Lawyers can “Break Bad” and veer from ethical and professional standards. Somehow this is not so hard to envision. Legal misconduct occurs more than most expect. And the system reacts in variety of ways – professional responsibility enforcement actions and judges stand as the two most important watchdogs over legal professional conduct. In a curious and headline-making case, Judge Royce Lamberth, who is known for...
Under Armour settled its long-pending SEC investigation by agreeing to pay $9 million surrounding misleading statements and practices relating to its revenue growth and uncertainties as to future growth. As part of the settlement, the SEC declined to bring charges against its CEO, Kevin Plank, and its CFO, David Bergman. The Justice Department inquiry appears to have lost steam since the middle of last year,...
In the run-up to the deadline for filing federal taxes, the Justice Department has a well-established practice of bringing tax-related enforcement cases against crooked tax preparers, fraudsters and corporate entities as an important reminder on the importance of tax compliance. For years, the Justice Department struggled to bring Swiss banks to the enforcement table and eventually was successful in building cooperation in enforcement matters. It...
MoneyGram settled with OFAC for $34,329 for 359 sanctions programs violations. MoneyGram is a global payments service. According to OFAC, the 359 transactions totaled $105,627 in value and were processed on behalf of approximately 40 individuals on OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals list (SDN List). MoneyGram has been operating under a monitor imposed in 2012 U.S. Department of Justice settlement to ensure MoneyGram’s enhancement of its...
Alexander Dill, an expert in financial markets and regulation, joins us today for an interesting posting on the recent AML Act of 2020. Alex can be reached at [email protected]. It would be the height of folly to claim that a single theme dominates the AML Act of 2020 (Act). The new law, enacted on January 1 of this year, is an extraordinarily wide-ranging and long...
Alex Cotoia, Regulatory Compliance Manager, at The Volkov Law Group, rejoins us for a posting on ESG due diligence requirements. Alex can be reached at [email protected]. On March 10, 2021—by an overwhelming majority—the European Parliament passed a resolution that directs the European Commission to move forward with a formal directive (“Directive”) mandating Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) due diligence by companies throughout their value chains....
The Department of Justice’s National Security Division, like its counterpart, the Criminal Division, has made a splash on the enforcement and compliance arena. DOJ has elevated the importance and standing of export and sanctions enforcement to make one message clear – DOJ will hold companies accountable for criminal violations of U.S. export and sanctions laws. And it will do so with the carrot and stick...
The Justice Department’s National Security Division used the SAP comprehensive settlement of export control and sanctions violations to send a message – a loud and clear one. As the first real flexing of its Business Organizations Corporate Enforcement policy, the Justice Department underscored that companies that voluntarily disclose illegal conduct, fully cooperate, and implement timely and robust remediation will earn a non-prosecution agreement or deferred...
When reviewing factual reports of global corporate failures – be it FCPA, sanctions, export controls, or anti-money laundering schemes and systemic misconduct schemes – the story appears to follow a familiar pattern. A company starts with inadequate compliance controls, engages in violations driven by the desire to earn money and increase business, learns about the violations through an internal audit, compliance program assessment and/or whistleblower...
In a precedent-setting agreement, the Justice Department, OFAC and the Bureau of Industry and Security announced a settlement with SAP SE for more than $8 million for numerous violations of the Iran Sanctions program. While the Justice Department’s National Security Division (“NSD”) has settled prior export control and sanctions cases against corporations for violations of the North Korea Sanctions program, the SAP case is the...
