As if legal and compliance professionals had enough responsibilities on their plates, DOJ dropped another shoe (to join the tariffs, sanctions and export controls, and immigration issues) and upped the stakes for ethics and compliance programs. DOJ dropped a comprehensive set of new regulations governing data security and gave companies a 90-day head start — once we get to July 8, 2025, DOJ warned that...
Like any new regulatory and enforcement scheme, companies face a number of new risks that require understanding. The DSP framework is new, comprehensive and raises significant risks and requires careful design and implementation of effective compliance strategies. Companies will face different risk levels based on their handling of data, specific market practices and security measures. In this post, I will explore some of the interesting...
How prepared is your organization to handle the evolving landscape of sanctions compliance? In this episode of Corruption, Crime and Compliance, Michael Volkov dives into critical sanctions compliance cases and their implications for global companies. He discusses four significant cases that underscore the necessity of robust compliance programs, particularly in light of increased DOJ enforcement actions. Through these examples, he breaks down the consequences of...
Many “good government” initiatives continue to be enacted or implemented on Capitol Hill or in the Executive Branch — notwithstanding changes in political control. While working on Capitol Hill, the bulk of the legislative and oversight work was bipartisan in that both parties were committed to sensible initiatives needed to be keeping the government operational and effective. Of course, there were partisan issues but at...
This week we are pleased to bring you one of our most popular episodes of 2024. Please enjoy, and we will be back next week with more insights from the Corruption, Crime, and Compliance podcast. Have you heard of the recent controversies around Boeing 737 MAX and its safety? Have you wondered what is being done about the concerns around it? In this episode of...
We live in a topsy-turvy world. This is an exaggeration but sets up my points in this blog post. We are now seeing the shuffling of corporate risks and every board, C-Suite and legal, compliance and risk management team has to take a hard look at your company’s risks and reassess and re-rank them. Initial Review Some basic business and technology risks will stay the...
In 2017, when President Trump first took office, big changes were expected in FCPA enforcement. Much of this reflected President Trump’s expressed misgivings on the substance of the FCPA. He was not a big fan of the law and made his opinion known. The Trump Administration, however, did not dismantle FCPA enforcement and in fact, DOJ and the SEC increased FCPA enforcement. DOJ and the...
Can the DOJ’s commitment to holding individuals and corporations accountable under the FCPA survive the changing political climate in 2025? Will the push for innovation in corporate compliance programs be enough to maintain momentum, especially with emerging technologies like artificial intelligence? In this episode of Corruption, Crime and Compliance, Michael Volkov dives deep into the FCPA enforcement landscape of 2024, outlining key cases, changes in...
Criminals can be creative — that is a true statement but essentially FCPA criminals have to embrace a variety of well-established techniques to accomplish a straight-forward goal — steal money from the company to funnel bribery payments to foreign officials. The complement of 2024 FCPA cases saw some of our standard techniques (or schemes) but a few presented some new twists. To help organize these...
With the end of the Biden Administration, it is hard to identify a consistent theme relating to FCPA enforcement. On the one hand, the Biden Administration talked a big game, elevating the anti-corruption fight as a national security priority and promising even more aggressive FCPA enforcement than the prior Trump Administration. At the same time, the Justice Department modified its Corporate Enforcement Policies, tightening the...
