This week’s show discusses recent developments in the sphere of export controls and sanctions. Alexander Cotoia, Regulatory Compliance Manager at the Volkov Law Group, joins Michael Volkov to explore the the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) ramping up of export control enforcement, including the new restrictions on China and Russia. In early October, the BIS announced two rules imposing significant export...

Cryptocurrency companies are in trouble.  Regulators are bearing down on crypto companies with the Eye of Sauron – pulling the crypto companies into their jurisdiction, prosecuting fraud cases, and aggressively prosecuting companies for sanctions and anti-money laundering violations.  One by one you can bet that crypto companies will be in the enforcement headlines.  As they fall, policy makers can point to their continuing excesses as...

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...

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...

The Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (“OFAC”) recently announced a settlement against Cobham Holdings (and its former subsidiary Aeroflex/Metelics, Inc. (“Metelics”, a software company) for $87,507 for violations of OFAC’s Ukraine-Russia sanctions program.  (OFAC announcement here). Metelics violated the Ukraine-Russia sanctions program on three occasions between July 31, 2014 and January 15, 2015,  by selling telecommunications and computer software (3,400 switch limiters;...

Compliance officers are a much more collaborative group of professionals than lawyers.  Compliance officers share information with colleagues about compliance experiences, best practices and strategies.  The compliance industry benefits from this sharing of information. On occasion, however, this sharing of a company’s performance in one area can lead to unfair judgments by a recipient of the information.  For example, one company may conduct an in-depth...