last piece in launching this new effort was the announcement of a joint voluntary disclosure program to ensure alignment among the agencies for civil and criminal enforcement of such violations. The Joint Compliance Note (“JCN”)...
In late July 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) adopted new rules requiring public companies to disclose cybersecurity incidents and cybersecurity governance policies and practice. The SEC largely adopted its original proposal issued in March 2022, with some modifications applicable to cybersecurity disclosure requirements. The SEC voted to adopt the new rules in a 3-2 vote. The new disclosure requirements however are effective no...
Chief Compliance Officers are truth-tellers. It comes with the territory. Each and every CCO knows whether its internal investigation program is effective or not. There is not a lot of grey in this area – CCOs know what an effective internal investigation program looks like and they can quickly spot a weak one. This comes from experience. Too many companies fail to understand how valuable...
Corporate leaders know what to say and when to say it – for example, a CEO may state at an employee meeting, “We want to hear your concerns. We want you to bring these concerns forward and we will address them. We are committed to this as part of ethical culture.” The CEO’s comment is all well and good – it is a positive step...
The Department of Justice has laid down a marker – companies would be smart to understand the significant change in ethics and compliance program expectations. Companies that ignore this new landscape are gambling with their financial security and their reputational value. Every company that has suffered through a DOJ investigation knows how damaging and draining such an experience can be. The purpose of an ethics...
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...
