Deutsche Bank, the infamous German bank connected to former President Trump, settled FCPA and fraud cases with the Justice Department and the SEC, and agreed to pay a total of $130 million. In this Episode, Michael Review reviews the Deutsche Bank settlement.

Corruption Crime & Compliance

Episode 183 -- Review of the Deutsche Bank FCPA and Spoofing Fraud DOJ Settlements

Four years ago, in 2016, the Antitrust Division and FTC issued guidance as to the application of antitrust laws to no-poaching and wage-fixing agreements between employers.  The guidance stated, “Going forward, the Justice Departments intends to criminally investigate naked no-poaching or wage-fixing agreements that are unrelated or unnecessary to a larger legitimate collaboration between the employers.” The Antitrust Division has now put its money where its mouth is -- announcing two importance criminal cases for no-poach and wage-fixing agreements. In this Episode, Michael Volkov discusses these important criminal prosecutions.

Episode 182 -- Antitrust Division Brings First Criminal Indictments for No-Poach and Wage-Fixing Agreements

Matt Stankiewicz, Managing Counsel, The Volkov Law Group, and Michael Volkov discuss the latest events and trends within the cryptocurrency industry. Several major enforcement actions have hit the news recently, such as the CFTC’s case against BitMEX and the SEC’s high-profile action against Ripple and its XRP cryptocurrency.  We also discuss potential regulatory movement under the Biden Administration and what may be coming in the next few years.  Finally, we touch on the latest trends surrounding Bitcoin, including Tesla’s recent purchase and others considering the same.

Episode 181 — Cryptocurrency Review: Matt Stankiewicz Discusses the SEC’s Case against Ripple, Predictions under the Biden Administration, and Bitcoin’s Corporate Surge

Jessica Sanderson, Partner, The Volkov Law Group and Michael Volkov review significant developments in the civil False Claims Act (“FCA”) area from the past year. With mind-boggling federal spending in FY 2020 and the obvious potential for fraud, abuse, and misuse of the trillions of dollars of federal stimulus funds, we undoubtedly will see a considerable increase in FCA audits, investigations, enforcement actions, qui tam lawsuits, settlements and judgments over the next 2-3 years. Jessica and Mike review 2020 trends and themes and discuss changes in enforcement under the Biden Administration.

Episode 180 -- 2020 Review of False Claims Act with Jessica Sanderson -- Partner The Volkov Law Group

President Biden has nominated Merrick Garland and Lisa Monaco to head the U.S Department of Justice.  In addition, the Biden Administration has nominated a number of strong enforcement candidates to head up various regulatory agencies.  The implications of this new team across the government will be significant on various industry sectors. Tom Fox joins Mike Volkov to discuss the new Justice Department leadership and the likely impact on enforcement and compliance.

Episode 179 -- Tom Fox and Mike Volkov Discuss the Biden Administration Enforcement Priorities

Congress enacted The Corporate Transparency Act, as part of the National Defense Authorization Act.  The CTA expands beneficial ownership disclosure requirements for US entities.  The new disclosure requirements target shell companies and small businesses to ensure disclosure beneficial ownership information. Liz Slim, Senior Counsel at The Volkov Law Group, interviews Scott Greytak from Transparency International USA, and Erica Hanichak from the FACT Coalition and review the CTA and the implications for anti-corruption and anti-money laundering enforcement.

Episode 178 - The Corporate Transparency Act: Interview of Scott Greytak, Transparency International, and Erica Hanichak, The Fact Coalition

Despite the challenges facing OFAC during the pandemic and the strain on resources, OFAC continued its dogged commitment to sanctions enforcement.  While the numbers racked up by OFAC were lower because of the pandemic, OFAC later in the year resumed its aggressive pace of sanctions enforcement.  It even released two enforcement actions during the week between Christmas and New Year’s. In this Episode, Michael Volkov reviews the 2020 OFAC sanctions enforcement action.

