Haiti continues to suffer from significant corruption.  In Transparency International’s recent Corruption Perception Index, Haiti ranked 157 out of 180 countries on the corruption perception index. Angelo Viard, a longtime expert in business development in Haiti sees a different picture — business opportunities in Haiti are present but corruption risks have to be acknowledged and addressed.  Angelo Virad provides practical insights on how to navigate...

Matt Stankiewicz, an Associate at The Volkov Law Group, rejoins us as a guest contributor for another posting on cryptocurrencies.  Matt can be reached at [email protected]. A few days ago, Congress released its 2018 Joint Economic Report.  As many of you know, the Joint Economic Committee prepares this report as a national assessment of the country’s economic status.  The report often assesses the implications of a...

Webinar: A Review of FinCEN’s New Beneficial Ownership Regulations Wednesday, March 28, 2018, 12 Noon EST Sign Up Here After a lengthy implementation period, FinCEN’s new beneficial ownership regulations are about to become effective. Financial institutions are scrambling to meet a May 11, 2018 deadline. FinCEN’s new regulations require financial institutions to implement important new beneficial ownership requirements as part of their customer due diligence...

Last week, the Justice Department announced its first FCPA enforcement action in 2018 – a follow-on settlement from prior FCPA enforcement actions centering on a bribery scheme involving a Russian government official from a subsidiary of Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation.  Three individuals have been charged in connection with the bribery scheme. Transport Logistics International, a Maryland company, entered into a deferred prosecution agreement and...

No one needs to be reminded about the importance of anti-corruption compliance.  For global companies, anti-corruption risks are amongst the top 3 risks identified by corporate leaders. Global companies face a growing network of international anti-corruption law enforcement agents and prosecutors who are coordinating and sharing intelligence.  The globalization of anti-corruption enforcement has increased significantly the risk of detection and prosecution.  While the Justice Department...

Companies continue to face significant risks from their third parties.  In response, companies are implementing sophisticated due diligence and third party risk management systems.  FCPA enforcement risks are only one of several risks created by a company’s third parties.  Companies have to screen and review their third parties for corruption, sanctions, money laundering, antitrust, human trafficking, child labor and reputational risks. In this three-part series,...

Companies are getting on the bandwagon – corporate culture matters.  Business ethics is important.  My worry is whether this new acknowledgement is viewed as a short-cut for compliance investment. CEOs and the board are troubled by (and even resisting) the resources needed to implement an effective compliance program.  Unfortunately, this attitude reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the importance of an ethical culture and robust compliance...

Chief compliance officers have to work closely with the chief legal officer or general counsel on a number of important issues.  In certain circumstances, CCOs  have to be mindful of the importance of the company’s ability to assert the attorney-client privilege.  While CCOs tend to lean in favor of disclosure and transparency as an important principle in promoting a company’s compliance program, there are a...

A chief compliance officer needs to be independent and have adequate authority within the organization.  But do not get confused by the concept of independence.  Compliance depends on collaborative relationships with other corporate functions. Most importantly, a compliance program’s success depends on its ability to embrace the company’s business.  To do so, the compliance staff has to learn and understand the company’s business inside and...

As more countries enter into the anti-corruption enforcement world, companies face exponential risks of detection and enforcement. Recently, Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein has commented on the need to avoid unfair enforcement actions by multiple jurisdiction based on a single course of conduct.  This approach has been reflected in FCPA enforcement actions involving multiple countries and resulting in division of fines and penalties. The United States...