The Department of Justice has laid down a marker – companies would be smart to understand the significant change in ethics and compliance program expectation.  Companies that ignore this new landscape are gambling with their financial security and their reputational value.  Every company that has suffered through a DOJ investigation knows how damaging and draining such an experience can be.  The purpose of an ethics...

The Justice Department’s recent revisions to its Corporate Enforcement Program and its Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs stressed the importance of compensations systems and consequence management.  The theoretical underpinning of DOJ’s expanded focus is to increase the consequences to individuals who engage in misconduct or supervisors who turn a blind eye to misconduct.  Individuals already face potential criminal prosecution for engaging in misconduct but the...

Bank of America joined the club of consumer abusers – Wells Fargo had been the well-established leader of this club and the poster-child for abusive consumer practices.  For years, Bank of America avoided federal enforcement for abuses and could distinguish itself from the poster-child, Wells Fargo.  Bank of America’s conduct is inexplicable. In response to the Wells Fargo scandal, you would have expected that Bank...

If you ask corporate board members and senior executives to list their number one risk (other than financial operations), the answer in today’s risk environment is clear – cybersecurity and data privacy.  The rapid elevation of this risk is reflected in weekly headlines announcing ransomware, cyber-attacks and data breaches. Companies that have experienced a cyber-attack are forever changed.  The board and senior executive team quickly...

NAVEX’s annual report on the state of risk and compliance is a must read.  Each year NAVEX supplies helpful insights that compliance professionals, corporate managers and board members can use to benchmark their respective risk management and compliance strategies. This year’s survey reflects submissions from over 1300 respondents around the globe. In this Episode, Michael Volkov reviews NAVEX’s 2023 State of Risk and Compliance Report.

Looking back in time, the compliance field owes a lot to the healthcare industry.  In the 1990s, there was a dramatic explosion in the industry in response to aggressive federal enforcement programs and increasing regulation.  All of a sudden, compliance officers who sat in the backrooms of legal departments were “volunteered” to address proactive compliance.  Federal regulators pushed the compliance function to assume a much...

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed two separate enforcement actions targeting the cryptocurrency industry — the first against Binance and its CEO, and the second against Coinbase. The SEC’s actions underscored its aggressive strategy to reign in cryptocurrency companies. In this Episode, Matt Stankiewicz and Mike Volkov discuss these two important enforcement actions.

Last year, the Department of Justice warned global companies of a new, aggressive strategy for enforcement of trade sanctions and export controls. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco stated that sanctions and export enforcement constituted “The New FCPA.” DOJ, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (“OFAC”) and the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) have joined forces to aggressively enforce sanctions...

Over an eight-year period ending in 2018, Murad, a U.S. cosmetics company, illegally exported goods and services to Iran in 62 separate transactions worth approximately $11 million.  Murad was acquired by Unilever United States (“Unilever”) in 2015.  Once discovered, Unilever voluntarily disclosed the conduct to OFAC. The fallout from Murad’s long-running conspiracy: Unilever paid $3.3 million to OFAC for its Iran Sanctions violations.  Interestingly, OFAC...

The SEC recently announced two separate FCPA SEC enforcement actions — the first against Franks International for $8 million for FCPA violations in Angola; and the second against Philips, a Dutch medical device company, for $62 million for FCPA violations in China. The SEC settlement actions underscored important bribery risks in Angola and China. Philips’ recent settlement is its second in the last ten years. ...