Category: Podcasts

5 Jun, 2023

Episode 277 — The Murad OFAC Settlement and Sanctions Compliance Lessons

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...

Podcasts

29 May, 2023

Episode 276 — Review of Philips and Franks Int’l SEC FCPA Enforcement Actions

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. ...

Podcasts

22 May, 2023

Episode 275 — Five Steps to Enhance Your Sanctions Compliance Program

Even with the current focus on sanctions compliance, many companies have done little to assess and enhance their existing sanctions compliance program. Instead, companies have stitched together a basic sanctions compliance program that centers on a screening tool and little beyond that. Such a limited program provides just a false comfort of compliance. Many companies are not even conducting the mandated basic requirement of annual...

Podcasts

15 May, 2023

Episode 274 — Cryptocurrency and Sanctions Risks Featuring Matt Stankiewicz

The cryptocurrency industry has a target on its back – and perhaps justifiably so. The SEC, CFTC and OFAC have been bringing a number of regulatory enforcement actions, including against Bittrex, Inc. ($24,280,829.20 in settlements with OFAC and FinCEN) and Payward, Inc. d/b/a Kraken ($362,158 settlement with OFAC). Yet, the cryptocurrency has lots to worry about when it comes to compliance – fraud, cybersecurity, and...

Podcasts

8 May, 2023

Episode 273 — British American Tobacco’s $629 Settlement for Evasion of North Korean Sanctions

The Justice Department warned companies that sanctions enforcement is the “new FCPA.” Recently, DOJ delivered its first salvo to back up its message. As part of a broad effort to prosecute funding of North Korea’s nuclear program, DOJ and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) announced a joint settlement with British American Tobacco and its Asian marketing subsidiary (“BAT”), under which BAT agreed to...

Podcasts

1 May, 2023

Episode 272 — Making Corporate Culture a Reality

Everyone has jumped on the corporate culture bandwagon. For some new converts, they like to espouse corporate culture as a recent discovery, or a new-fangled approach for compliance programs. The story of corporate culture as a talismanic tool for ethics and compliance is really nothing new. Chief compliance officers knew the importance of corporate culture from the beginning. A number of companies separately called out...

Podcasts

24 Apr, 2023

Episode 271 — A Deep Dive into the Microsoft OFAC Settlement

Microsoft agreed to pay $2,980,265.86 for illegal exports of services and software to sanctioned jurisdictions and Specially Designated Nationals (“SDNs”) in violation of OFAC’s Cuba, Iran, Syria, and Ukraine-/Russia-Related sanctions programs. Most of the violations involved prohibited Russian entities or persons located in the Crimea region of Ukraine. Microsoft failed to identify and prevent the use of its products by prohibited parties. Microsoft voluntarily disclosed...

Podcasts

17 Apr, 2023

Episode 270 — DOJ Mandates Greater Cooperation Between CCOs and HR

The Justice Department’s recent emphasis on ethics and compliance culture, along with greater specificity on “consequence management” is a welcome breath of fresh air. It is a policy coming for a long time and will bring about significant improvements. Do not get me wrong – there will be bumps and bruises along the way, hurt egos and turf battles, but in the end HR and...

Podcasts

10 Apr, 2023

Episode 269 — Deep Dive into the Wells Fargo OFAC Sanctions Settlement

Wells Fargo added to its Grand Slam of Enforcement with its recent settlement of OFAC violations and paid $30 million to settle the matter. Wells Fargo’s violations occurred during a seven-year period, 2008 to 2015, and stemmed from its acquisition of Wachovia Bank. Wells Fargo provided a foreign bank (part of predecessor Wachovia) with trade-finance software that Wachovia used to process trade financing transactions with...

Podcasts

3 Apr, 2023

Episode 268: FCPA Catch Up: Corsa Coal Declination and Flutter and Rio Tinto SEC Settlements

The Justice Department is continuing its push to encourage to encourage companies to voluntarily disclose FCPA misconduct. In its latest declination, DOJ settled with Corsa Coal for its bribery scheme in Egypt. Under the declination, Corsa Coal paid $1.2 million in disgorgement and earned a significant reduction from DOJ because of its inability to pay. The SEC recently settled two separate enforcement actions, one against...