Tagged: export controls

30 Oct, 2022

DOJ Charges Two Companies and A Dozen Individuals for Export Control and Sanctions Violations to Aid Russian Military

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...

General

28 Jul, 2022

Commerce Department Tacks to New Aggressive Enforcement Program

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) has decided to join the enforcement club. BIS’s recent announcement of new policies to administrative actions should not be surprising. Matthew Axelrod, the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Enforcement, promised to ramp up enforcement during his confirmation hearings. The Biden Administration has promised an increase in regulatory enforcement, and there is no question that enforcement...

General

27 Jul, 2022

DC Circuit Court Rejects Federal Express Challenge to Civil Liability for Violations of Export Regulations

The D.C Circuit Court of Appeals sits in a unique position as the primary reviewing court for federal government agency actions. As a result, the D.C. Circuit sits in a high-profile position and several judges have eventually ended up at the Supreme Court. Given the rising importance and enforcement of export sanctions and controls, the D.C. Circuit Court is addressing important issues on appeal relating...

General

12 Jan, 2022

2022 Ethics and Compliance Predictions

Choose to be optimistic. It feels better.” – Dalai Lama Forgive me for my optimism. It is the only way to live a meaningful life. Or as some would say – being a pessimist is too much of a burden. We begin a New Year — and I am optimistic. To turn the corner here on relevance, ethics and compliance professionals, are by definition, optimists. Give...

General

21 Oct, 2021

An Aggressive Export Control Enforcement Program: The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security

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...

General

9 Apr, 2020

Videoconferencing and Export Controls

Janet Longo, Regulatory Compliance Analyst at The Volkov Law Group, joins us for a posting on videoconferencing and compliance export controls. Janet can be reached at [email protected]. As the Covid-19 virus is proliferating, so is the practice of conducting business through videoconferencing from home. While many commentators have discussed the serious data privacy and security problems associated with video conferencing, we’ve been thinking about the...

General

22 Jan, 2019

Merging Trade Compliance and Ethics and Compliance Silos

Business operations can be riddled with inefficiencies. It is easy to spot them inside a company. The same rule applies to ethics and compliance programs. Given a specific global business configuration, ethics and compliance programs have to be designed efficiently to support the business. For some reason, a number of compliance programs have been built with two separate silos – one for trade compliance and...