I often remind readers – government prosecutors regularly tell you what they plan to do in advance, and then they do it. So do not be surprised when the government does something they told you they would do. In May 2019, OFAC issued its Framework for Sanctions Compliance Commitments. As part of its Guidance. OFAC noted that it intended to increase enforcement actions against individual...
Herbalife’s FCPA settlement is another one for books – the wreckage left includes two criminal indictments for Chinese officials who may never be apprehended, along with $123 million in penalties. When going through the wreckage, there are serious issues of corporate failures at senior levels of the company along with pervasive and systemic misconduct in China. What is surprising is the obvious red flags of...
Herbalife’s bribery scheme in China stretched across the 28 provinces of China and even involved an Herbalife senior executive in its headquarters in Los Angeles, California. DOJ has indicted Yangling Li, aka Jerry Li, and Hongwei Yang, aka Mary Yang, two Chinese nationals who carried out the scheme. The Statement of Facts provides some important details about the scheme. Herbalife’s business in China depended on...
DOJ and the SEC settled their long-pending FCPA investigation of Herbalife Nutrition Ltd (“Herbalife”). Herbalife entered into a 3-year deferred prosecution agreement (“DPA”) with DOJ and an administrative order with the SEC, and agreed to pay $55 million in criminal penalties and $67 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest to the SEC. In light of the criminal penalties, the SEC declined to impose any civil...
Teva, the global pharmaceutical giant, was indicted last week as part of DOJ’s expanding criminal conspiracy investigation focused on illegal price-fixing and customer allocations. Teva and DOJ sought to resolve the case in advance of indictment but were unable to reach agreement. DOJ then decided to indict Teva in a broad conspiracy. Given the broad legal implications of such an indictment, Teva is unlikely to...
Congratulations to my good friend and colleague Tom Fox for his extraordinary accomplishment — his 500th Podcast Episode. Tom has been a leader in the ethics and compliance industry for over a decade. Tom’s 500th Episode is Here. I was honored to participate with Tom and my friends and colleagues, Jonathan Marks, Matt Kelly, Jonathan Armstrong, and Jay Rosen in recording a series of podcasts...
The Justice Department continues to pursue criminal cases against Venezuelan officials at Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) in an attempt to strangle President Nicolas Maduro. DOJ has been pursuing a three-pronged strategy by bringing cases in the New York, Miami and Houston federal courts. DOJ has been pursuing officials who have left Venezuela and now reside in Spain and other European locations. DOJ has charged...
FCPA cases can arise in un usual situations. DOJ has focused two separate prosecutions on bribery and fraud involving adoptions from Uganda and Poland. At the heart, the defendants bribed Ugandan and Polish authorities to secure children who were not orphaned and deceived prospective parents as to the orphaned status of the children placed for adoption. In the end, innocent children were removed from their...
Take it from me, if I recommend a stock pick to buy or sell – do the opposite. In a great episode of Seinfeld, George Costanza adopted a new-life approach by doing the exact opposite of what he normally would do in a situation. Here is the classic clip. In a podcast episode I recorded with Tom Fox, I made the “brilliant” point that DOJ...
“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”― Confucius “One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”― Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums Corporate governance and compliance is not as hard as everyone tries to make it. Much of management theory, risk management, and theories surrounding corporate operations is intuitive. Be wary of those who try to complicate issues, especially when...
