Fresenius Medical came close to earning a declination under the FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy.  Unfortunately, Fresenius’ effort fell short — but it came close.  Fresenius Medical operates more than 3700 dialysis clinics worldwide and has 37 production sites in various countries. Fresenius’ relationship with third-party agents and distributors created significant risks.  These relationships, in a number of high-risk countries, were used to funnel bribery payments. ...

Fresenius Medical, the largest supplier of dialysis equipment and services agreed to pay $231 million to the Justice Department and the SEC to resolve FCPA violations in 17 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Europe. Fresenius entered a non-prosecution agreement (here) with the Justice Department, in which it agreed to pay an $87 million payment and a two-year corporate monitor.  Fresenius agreed to enhance...

Corporations have to invest in their Speak Up Culture.  A critical component is a company’s hotline and incident reporting system.  An effective hotline reporting channel(s) depends on responsive and timely investigations of potential wrongdoing. In this Episode, Michael Volkov discusses best practices for hotline and reporting systems.

Stanley Black and Decker (“Stanley”) and its Chinese subsidiary Jiangsu Guoqiang Tools Co. (“GQ”) agreed to pay approximately $1.9 million to settle OFAC charges that it violated the Iran Sanctions Program.  The OFAC enforcement action was the fifth in 2019.  Stanley voluntarily disclosed the apparent violations to OFAC. See Here for a copy of OFAC Enforcement Action. Between June 2013 and December 2014, GQ exported...

Matt Stankiewicz rejoins us for another posting on cryptocurrency compliance. Matt can be reached at [email protected]. Just this month, former CFTC Chairman Timothy G. Massad released a report through the Brookings Institution entitled “It’s Time to Strengthen the Regulation of Crypto-Assets.”  Interestingly enough, Mr. Massad was at the helm of the CFTC during the financial crisis.  He even notes that he “share[s] the desire to...

In the first corporate FCPA action of 2019, Cognizant Technology Solutions Company settled its long-running FCPA case, agreeing to pay the SEC $25 million.  At the same time, the Justice Department announced: (1) its’ declination under the FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy; and (2) the indictment of Cognizant’s former President and General Counsel for criminal FCPA violations. In this Episode, Michael Volkov discusses the Cognizant FCPA...

And now we return to a familiar theme with some important updates – I always start with the simple proposition: ethical companies perform better over the long run; that does not mean that ethical companies will always be profitable, but it does mean that ethical companies will perform better than they would otherwise perform. Some call this the ethical advantage or the ethical premium.  I...

There is nothing training cannot do. Nothing is above its reach. It can turn bad morals to good; it can destroy bad principles and recreate good ones; it can lift men to ‘angel ship. – Mark Twain I am always struck by how much is written about tone-at-the-top, board commitment to compliance and specific benchmarking of chief compliance officer access and reporting to a corporate...