This week I am running a series of posts on healthcare fraud enforcement and the False Claims Act. With all the controversy swirling around the Mueller investigation and prosecutions, the Justice Department continues its aggressive pursuit of healthcare fraud.  The Justice Department’s machinery and resources are producing a steady stream of False Claims Act cases and settlements. Just like other enforcement areas, companies in the...

Dr. Pat Harned is the CEO of the Ethics and Compliance Initiative (ECI).  The mission of the ECI is to empower organizations to build and sustain high quality ethics & compliance programs.  Dr. Harned is a leading compliance advocate and strategist.  The ECI has been at the forefront of developing compliance standards and best practices. In this episode, Michael Volkov interviews Dr. Harned about the ECI’s...

The attorney-client privilege is an invaluable tool that is used to encourage frank and open communications between a client and an attorney.  Clients rely on the privilege when communicating with attorneys.  It is important to remember that the attorney-client privilege applies only to communications between a client and an attorney for the purpose of seeking legal advice. A company’s reliance on the attorney-client privilege provides...

The financial industry has embraced the future of blockchain technology.  And for good reason.  As a regulated industry that is required to provide regulators with large amounts of financial data, blockchain can make that process pain-free. Financial institutions have to collect, organize and deliver large amounts of risk data to federal regulators.  Much of the information has been stored in “older” information technology systems and/or...

I am not one to engage in hyperbole.  But when it comes to blockchain technology and the implications for our economy, this is going to be the real deal.  In the world of ethics and compliance, blockchain has many possible applications that could easily transform compliance capabilities. To show my age, let’s go back into time and remember when we all were buying personal computers...

  Investing in cryptocurrency is fraught with challenges and inefficiencies. Jason Davis is seeking to solve these problems with Hoard Invest – with a mission to empower anyone, anywhere in the world to hold, track, transfer, and transact with any tokenized asset from their mobile device, privately & instantly. The task in doing so is nothing short of monumental, especially considering the regulatory ambiguity around the industry....

There are two types of deterrence – specific and general.  Specific deterrence focuses on the risk of recidivism by the individual defendant.  General deterrence is focused on preventing others from engaging in similar misconduct. Deterrence depends on three basic factors: certainty; severity and swiftness of punishment.  The certainty of punishment is a significant factor for obvious reasons – if there is a little chance that...

When Judge Denny Chin sentenced Bernie Madoff, perhaps the most notorious white-collar criminal, Judge Chin imposed a sentence of 150 years, the maximum possible under the law.  Madoff was 71 years old.  His Ponzi scheme resulted in the loss of $64.8 billion. While Judge Chin may have imposed a lesser sentence without altering the fact that Madoff will die while incarcerated, Judge Chin specifically cited...

The sentencing of criminal defendants continues to create controversy.  There are so many categories of crime and ranges of punishment – the issue always calls for difficult judgments and inevitably results in vigorous debate. In this three-part series, I plan to examine some of the issues surrounding sentencing of white-collar defendants and deterrence.  It is often presumed that stiff sentencing of white-collar defendants is an...

Global Companies face a complex set of data breach notification requirements.  In the absence of a uniform federal standard, companies have to tailor their data breach notification procedures to meet the requirements of 50 U.S. states.  With respect to European Union residents, global companies have to meet stringent requirements established by the General Data Protection Regulations. In this episode, Michael Volkov reviews the data breach...