In two recent FCPA enforcement actions, the Justice Department focused on bribery schemes involving Petroecuador government officials.  Petroecuador is the state-owned oil and gas company in Ecuador. In the first, DOJ announced an indictment against Javier Aguilar, an oil trader at Vitol, an energy and commodity trading company, for his role in a five-year international bribery and money laundering scheme carried out in Ecuador. In the...

Global companies have to conduct periodic audits of its high-risk third party partners.  With the continuing pandemic, such audits have to be conducted remotely.  As a result, companies face significant challenges in conducting these audits in these difficult times. In this Episode, Michael Volkov interviews Jessica Sanderson, Partner at The Volkov Law Group, on how to conduct a remote third party audit. LISTEN HERE

Global companies face a number of challenges and a myriad of regulatory obligations. In December 2019, the EU adopted a directive  to promote and protect persons who report violations of law.  Companies will be required to implement compliance reporting channels and provide protection for certain whistleblowers from retaliation.  To the extent companies already maintain internal reporting systems may have to modify their programs to meet...

DOJ and the SEC settled concluded its 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 this Episode, Michael Volkov reviews the Herbalife FCPA settlement. Listen HERE.

In a surprise indictment, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced that Steve Bannon, Brian Kolfage, Andrew Badolato and Timothy Shea were indicted for defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors in response to the “We Build The Wall” online fundraising campaign.  The indictment charges the defendants in defrauding donors from more than $25 million. In this Episode, Michael Volkov reviews...

It has been almost one year since the Business Roundtable Restatement of Corporate Purposes to underscore expansion of broad governance and sustainability principles.  Yet, one year later, not much has changed.  Corporate board governance needs to improve and initiate reforms in response to recurring problems and scandals. Corporate boards can no longer represent resting places for business executives at the end of their respective careers. ...

World Acceptance Corporation (“WAC”), a US-based consumer loan company, agreed to pay the SEC $21.7 million for FCPA violations in Mexico.  WAC’s cited violations covered the full gamut of FCPA violations, including bribery payments to government officials in Mexico, failure to keep accurate books and records and inadequate internal accounting controls. In this Episode, Michael Volkov discusses the WAC SEC settlement.

OFAC has brought several significant enforcement actions in last two years that are described as the result of “screening errors.” These screening errors are sometimes described as the fault of sanctions screening software or human error. In this Episode, Michael Volkov reviews several OFAC enforcement cases stemming from screening errors, including Apple, Amazon, American Express and Cobham Metelics.

On May 1, 2020, Blue Bell pleaded guilty to shipping contaminated ice cream linked to a 2015 listeria outbreak and agreed to pay a fine of $19.5 million ($17.4 million criminal fine and $2.1 million to settle civil false claims act violations).  Blue Bell’s former CEO, Paul Kruse, was separately indicted and charged in seven separate counts for conspiracy and wire fraud for concealing from...

Steele Compliance Solutions announced the global rollout of its new “Risk Intelligence Data” platform.  Companies are suffering from information overload — with new technologies, companies can manage information to increase efficiency and accuracy in collecting and analyzing information needed for risk management purposes. Risk Intelligence Data involves the hybridization of over 5 million of highly trusted risk and compliance sources worldwide, spanning global financial crime...