The Department of Justice continues to respond to the compliance community’s concerns about the new certification requirement adopted as part of the Glencore FCPA enforcement action.  DOJ has adopted this new requirement to “empower” CCOs and to ensure that CCOs have a “seat at the [senior management] table.”  While these are all laudable goals, CCOs continue to question whether DOJ’s new certification requirement will undermine...

Alex Cotia, Regulatory Manager and Compliance Adviser at The Volkov Law Group, rejoins us for a post on the United Kingdom’s Russia Sanctions against social media. Alex can be reached at [email protected]. Under a statutory instrument promulgated under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 (amending the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019)), the UK government recently passed sweeping new trade restrictions on the provision...

The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) charged Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich with violating U.S. export controls by exporting U.S.-origin aircraft to Russia.  In a precedent setting action, BIS issued a charging letter, the first letter under a new enforcement policy, outlining the specific facts in support of the charges. As described in the charging letter, two of Abramovich’s private planes flew...

The Volkov Law Group is pleased to publish this blog article written by our summer intern Victoria Rinn, a rising junior at Cornell University. After researching the law and attending a U.S. Customs and Border Protection webinar on June 16, 2022, Victoria discusses the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which took effect on June 21, 2022, and the impact on private companies’ supply chains. On...

The Volkov Law Group is pleased to announce our first, official summer internship program. We have welcomed a diverse group of talented, intelligent, and driven college students, who are interested in pursuing legal or compliance careers. In this blog article, our intern Abigail Schuman, a rising junior at the University of Wisconsin, discusses certain legislation aimed at combatting slave labor and human trafficking in corporate...

The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division has had a rough year in the criminal arena.  While the Antitrust Division has aggressively blocked several proposed mergers, it has lost several significant criminal cases.  The Antitrust Division lost two significant cases for price-fixing in the labor market and is now in the middle of a third criminal trial against five defendants in the chicken producing industry.  The Division...

Ericsson is having a tough time.  First, in 2019, Ericsson settled FCPA charges with the Justice Department and the SEC for a total of $1 billion (with a B).  Second, Ericsson had an independent compliance monitor appointed for a three-year term under its deferred prosecution agreement.  And then — last year, Ericsson was notified by DOJ that it failed to conduct a proper internal investigation...

NAVEX recently released its annual Hotline and Incident Management Report.  Given NAVEX’s strong position in the hotline service market, NAVEX has access to a large volume of reporting data.  As a result, its annual report is always interesting and a must-read ethics and compliance report. NAVEX’s report revealed several important trends: A larger number of employees are willing to report misconduct.  Overt the last ten...

Alex Cotoia, Regulatory Manager and Compliance Consultant, rejoins us for a timely posting on compliance overkill in this era of aggressive sanctions enforcement. Alex can be reached at [email protected]. The uptick in recent sanctions activity caused in large part by the Russian Federation’s unprovoked and unilateral invasion of Ukraine has caused absolute pandemonium in many compliance circles. While the U.S. Department of Justice (and the...