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I am excited to announce the opening of The Volkov Group Law Firm, with offices in the Washington, D.C. and San Diego, California areas. My practice will continue to focus on white collar defense, corporate compliance, internal investigations, corporate governance, government relations, litigation and regulatory enforcement. My thirty years
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If you want to do business with the government, watch out – the federal government imposes a lot of strings when handing out business. Compliance officers face a wide array of requirements which can quickly turn into headaches, government investigations, threats of debarment and suspension, and even criminal prosecutions. Government contractors
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When Judge Sporkin, the father of the FCPA, assisted Senator William Proxmire in the drafting of the FCPA, he advised Senator Proxmire that a “books and records” provision was all that was needed to address the problem of foreign bribery. As Judge Sporkin has stated publicly, he thought a bribery
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The UK Bribery Act is still on the books – and there is very little enforcement action to report. Instead, we are treated to new personnel, policies and practices surrounding the UK Bribery Act, which so far has not amounted to a hill of beans. I do not mean to denigrate
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Companies need to spend more time critically evaluating their own governance performance. Corporate governance weaknesses inexorably cause poor corporate performance and can result in compliance breakdowns. It is hard to turn corporate focus to governance issues. Corporate leaders are reluctant to admit “weaknesses” and agree to the need for change.
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It is a profound grasp of the obvious to state that internal investigations are risky. There are so many things that can go wrong when conducting an internal investigation. I am biased and believe that former federal prosecutors are fully capable of navigating these risks. They have experience in conducting
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The Justice Department and the Department of Health and Human Services have made healthcare fraud a number one priority – it is another example of the synergy of politics and enforcement. Congress spends more money on prosecution resources and prosecutors use these resources to bring more criminal and civil enforcement actions.
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Companies face a lot of risks these days in this enforcement environment. With the reelection of President Obama, businesses need to plan for four more years of continuing enforcement risks. While everyone appears to be spending time on FCPA enforcement and compliance, companies need to spend more time in protecting
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The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is a new, imposing figure in the world of financial regulatory enforcement. As originally created, FinCEN served as an information and intelligence support system for other regulatory agencies and federal prosecutors. That all changed in 2004 when Congress mandated that FinCEN create an Office
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In the midst of all this hullabaloo about the FCPA Guidance, an important survey was recently released by Kroll which confirmed my worst fears – despite all of the enforcement actions, all of the FCPA Paparazzi fear mongering, the implementation of the UK Bribery Act, and the global anti-corruption movement,
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The FCPA Guidance could not have been clearer; it could not have offered more incentives and carrots to the business community. If you adopt and implement an “effective” compliance program, you will receive significant credit for your program which can reduce a penalty, avoid a corporate monitor, or even secure
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The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in a decision issued on December 3, 2012, in United States v. Caronia, threw out a criminal conviction of the defendant Alfred Caronia, a pharmaceutical sales person, for an off-label marketing violation, ruling that the prosecution violated the First Amendment.