Jessica Sanderson, Partner at The Volkov Law Group, joins us for her annual False Claims Act Review. Jessica can be reached at [email protected]. $1.9 trillion dollars of federal spending on the horizon. That’s right, immediately following his inauguration in 2021, President Biden proposed a $1.9 trillion stimulus plan to help recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. This follows the approximately $3.5 trillion of federal government funds...

President Biden has nominated Merrick Garland and Lisa Monaco to head the U.S Department of Justice.  In addition, the Biden Administration has nominated a number of strong enforcement candidates to head up various regulatory agencies.  The implications of this new team across the government will be significant on various industry sectors. Tom Fox joins Mike Volkov to discuss the new Justice Department leadership and the...

In 2020, the Justice Department  brought criminal charges against 22 individuals in FCPA-related investigations.  While this was a decline from the two preceding years, COVID-19 had a dramatic impact on criminal FCPA prosecutions. In particular, DOJ faced challenges from unavailable grand juries to present evidence needed to bring criminal indictments, and numerous federal courthouses were either closed down or not conducting criminal trials for lengthy...

In a harbinger of future enforcement actions surrounding AML compliance program violations, the Treasury Department’s The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network announced a $390 million settlement with Capital One for weaknesses in its AML program. Capital One was credited $100 million for its 2018 payment to the Office of the Comptroller for AML violations involving its check cashing business unit.  The FinCEN enforcement settlement involved conduct...

Deutsche Bank’s ethics and compliance function faces numerous challenges.  Deutsche Bank has a storied record of scandals, government enforcement actions and failures to abide by prior deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs).  When you review these matters, Deutsche Bank’s track record reflects serious culture and control deficiencies, including participation of high-level executives in bribery schemes.  Deutsche Bank’s continuing legal and compliance failures are likely to continue unless...

Deutsche Bank, the infamous German bank connected to President Trump, settled FCPA and fraud cases with the Justice Department and the SEC, and agreed to pay a total of $130 million.  The settlement included resolution of fraud charges against Deutsche Bank relating to a commodities fraud scheme, commonly referred to as “spoofing.” Under the global resolution, Deutsche Bank agreed to pay: (1) criminal penalties of...

The Justice Department handed Walmart a huge slap in the face last year with the filing of a comprehensive civil case alleging that Walmart knowingly distributed large quantities of opioids in disregard of the law that fueled the national opioids crisis. In a lengthy complaint (160 pages), DOJ outlined Walmart’s serious deficiencies in its compliance program and its unwillingness to spend money needed to prevent...

Congress enacted The Corporate Transparency Act, as part of the National Defense Authorization Act.  The CTA expands beneficial ownership disclosure requirements for US entities.  The new disclosure requirements target shell companies and small businesses to ensure disclosure beneficial ownership information. Liz Slim, Senior Counsel at The Volkov Law Group, interviews Scott Greytak from Transparency International USA, and Erica Hanichak from the FACT Coalition and review...

Sabre Corporation, the travel technology company, agreed to pay $2.4 million as a settlement with twenty-seven (27) State Attorneys General for a 2017 data breach involving hotel booking services.  In 2017, Sabre suffered a major data breach involving 1.3 million credit cards. Sabre was cited for failing to adhere to state laws governing breach notification and data security in response to a cyberattack against Sabre’s...

The 2020 OFAC enforcement record underscores the importance of sanctions compliance.  Yet, companies appear to move slowly in response to sanctions risks, often relying on outdated or outmoded screening technologies and failing to build basic policy controls and procedures. In reviewing the 2020 enforcement actions, many of the cases involve common miscues and compliance failures.  These cases fall into the following categories: (1) basic screening...