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On March 5, 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced charges and a corresponding cease-and-desist order (the “Order”) with ShapeShift AG, a cryptocurrency exchange registered in Switzerland that previously operated out of Colorado. The Order notes that ShapeShift allowed its users to buy and sell
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The Department of Justice's blockbuster FCPA settlement with Gunvor restores the credibility of DOJ's pronouncements of DOJ's commitment to aggressive FCPA enforcement. While I have questioned DOJ's commitment to its corporate enforcement policy in recent high-profile settlements (ABB and SAP, in
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Gunvor's bribery scheme is not very surprising nor ingenious. After all, a number of energy trading companies have been prosecuted for bribery over the years, including Glencore, Vitol, Freepoint. Numerous individuals have been prosecuted, convicted and some have cooperated. The global energy trading market presents numerous risk factors
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You have to give the Justice Department credit -- after two slow enforcement years, DOJ is starting off 2024 with a relative "bang;" first, DOJ reached a large settlement with SAP in January, and now, DOJ has reached a blockbuster settlement with Gunvor S.A. for $661 million. Gunvor
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According to the terms of a superseding information made public by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York on or about February 13, 2024, Mauricio Gomez Baez (“Baez”)—a former Stericycle executive for Latin America—was officially charged with a single count of conspiracy
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Following an 8 week trial, a federal jury in Brooklyn has convicted Javier Aguilar on charges relating to the former Vitol trader’s violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He faces up to 30 years in prison. Aguilar bribed officials in Mexico and Ecuador to obtain contracts from their
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In the face of rapid technology changes, the Department of Justice usually has to play catch up. When cryptocurrency and blockchain entered the United States economy, the Justice Department played catch up. Fraudsters and other criminals innovate and embrace new technologies to prey on victims. The Justice Department usually catches
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In Part I, we discussed the basics behind the UK Modern Slavery Act of 2015. To briefly reiterate, that Act requires any company doing business in the UK with an annual turnover of £36 million or more to publicize their efforts in combatting modern slavery in their respective supply chains
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If you follow our blog, you’ll notice lately we’ve been writing frequently on topics related to human trafficking and modern slavery. This is no accident, as new laws and regulations related to this growing area of compliance continue to spring into existence. Lately, I’ve fielded some inquiries
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The sheer proliferation of supply chain transparency and accountability regulations at international scale itself warrants a closer look at the level of scrutiny required of organizations with complex, multi-faceted, global, and increasingly interconnected, supply chains. Legislation as varied as the German Supply Chain Act, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention
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On February 28, 2024, President Biden issued a new Executive Order in order to better secure the private data of U.S. citizens from being exploited by foreign adversaries of the United States. By issuing his Executive Order on Preventing Access to Americans’ Bulk Sensitive Personal Data and United States
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On Tuesday, February 20, 2024, Michael Volkov and Alexander Cotoia participated in a virtual roundtable hosted by Diligent Institute as part of a monthly series dedicated to providing updates to those who have availed themselves of Diligent's well-reputed certification programs for senior corporate officers and directors. As