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OFAC is definitely off to a fast start this year – it recently announced its fourth enforcement action for 2019. So far, OFAC has collected over $7 million in civil penalties. While this may not appear to be a lot of money in civil penalties, it is important to remember the
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In January 2019, the Justice Department brought an interesting FCPA prosecution involving a Hawaii-based businessman, Frank James Lyon, and Master Halbert, a government official from Micronesia. DOJ’s prosecution was interesting for two significant reasons – first, it was another example of DOJ enforcement efforts against the payor of the
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The Department of Justice has launched two separate criminal cases against Huawei China, the controversial Chinese telecommunications equipment provider. For years, US government officials have questioned the ownership, control and practices of Huawei, claiming that it is owned by the Chinese government and acting as an agent for Chinese interests.
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OFAC continues to pile up enforcement actions for sanctions violations. In yet another example of a failure of companies to address compliance, to follow up on compliance and to ensure ultimate compliance, AppliChem, a German company agreed to pay $5.5 million for 304 violations of the Cuban Assets Control
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A basic compliance program control, which is often overlooked (or assumed to exist), is the requirement that a chief compliance officer and/or chief legal officer have the authority to stop a specific contract or business transaction. To simplify this statement, compliance and legal have to approve certain business transactions
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Noah Smith, Associate at The Volkov Law Group, rejoins us for an interesting blog posting on the compliance challenges for financial institutions and other businesses involved in legal marijuana transactions. Noah can be reached at nsmith@volkovlaw.com. The quasi-legal status of marijuana in today’s United States is
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The Cognizant FCPA enforcement action will go down as a problematic resolution for the policy reasons mentioned in my last post. Putting those concerns aside, there are some important lessons learned and observations that should be examined. Credit for Pre-Existing Compliance Program: From a compliance perspective, DOJ’s declination
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It's easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled. -- Mark Twain The only difference between reality and fiction is that fiction needs to be credible. -- Mark Twain We live in an era where credibility and truthfulness are character values that are often challenged, questioned
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The Cognizant bribery scheme is another in the line of illegal conspiracies orchestrated by senior management – but this one is even more disturbing for a number of reasons. Cognizant’s former president and general counsel directed the scheme in full consultation and with full knowledge and intent with the chief
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Tom Fox and I discuss the recent FCPA enforcement action involving Cognizant Technologies. Cognizant settled FCPA violations with the SEC for approximately $25 million, received a declination from the Justice Department under the FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy, and Cognizant's former president and general counsel were indicted for criminal
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In the first corporate FCPA action of 2019, Cognizant Technology Solutions Company settled its long-running FCPA case, agreeing to pay the SEC $25 million. (SEC Settlement Here). At the same time, the Justice Department announced: (1) its declination under the FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy (Here); and (2) the indictment
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What a difference a year makes -- The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (“OFAC”) announced two sanctions settlements in the beginning of 2019, a stark difference from 2018 when OFAC announced its first enforcement action in June 2018. ELF Cosmetics On January 31, 2019, OFAC announced a $996,