Hui Chen, the Department of Justice’s Compliance Counsel, recently stated that 2015 was the year of due diligence and third-party compliance. A recent survey conducted by Kroll and Ethisphere provided a status check on how the due diligence compliance effort is going. Many companies have heard the message about the importance of due diligence compliance and instituted due diligence systems, hopefully using automated programs. Companies...

Akin to politics (to a smaller degree), there is a fair amount of disinformation, some call it bloviating, put out by the FCPA Paparazzi. Some of this disinformation is motivated by immature attempts to “market” legal services; other sources of disinformation carry a readily apparent bias, one way or the other, and usually are supported by self-citations to one’s own “scholarship” to prove their points....

Last week, the SEC announced another FCPA settlement involving the pharmaceutical industry for bribery in China. The SEC’s settlement filing represents yet another example of the pharmaceutical industry run amok in China, relying on targeted gifts, meals, entertainment and travel expenditures designed to increase sales of Novartis products in China. Novartis had to cough up $25 million. The Novartis enforcement action, however, provides an important...

All generalizations are false, including this one — Mark Twain Proving intent is a difficult task. White collar crimes turn on the issue of intent – what was in the offender’s mind. With most things in life, people have mixed motivations. On occasion, however, it is very clear to understand an actor’s intent. Prosecutors cull through evidence looking for indications, signs of motivation, and ultimately...

Volkov Law TV offers a subscription-based  webinar service that allows you to watch over 50 recorded webinars on a variety of compliance and enforcement topics, including FCPA, Antitrust, False Claims Act, Sanctions, Risk Assessments, Internal investigations, Interviewing Techniques and a host of other important subjects. As an example, I recently conducted a webinar, Compliance Pointers from Recent FCPA Enforcement Actions. If you want to watch...

FCPA enforcement actions run the gamut of fact patterns and structured resolutions. We are in the midst of a transformation in the overall settlement environment with an expected increase in individual prosecutions. On the one side, we have a tough and comprehensive DOJ and SEC settlement against VimpelCom. The conduct within VimpelCom was pervasive and occurred at every level of the company, including the board....

Volkov Law TV continues to offer high-quality webinars on relevant.  Over the last 9 months we have added a number of new webinars.  Subscribe and check them out.  Monthly access to a webinar is $8; monthly access to the full library is $29; and yearly access to all of the webinars is $299.  Click Here to Sign Up Now. Watch the webinars when you want...

Medical device and pharmaceutical companies know the risks of conducting business in China. Company after company has had to settle FCPA enforcement actions in China. Many of these enforcement actions include fact patterns that are pretty consistent. At the heart of these bribery cases are distributors who are used to funnel bribery payments to healthcare professionals. The expectations and modes of operation are fairly consistent...

When compliance officers read about a major Justice Department settlement action, we can all hear the collective sigh of relief – “Thank goodness, that did not happen here in my company.” The recent Olympus settlement is another in a long line of cases where any shred of corporate culture of integrity has been replaced with a culture of bribery and kickbacks, or other kids of...

The VimpelCom FCPA settlement underscored the importance of Compliance 2.0 and the need to reform board deliberations and governance. No one can read the facts without shaking their heads and asking – what was the VimpelCom board thinking? The VimpelCom board’s failure to act reflects the key driving force inside the corporate boardroom – defense. When a company is not being led by the board...