In the FCPA and white collar defense community, we have seen buckets and buckets of ink spilled on the coming wave of aggressive enforcement. Justice Department officials have made so many statements about the “new” approach to prosecuting white collar crime. The government moves slowly and implementing far-reaching changes takes time. Anyone who has worked at DOJ knows that change is never immediate but takes...
Even though the size of the KT Corp. SEC enforcement action is relatively small, the underlying misconduct provides a number of important lessons learned. Let’s look at some of the most significant lessons learned: C-Suite Misconduct: KT’s slush fund was executed by a High-Level executive at KT Corp. and was funded through inflated bonus payments made to executives. Each executive returned the over-payment to the...
If I ever told you years ago that the 2021 headlines would be dominated by the “supply chain” crisis, you would have immediately questioned my judgment (and perhaps sanity). The current crisis reflects the roller coaster economic impact of the pandemic. If there ever was a global disruption of severe magnitude, we have been through it. We have all had experience in managing disruptions and...
Alex Cotoia, Regulatory Manager at The Volkov Law Group, rejoins us for a post providing additional color into U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco’s recent announcement on changes to DOJ policies. Alex can be reached at [email protected]. On October 28, 2021, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco—a veteran of government service in previous Administrations and a champion of corporate accountability—announced several significant changes to...
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...
Goldman Sachs has a new leadership role – unfortunately, it is for corruption. It would be a serious mistake to characterize or describe the Goldman corruption scheme as the result of a few, bad actors. Instead, Goldman suffered this scandal because of a culture and a weak set of controls crafted to promote business with little regard for compliance. The lessons learned from this massive...
Goldman Sachs now sits atop all charts with the largest US FCPA bribery penalty, totaling approximately $2.9 billion. The second largest is Ericsson’s 2019 FCPA settlement for $1 billion. There is a reason that Goldman “earned” this distinction. The bribery scheme and controls and compliance failures are repugnant and pervasive. Goldman’s corruption scheme was built on stealing funds from the 1MDB account that was intended...
We are proud to announce the addition of a new sponsor — Blue Umbrella, a leading provider of due diligence research and innovative third-party compliance technologies. Combining global research excellence with disruptive RegTech SaaS solutions, Blue Umbrella serves multinational corporations working in technology, manufacturing, life sciences, defense/aerospace, agriculture, energy, finance, and consumer goods as well as top-tier investment banks. With a global presence and local...
Steele Webinar: Top 6 Due Diligence Best Practices Third-Party Risk Management April 16, 2020, 11 AM EST Sign Up HERE Faced with complex, global third-party networks, it’s more critical than ever for companies to have an effective strategy for evaluating and monitoring third-party risk. Without continuous monitoring and a strong anti-bribery anti-corruption (ABAC) program, companies can find themselves the target of multiple enforcement actions for...
The Microsoft FCPA settlement, while not significant in the total penalty of approximately $25 million, provides some important instructions concerning distributor and re-seller risks and mitigation strategies. Here are five important lessons learned: Discount Controls and Customer/End User Pricing: Microsoft agreed to provide significant discounts based on false justifications. Microsoft failed to confirm the justification for the discounts that permitted the bad actors to create...
