On June 17, 2024, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that trading giant Trafigura had agreed to pay a $55 million fine to settle charges of fraud and manipulation. The conduct at issue allegedly took place between 2014 and 2020, and included offenses such as trading on non-public information, benchmark manipulation, and impeding whistleblower communications. The high-flying commodities trading industry, through which an...

Perhaps it is fitting to end this unusual FCPA enforcement year with another in a series of compliance reminders — the quickest way to experience a bribery scandal is to ignore third-party risks.  This has been a continuing theme this year and Freepoint is yet another example of why managing third-party risks is so important to any anti-bribery compliance program. The relevant facts underlying the...

The Justice Department’s FCPA enforcement record for 2024 was slow.  This  trend was unexpected, contrary to my own predictions and of various other prognosticators.  It is hard to explain why this slowdown occurred. DOJ’s record is hard to square against DOJ official speeches, statements and policy changes, which all were premised on an expectation of increased enforcement over prior years.  In its last FCPA enforcement...

Matt Stankiewicz, Partner at The Volkov Law Group, breaks down Binance’s recent criminal settlement agreements with U.S. regulators. Matt can be reached at [email protected]. On November 21, 2023, The U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced settlement agreements with Binance Holdings Limited (“Binance”), the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, and Changpeng Zhao (affectionally known as “CZ” in the cryptocurrency industry), the exchange’s founder and Chief Executive Officer...