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...

Companies interact with a large number of entities in the outside world – customers, third party intermediaries and vendors and suppliers to name the most significant ones. These relationships are the lifeblood of a company. In today’s world, companies have to know with whom they are dealing – not just the name of the company, not just the officers of the company, but the natural...

Forgive me for overusing the term “convergence” but when the shoe fits, I say “wear it.”   If you are managing corporate risks and are responsible for securing export licenses, ensuring that you are complying with OFAC sanctions requirements, interacting with customs and immigration officials around the globe, and conducting third party due diligence to onboard a new agent or distributor, there is no question that...

The D.C. Circuit dealt a blow last week to judicial attempts to exercise supervision over Justice Department negotiated Deferred Prosecution Agreements. In United States v. Fokker (Here), the Court answered the question in a resounding affirmation  of the authority of prosecutors to resolve criminal cases and exercise discretion in charging decisions. In the end, the court’s decision was not a great surprise but the strength...

Financial institutions have been pushing back hard on FinCEN’s proposal to require banks, investment banks and other financial institutions to identify beneficial owners of account holders. As time goes on the impact of FinCEN’s proposal is diminishing. Why? In general, businesses have other reasons to secure beneficial ownership information. One key concern is sanctions compliance. To the extent an account holder engages in international transactions,...

Putting aside the politics surrounding the Iran Nuclear Deal, the exchange of prisoners and other hot button political issues surrounding Implementation Day and the change in US-Iran relations, the new Iran sanctions create a new set of challenges for trade compliance officers. Talk about a headache — all you have to do is look at the new guidance, Frequently Asked Questions, and related documentation (Here)....

Webinar: 2016 Year in Review:  AML and Sanctions Enforcement Tuesday, January 19, 2016, 12 Noon EST Sign Up Here The Justice Department and the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control had another strong year in AML and Sanctions enforcement. With ever-changing sanctions programs, and vigilant AML enforcement, businesses now face significant risks of civil and criminal enforcement. Sanctions enforcement has stretched beyond financial institutions...

Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $258 million and fire six employees to resolve a New York and Federal Reserve investigation for sanctions violations from 1999 to 2006. The settlement is big news but ignores three key players who are continuing to investigate Deutsche Bank: the Justice Department; the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”); and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Deutsche Bank has...

The Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control continues to ramp up sanctions enforcement. Even with the likely relaxation of the Iran and Cuba sanctions, OFAC has been continuing its aggressive enforcement program. Thus far, OFAC has collected approximately $270 million in civil penalties, and participated in several major criminal investigations, including Commerzbank and Schlumberger. Commerzbank agreed to pay a total of $1.45 billion...