DOJ’s Antitrust Division has been relatively quiet in prosecuting criminal cartel or bid-rigging cases.  Since 2015, the Antitrust Division’s criminal enforcement has fallen from the billions in penalties each year to the lower hundreds of millions.  Most of this may reflect the end of the large, Japanese auto supplier investigation.  While the Leniency Program was a significant source of enforcement actions, it appears the Program...

On August 15, 2024, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Export Enforcement (“OEE”) announced the settlement of the latest administrative enforcement action involving TE Connectivity Corporation—a Pennsylvania-based electronics company—and its affiliate, TE Connectivity Hong Kong Limited (collectively, “TE Connectivity”), for their involvement in seventy-nine (79) separate violations of the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) arising from a series of unlicensed EAR99 exports made to Entity...

While FCPA enforcement against companies has been relatively quiet this year, despite a strong beginning to the year — the SAP case for $220 million; and the Gunvor case for $661 million — DOJ has been pushing a number of individual cases, some of which appear to be flowing from ongoing corporate investigations.  DOJ is expected to announce a new, large corporate resolution for more...

DOJ is joining the whistleblower reward sweepstakes in a big way.  While the SEC has been grabbing headlines for its whistleblower reward program since 2010, DOJ now wants a piece of the action.  DOJ cited gaps that exist under the SEC, CFTC, FinCEN and IRS whistleblower reward programs. As examples of how the program will work, DOJ cited the $4.3 billion settlement with Binance last...

DOJ is feeling the heat.  Corporate criminal enforcement numbers are down. in fairness, DOJ has been pushing individual criminal enforcement as an effective deterrent to corporate misconduct.  Criminal prosecutions, when done properly, take time. Every federal prosecutors know that you “win” your case at the investigation phase — cutting corners means greater risk of failure.    in recognition of the “success” of federal whistleblower programs,...

A New York federal district judge handed down a significant decision dismissing much of the SEC’s securities fraud enforcement action against SolarWinds arising from its claims relating to SolarWinds’ cybersecurity policies, and disclosure of a significant cyberattack against the SolarWinds’ network. In an unprecedented case, the SEC alleged that SolarWinds, which went public in 2018, mislead the public as to the effectiveness of its cybersecurity...

Each quarter, we send many of our clients a quarterly trade compliance update, highlighting important developments over the last few months and summarizing key points for important sanctions programs. Click here to download the quarterly update for July. Below is a summary of events this past quarter: About the document: This handy one-pager is designed to be used by our clients to provide a quick...

On July 25, 2024, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) published two (2) new rules in the Federal Register that significantly expand the scope of existing “U.S. Person” prohibitions currently in existence under the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) to encompass support activities that relate to both newly defined “foreign-security” end users as well as certain redefined “military” end users. The rules—introduced...

The Boeing 737 MAX case took another dramatic turn.  On July 24, 2024, the Department of Justice filed with the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas a proposed plea agreement with Boeing.  The plea agreement, which has been filed under Federal Rule Criminal Procedure 11(c)(1)(C), requires the Court to approve and accept the deal.  The Court can reject the plea deal...

On July 3, 2024, the Council of the European Union (“EU Council”) officially promulgated a new set of best practices (“best practices” or “guidance”) for organizations seeking to comply with the latest sanctions regulations (also known as “restrictive measures”) adopted by the EU to advance critical foreign policy objectives—including, but not limited to, the EU’s ongoing support for Ukraine against Russian Federation aggression. The issuance of...