In yet another indication of the renewed, aggressive antitrust enforcement program, the Justice Department recently announced the first attempted criminal monopolization case in decades — Nathan Nephi Zito, the president of a paving and asphalt company in Billings, Montana, pleaded guilty to attempting to monopolize the market for highway crack-sealing services in Montana and Wyoming. In a famous civil prosecution in the 1980s, Robert L....

The old adage — if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably isn’t — still rings true when it comes to MoviePass, which ultimately resulted in a criminal indictment charging two former executives with securities fraud. Theodore Farnsworth and Mitchell Lowe were charged with a scheme to defraud investors through materially false and misleading representations relating to MoviePass’ parent company, Helios &...

NAVEX continues to be one of the premier sources of essential annual benchmarking studies.  Recently, NAVEX issued its 2022 Definitive Risk and Compliance Benchmark Report.  The Report was based on over 1100 survey responses from compliance professionals around the world. From the topline view, NAVEX reported that organizations have successfully addressed post-COVID work environments with a combination of on-site, remote and hybrid arrangements.  In this...

We constantly hear about the importance of “accountability,” meaning that organizations and individuals have to be held accountable for misconduct or failures to act.  The focus on accountability is a positive trend, consistent with our ideas of justice and fairness,  Within an organization, accountability is a cornerstone of organizational justice. When demands for accountability reach the board room and individual board members, however, there are...

The Episode is available HERE. Matt Stankiewicz, a Partner at Volkov Law, is a leading industry expert on cryptocurrency.  Bittrex, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, suffered twin enforcement actions for AML and Sanctions Compliance deficiencies.  Matt takes a deep dive on the enforcement actions and outlines practical compliance steps that every cryptocurrency exchange should implement.   The Episode is available HERE. Corruption Crime and Compliance is available...

The Department of Justice is pushing its commitment to voluntary disclosure programs.  Companies, however, are not lining up at DOJ’s door.  The balance between sitting tight or voluntary disclosures requires care. To complicate matters further, in certain cases, regulated companies have to face civil enforcement issues and coordinate voluntary disclosure programs offered by regulatory agencies.   A perfect example of this dual track situation is compliance...

The Department of Justice and many regulatory agencies have rolled out the red carpet for companies to cross the threshold and voluntarily disclose criminal conduct in the hopes of gaining leniency, immunity and reduced fines and penalties.  From DOJ’s perspective, a voluntary disclosure program increases DOJ’s ability to prosecute more organizations and individuals engaged in wrongdoing.  Whether DOJ’s voluntary disclosure efforts have been as successful...

The Justice Department promised aggressive enforcement of export controls and sanctions against Russia.  To that end, DOJ initiated the KleptoCapture task force to focus law enforcement investigations of export violators.  DOJ and the KleptoCapture task force have delivered.  The first significant case confirms the importance of tracking DOJ and law enforcement resources.  When an initiative is announced and includes assignment of personnel, you can rest...