The SEC is having a good year in prosecuting FCPA cases.  The SEC’s recent settlement with 3M Corp. for $6.5 million is its seventh corporate resolution for the year.  DOJ, which has been relatively quiet so far this year, recently resolved the Corficocolombiana case, its first for the year. 3M’s conduct centered on payments for Chinese healthcare officials employed by state-owned enterprises to attend overseas...

Corporate boards face a panoply of risks – and the nature of these risks are quickly evolving.  Cybersecurity has quickly risen to the top of the list of corporate risks.  Add to that the new SEC regulations on cybersecurity disclosures, and board members face serious and escalating risks surrounding ransomware attacks, data breaches and other technical issues. The challenge – board members are not cyber...

Construction Specialties, Inc. (“CSI”), a U.S. company specializing in the sale of building materials, agreed to pay $660,594 to settle its liability for three violations of OFAC’s sanctions on Iran. CSI’s illegal conduct occurred through its United Arab Emirates (UAE) subsidiary, Construction Specialties Middle East (“CSME”), which imported building materials from the United States to the UAE and then knowingly reexported them to Iran. In...

Corporate boards face a panoply of risks – and the nature of these risks are quickly evolving.  Cybersecurity has quickly risen to the top of the list of corporate risks.  Add to that the new SEC regulations on cybersecurity disclosures, and board members face serious and escalating risks surrounding ransomware attacks, data breaches and other technical issues. The challenge – board members are not cyber...

We are pleased to announce the newest addition to The Volkov Law Group — Daniela Melendez. Daniela joins us as an Associate. Daniela comes to Volkov Law after graduating from the LLM program at Duke University School of Law. Daniela is a Colombian lawyer admitted to practice in Colombia. Prior to joining Volkov Law Group, her work focused on internal investigations, corporate compliance and trade...

Matt Stankiewicz, Partner at The Volkov Law Group, rejoins the podcast to review the recent Ripple decision by District Judge Torres at the Southern District of New York and the recent indictment of Celsius Networks’ CEO. On July 13, 2022, Judge Analisa Torres issued her long awaited ruling on the summary judgment motions in the SEC’s case against Ripple Labs, Inc. (“Ripple”).  The 34-page order provided a...

On July 31, 2013, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) formally charged the enigmatic crypto-personality Richard Heart (whose real name, as I learned from the complaint, is Richard Schueler) and his three entities—Hex, PulseChain, and PulseX—with conducting unregistered offerings of crypto asset securities.  These securities offerings and sales raised more than $1 billion in funds from U.S. investors and investors abroad.  The SEC further charged...

You can always learn a lot from reviewing the underlying conduct to an FCPA enforcement action.  Chief compliance officers can identify specific risk factors, mitigation steps and root causes for bribery schemes. The Corficocolombiana (“Corfico”) FCPA settlement underscores the significant risks when companies participate in large projects in foreign countries.  Between 2012 and 2015, Corfico paid more than $23 million in bribes to high-ranking Colombian...

The Department of Justice has been relatively quiet this year in bringing corporate FCPA enforcement actions and settlements.  Aside from the Ericsson breach of its Deferred Prosecution Agreement, the Corficocolombiana (“Corfico”) and Grupo Aval settlement is the first in 2023 involving a corporate FCPA resolution.  For the SEC, the Corfico and Grupo Aval settlement is the sixth corporate resolution in 2023. Corfico is a subsidiary...

The Department of Justice has laid down a marker – companies would be smart to understand the significant change in ethics and compliance program expectation.  Companies that ignore this new landscape are gambling with their financial security and their reputational value.  Every company that has suffered through a DOJ investigation knows how damaging and draining such an experience can be.  The purpose of an ethics...