The D.C. Circuit dealt a blow last week to judicial attempts to exercise supervision over Justice Department negotiated Deferred Prosecution Agreements. In United States v. Fokker (Here), the Court answered the question in a resounding affirmation of the authority of prosecutors to resolve criminal cases and exercise discretion in charging decisions. In the end, the court’s decision was not a great surprise but the strength...
One of the more cynical “commitments” to compliance occurs when a company embraces compliance for the first time in response to a government investigation. I call this — finding “compliance” religion. When a company is under investigation or potentially under investigation, senior management embraces compliance and allocates resources to “protect” the company. We all know this is short-sighted thinking. A number of companies through the...
The media loves a scandal. In the banking and compliance world, the latest scandal to hit the media was the Panama Papers. The Panama Papers is surprising in scope – Panama has become the favorite financial haven for money launderers, PEPs and other miscreants. We have all seen this in the business world as Panamanian banks grew in rapid fashion. As the Cayman Islands, Switzerland...
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet included this often used phrase – hoist with his own petard (a small bomb). Shakespeare never knew that his eloquence would apply to today’s SEC enforcement of internal controls. The FCPA requires companies to make and keep accurate books and records and to devise and maintain an adequate system of internal accounting controls. The FCPA also prohibits individuals and businesses from knowingly...
The SEC continues its cutting edge FCPA enforcement program, bringing in a variety of enforcement cases and employing some new strategies. In its latest foray, the SEC settled with Las Vegas Sands, owned by Sheldon Adelson, for $9 million for deficiencies in its internal accounting controls concerning its operations in China and Macao. The SEC’s enforcement action reflects one important theme – they could not...
The importance of DOJ’s hiring of Hui Chen as Compliance Counsel was recently confirmed by DOJ’s release of new compliance remediation standards for FCPA compliance programs. DOJ has, once again, raised the bar on FCPA compliance programs. Compliance practitioners have a real and significant voice on behalf of the compliance function inside the Justice Department. In adopting a new pilot program for FCPA enforcement and...
The Justice Department finally released its long-awaited new FCPA enforcement plan. It took DOJ a little while to come up with this and in the end, like most initiatives, there is a mixed bag for global companies, FCPA practitioners, DOJ prosecutors and law enforcement. Today’s posting analyzes the initiative on prosecution issues, and tomorrow’s post will review the compliance component of the new guidance. DOJ’s...
Lauren Connell, Managing Associate at The Volkov Law Group, joins us again for another posting on corruption risks in China. Her profile is here and she can be reached at [email protected]. A little fear is healthy. It will keep you vigilant and aware. At this point if corporate compliance departments are not a little fearful of doing business in China then their managers and employees...
Hui Chen, the Department of Justice’s Compliance Counsel, recently stated that 2015 was the year of due diligence and third-party compliance. A recent survey conducted by Kroll and Ethisphere provided a status check on how the due diligence compliance effort is going. Many companies have heard the message about the importance of due diligence compliance and instituted due diligence systems, hopefully using automated programs. Companies...
Akin to politics (to a smaller degree), there is a fair amount of disinformation, some call it bloviating, put out by the FCPA Paparazzi. Some of this disinformation is motivated by immature attempts to “market” legal services; other sources of disinformation carry a readily apparent bias, one way or the other, and usually are supported by self-citations to one’s own “scholarship” to prove their points....
