Corporate misconduct occurs in a variety of forms. Starting with the basic truism – companies act through people, and when companies engage in misconduct it requires the coordination and collaboration of multiple actors. The scope of such misconduct can vary, of course, and the greater the extent of the misconduct, the more actors are involved. The auto industry’s record on safety misconduct is legendary, stretching...
Lauren Connell, Managing Associate at the Volkov Law Group, joins us again for a posting on the Rolls Royce Anti-Corruption Settlement. Lauren can be reached at [email protected]. Rolls Royce’s $800 million global settlement further solidifies what the future of anti-bribery and corruption enforcement looks like: multi-jurisdictional prosecutions based on egregious conduct supported by strong evidence. The similarities to the recent Odebrecht – Braskem $3.5 billion...
The first FCPA enforcement action for 2017 landed with very little fanfare. The SEC reached a settlement with Mondelez International for $13 million. The facts surround the hiring of an agent in India and the failure of Mondelez to monitor and conduct basic due diligence on the third-party agent. Kraft Foods acquired Cadbury, a UK candy and beverage company. Kraft Foods renamed itself Mondelez after...
I am not an “I told you so” person – frankly, it is a very unattractive character trait. I am more comfortable with the old adage – even a broken clock is correct twice a day. I fall into that category. All the FCPA prognosticators, predictors and paparazzi have missed the boat on understanding what happened this year – 2016, to make this a record...
Tom Fox and I recorded a podcast review of FCPA enforcement in 2016 and predictions for 2017. It is a pleasure to speak with Tom and share are professional perspectives. You can listen HERE. Thanks
Lauren Connell, Managing Associate at The Volkov Law Group, joins us with a posting on the recent Odebrecht settlement. Lauren can be reached at [email protected]. Within the SEC and DOJ’s blockbuster ending to 2016 was the Odebrecht settlement. The amount involved, a stunning $4.5 billion (pending a possible reduction for inability to pay), grabbed headlines around the world. But more interesting than the final figure...
The past year was another great success for the compliance profession and related technologies. Compliance continues to grow as the “professionalization” of compliance continues to skyrocket. As my good friend Donna Boehme always reminds me, compliance professionals have the requisite subject matter expertise that many other professionals such as lawyers and auditors lack. I often remind compliance professionals of the old saying – “Be careful...
With the new incoming administration, everyone is busy predicting major changes in DOJ FCPA enforcement. I do not share this view. Frankly, FCPA enforcement is more bipartisan than other controversial enforcement programs (e.g. civil antitrust and merger enforcement), and DOJ’s FCPA program is very profitable. While there may be a renewed effort by the Chamber of Commerce to raise FCPA reform again, I do not...
No matter how you cut it – this was a big year in FCPA enforcement. Not just because of the large enforcement actions but the scope and depth of enforcement, remediation and compliance program demands. We are witnessing a significant turning point in FCPA enforcement in which the Justice Department and the SEC are slowly but surely pushing companies to embrace a more robust ethics...
We begin the New Year with a three-part series on the FCPA: (1) A review of FCPA enforcement in 2016; (2) Trends from 2016 FCPA enforcement; and (3) Predictions for FCPA enforcement in 2017. From the narrow perspective of FCPA enforcement, the Justice Department and the SEC have demonstrated yet again the maturation of their respective aggressive FCPA enforcement programs. As in 2014 (but not...
