With the beginning of the era of the “New FCPA,” as coined by DOJ’s Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, we now need to focus on third-party risk and sanctions enforcement.  The law, the practice and the risks are important and not just the same as FCPA legal requirements.  As we embark on a new criminal enforcement era surrounding sanctions violations, companies have to address this...

Carlos Villagrán is the Director of Compliance at CMPC, a 100 years’ old Chilean-based holding company, one of the worldwide leading manufacturers of pulp, paper, packaging, personal care and other forest products. Carlos discusses the challenges he faced in joining CMPC after a significant crisis — CMPC’s prosecution for antitrust cartel violations in Chile and Peru. With more than 20,000 employees, CMPC has industrial operations...

Over the last ten years, we have seen a marked shift from the Delaware Chancery Court chipping away at corporate board member liability claims. In a number of seminal cases involving Boeing airplane crashes (In re the Boeing Co. Derivative Litig., No. 2019-0907 (Del. Ch. Sept 7, 2021)), and deadly listeria outbreaks from tainted ice cream (Marchand v. Barnhill, 212 A.3d 805 (Del. 2019)), Delaware...

Directive 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and Council dated 23 October 2019 on the “protection of persons who report breaches of Union law” (the “Directive”) is currently being implemented by EU Member States. The directive has broad applicability to organizations operating in the EU internal market and applies to both public and private sector organizations alike. Whistleblowers are guaranteed legal protection to the extent: (1)...

NAVEX continues to produce high-quality compliance reports, many of which are a must-read in the compliance industry.  Its annual Whistleblower Report is of particular note — NAVEX is the leading provider of hotline services in the world and its data is invaluable as a source of trends in this industry. This year –2024 — is no exception.  NAVEX combed through the data from 3784 organizations...

OFAC is capable of extending a long-arm of enforcement, reaching sometimes non-U.S. companies that may “cause” another company to violate U.S. Sanctions laws.  If you need to find an example of this long reach, look no further than OFAC’s recent settlement with SCG Plastics (“SCG”), in which SCG, a Thailand company, which sells plastic resins, agreed to pay $20 million for violations of the Iran...

LRN continues to set the standard for ethics and compliance program research.  Volkov Law is  a supporter of, and advocate for, LRN’s research because it has consistently confirmed what we all know and believe — ethical companies perform better in the marketplace over the long run.  It is an intuitive fact that employees respond better to values-based leadership than a rules-based environment and culture.  Volkov...

On the heels of the Gunvor FCPA settlement for $661 million, DOJ announced its settlement with Trafigura, the latest commodities trading company to fall under DOJ’s FCPA Sweep against the industry.  Trafigura joined the list of international commodity trading companies to suffer FCPA enforcement actions — Vitol, Sargeant Marine, Glencore, Freepoint, and Gunvor. DOJ’s corporate resolutions are connected to individual prosecutions and guilty pleas of...

In a recent speech, on March 7, 2024, Deputy Attorney General Monaco announced that DOJ would be implementing in the next 90 days a new whistleblower program to reward reporting of criminal misconduct at both public and private companies.  In particular DOJ will encourage reporting of potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) and the recently-enacted  Foreign Extortion Prevention Act (“FEPA”). AAG Monaco...

Boeing continues to struggle with its core business activities. As troubles mount for Boeing, it  is clear that it continues to suffer from real and pervasive culture issues that have been reflected in serious safety failures, financial difficulties, regulatory violations and serious reputational damage.  Boeing’s troubles permeate every part of its organization — from the board to senior executives, to its operations and its overall...