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In the aftermath of the New York Times investigative reporting, one thing is clear -- Big is not necessarily better. What do I mean by that? You can take all the compliance resources you want, throw them at a problem and come up with zilch on the compliance front. The message
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It is difficult enough to serve on a corporate board. It is not a job for the weak stomached. Corporate boards have faced unprecedented risks. Aside from general board duties, regulators are increasing scrutiny of board committees, especially audit committees. In the early 2000s, audit committees were under the microscope
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The FCPA paparazzi has a standard list of anti-corruption risks: government interactions, third-party due diligence, gifts and entertainment, and mergers and acquisitions/joint ventures. Notice that charitable giving is not included on that list of greatest hits. Gifts to charities can be a clever disguise of an improper
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The FCPA paparazzi is at it again. FCPA bloggers and white collar defense counsel are hyper-ventilating on the future of DOJ’s criminal FCPA prosecutions. Exagerration is now the commodity of marketing on the blogosphere. The government’s dismissal of the Africa Sting cases is a setback to the
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If you look closely at the list of FCPA enforcement actions, a large percentage of FCPA violations have focused on illegal payments made to secure customs clearance. This is not surprising. The equities facing a company can be very risky – customs clearance is a bottleneck critical to the company; and
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I have been reluctant to join the debate over a corporate compliance defense to FCPA violations. I would like to count Tom Fox, Mike Koehler and Howard Sklar among my friends. I also have a lot of respect for them. They each have weighed in on the issue of a
Events
World Compliance is sponsoring the FCPA Spring Tour -- Join me and Tom Fox in San Francisco on April 26, and in Dallas on April 27. Tom and I will review recent FCPA enforcement actions and provide practical solutions to compliance issues. We hope you can make it. The details for
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Just a reminder that my book is still available on Amazon!!! My mentor and friend, Judge Stanley Sporkin, the 'father of the FCPA,' wrote the foreword. "Michael Volkov’s book is a compilation of articles on a number of subjects important to advising clients how to stay
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Have the latest posts on Corruption Crime & Compliance delivered to your mailbox. No need to travel on the Internet. It will be delivered to you immediately when posted. The email sign up is on the lower right hand side of the blog. Just enter your email address and you
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The UK’s Financial Services Authority has sent a warning shot to investment banks – big and small. In a blistering report, the FSA outlined a number of deficiencies in ABC compliance by investment banks. Given the close working relationship between the US and UK, the Justice Department and the SEC
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The SEC’s long and tortured Theodore Urban case finally came to an end when the Commission reversed the ALJ’s decision and dismissed the case. Since the case was brought, the SEC has made public statements to try and clarify how it intends to enforce supervisor liability. Recently, SEC
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Everyone likes to focus on how to conduct an internal investigation. In the face of the new SEC whistleblower law and regulations, companies need to design a system to assess and respond to an initial allegation of a corruption violation. Not all complaints are equal – indeed, most allegations have little