The Credit Suisse case highlights the significant impact that global corruption and fraud can have on developing economies.  Mozambique’s economy suffered serious harm from the scheme, which started to unravel when the IMF uncovered problems with the financing and accounting for the tuna fishing project. The Mozambican people have suffered real and significant harm directly as a result of this criminal scheme. Additionally, the Credit...

Credit Suisse Group AG (“Credit Suisse”), a global financial institution, and its London-based European subsidiary, Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Limited (“CSSEL”) resolved a wide-ranging bribery and fraud scheme involving investments and financing arrangements for an $850 million loan for a tuna fishing project in Mozambique. To resolve the violations, Credit Suisse agreed to pay a total of $547 million in penalties, fines and disgorgement as...

My old adage – when it comes to enforcement initiatives, the government always tells you what they are going to do and then they do it.  It is always baffles me when targets of enforcement actions complain that they did not know the government was going to launch an investigation or enforce the law in a particular manner.  The Justice Department is fairly transparent in...

The Delaware Chancery Court is continuing its trend of permitting Caremark claims against corporate board members who fail to exercise proper oversight and monitoring of compliance programs.  The Delaware Court’s latest decision involving the Boeing board and its failure to conduct proper oversight of the 737 MAX safety scandal is yet another example.  At bottom, the Chancery Court is raising the stakes on board member...

Mark Forkner, a former Chief Technical Pilot, was indicted  on two counts of fraud involving aircraft parts in interstate commerce and four counts of wire fraud.  If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each count of wire fraud and 10 years in prison on each count of fraud involving aircraft parts in interstate commerce. Boeing began to develop the...

The Justice Department announced the indictment of Mark Forkner, a former Chief Technical Pilot for Boeing for his role in the 737 MAX scandal.  Specifically, Forkner is charged with deceiving the FAA’s Aircraft Evaluation Group (“FAA AEG”) relating to Boeing’s 737 MAX airplane and defrauding Boeings U.S.-based airline customers to earn millions of dollars for Boeing. Boeing’s 737 MAX scandal is tragic and disturbing. In...

The new Anti-Money Laundering laws and regulations continue to roll out with new risks, liabilities and compliance requirements.  There is a coming AML enforcement storm, fueled by a new AML whistleblower program that will operate in a manner similar to the SEC’s successful whistleblower program.  The AML Act of 2020 increased penalties for AML offenses, adopted investigative improvements to expand the reach of AML investigations...

If you follow my blog, you know that I am passionate about the compliance profession.  Chief compliance officers have unique talents, expertise and leadership qualities.  CCOs are committed ethics warriors.  No one else can claim that same mission. CCOs are the natural stewards of a company’s ethical culture.  Of course, a company can appoint a separate chief ethics officer to distinguish between the ethics and...