Goldman Sachs has a new leadership role – unfortunately, it is for corruption. It would be a serious mistake to characterize or describe the Goldman corruption scheme as the result of a few, bad actors. Instead, Goldman suffered this scandal because of a culture and a weak set of controls crafted to promote business with little regard for compliance. The lessons learned from this massive...
Goldman Sachs now sits atop all charts with the largest US FCPA bribery penalty, totaling approximately $2.9 billion. The second largest is Ericsson’s 2019 FCPA settlement for $1 billion. There is a reason that Goldman “earned” this distinction. The bribery scheme and controls and compliance failures are repugnant and pervasive. Goldman’s corruption scheme was built on stealing funds from the 1MDB account that was intended...
The Justice Department finally closed out its investigation of Goldman Sachs’ massive bribery scheme involving Malaysia’s 1MDB fund. The case is now the largest in US FCPA history (based on its payment to DOJ and related US agencies). Goldman Sachs entered into three-year deferred prosecution agreement (“DPA”) with the filing of a criminal information charging conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA. At...
Elizabeth Slim, Senior Consultant at The Volkov Law Group, was interviewed on the terrific podcast, Captivated Audience, a Financial Crime Podcast. Captivated Audience is a great podcast hosted by Samantha Sheen and Marie Lundberg, two global financial leaders and experts in the industry. Samantha and Marie interviewed Elizabeth discuss FinCEN’s recent advisory on Politically Exposed Persons (“PEP”), the differing treatment of PEPs in the US...
Shortly before announcing its comprehensive FCPA settlement with DOJ and the SEC, Pilgrim’s Pride agreed with the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division to plead guilty to price-fixing in the chicken processing industry. Pilgrim’s Pride is one of the largest poultry producers in the United States. The plea agreement was restricted to three contracts to a customer in the United States. Under the plea agreement, Pilgrim’s Pride...
J&F Investimentos (“J&F”) FCPA settlement presents a number of important lessons learned. While the bribery scheme was brazen and involved a large amount of money, the techniques and warning signs must have been fairly obvious. Despite J&F’s large global operations and expansion plans, J&F made no apparent effort to build an ethics and compliance program or implement basic compliance requirements, such as a Code of...
In recognition of the impact that Covid-19 has had on global companies involved in export operations, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security announced a streamlined process for companies to request a six-month extension for licenses that are scheduled to expire on or before December 31, 2020. The pandemic has caused significant disruption to global companies distribution channels and supply chains. Air and ocean...
The SEC settled with J&F Investimentos (“J&F”) for approximately $27 million. Unlike the DOJ settlement, the SEC included JBS and Joseley and Wesley Batista in its enforcement action. The factual predicate for the settlement involved a different focus from the Justice Department’s Statement of Facts. J&F’s principal owners, Joesley and Wesley Batista, each agreed to pay a civil penalty of $550,000. The conduct involved Joesley...
J&F’s Investimentos bribery scheme was pervasive and was coordinated with a senior Brazilian Finance minister and orchestrated through the use of United States banking. The Brazilian official appears to be Guido Mantega, who went on to serve as Brazil’s finance minister. Given J&F’s large penalty in Brazil, DOJ’s resolution was reasonable in light of the consistent use of the US banking system to execute the...
J&F Investmentos SA (“J&F), a Brazilian private investment company, plead guilty to FCPA bribery violations in federal court in Brooklyn, New York. As part of the plea agreement, J&F agreed to pay a fine of $256 million and to cooperate with ongoing investigations of other companies and individuals involved in the bribery schemes. J& F owns numerous companies around the globe, including in the meat...