Episode 177 -- 2020 OFAC Sanctions Enforcement Review

The Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission had another record year of enforcement.  In fact, the last four years of FCPA enforcement included two years of record enforcement – 2019 and 2020.  After those two years, 2016, 2014, 2010 were larger enforcement years (as measured by total fines) than 2017 and 2018, the first two years of FCPA enforcement under the Trump Administration. In this Episode, Michael Volkov reviews FCPA enforcement trends for 2020.

Episode 176 -- 2020 FCPA Year in Review

The Justice Department continues to produce FCPA resolutions in a record year for enforcement.  The latest is DOJ’s settlement with Vitol, Inc. (Vitol), an energy trading company. DOJ agreed to a three-year deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) in exchange for a criminal penalty of $135 million.  One-third of the payment, or $45 million, would be credited if Vitol pays $45 million to Brazil prosecutors for resolution of the case. Vitol also agreed to a civil settlement with the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for $28.7 million, $12.7 million of which was for disgorgement.  The Vitol case represented the first coordinated FCPA enforcement action between DOJ and the CFTC. Vitol’s DOJ and Brazil settlements stem from Vitol bribery schemes in Brazil, Ecuador and Mexico.  Over a fifteen year period, Vitol paid millions of dollars in bribes to numerous public officials in Brazil, Ecuador and Mexico. In this Episode, Michael Volkov reviews Vitol's FCPA settlement and the bribery schemes.

Episode 175 -- A Deep Dive into the Vitol FCPA Settlement

Companies have to implement a sanctions compliance program (SCP). The Treasury Department Office of Foreign Asset Control’s sanctions guidance issued in May 2019 is an extraordinary document and includes numerous prescriptive requirements.  Companies ignore the SCP Guidance at their peril. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) has a robust and mature enforcement program.  Over the last few years, OFAC has successfully expanded its enforcement focus beyond the financial industry and now targets manufacturing, service and other industries. The Justice Department expects companies to voluntarily disclose potential sanctions violation where there is evidence that the violation may be willful. In this Episode, Michael Volkov reviews five basic steps companies should take to implement a sanctions compliance program.

Episode 174 -- Five Basic Steps to Implement a Sanctions Compliance Program

In a far-reaching action, the Health and Human Services – Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) issued a Special Fraud Alert underscoring the “inherent fraud and abuse risks” associated with company-sponsored speaker programs. In this Episode, Michael Volkov reviews the HHS-OIG Fraud Alert.

Episode 173 -- Review of HHS-OIG Special Fraud Alert on Speaker Programs

Brian Whisler is a long-time white collar practitioner at Baker McKenzie.  Brian joined me to discuss the new Biden Administration and the enforcement outlook from the Biden Department of Justice.  Brian has a unique perspective since he served as part of the DOJ transition in 2001 for the incoming Bush Administration. Brian has been a partner at Baker McKenzie for 12 years.  Prior to joining Baker McKenzie, Brian served for fifteen years as a federal prosecutor with the US Department of Justice. During that time, he was the Criminal Chief Assistant US Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond, overseeing and prosecuting cases ranging from white collar crime, violent crime, public corruption, and terrorism. His trial practice focused predominantly on white collar cases, including health care fraud, securities fraud, public corruption, money laundering and tax fraud. He previously served as an Assistant US Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina for ten years, where he focused on white collar prosecutions and received the Attorney General’s Award for his prosecutions in a money laundering investigation resulting in convictions of more than 25 defendants after three jury trials and multiple guilty pleas. Brian has extensive federal trial and appellate experience, having tried over 30 cases to verdict and argued more than 40 cases at the federal appellate level. He is experienced in handling a broad range of civil and criminal matters, including cases implicating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, False Claims Act, Anti-Money Laundering laws, Health Care Fraud, Securities Fraud, and Procurement Fraud. Brian has led multijurisdictional internal investigations and provided regulatory advice to multinational and domestic clients across many sectors, including oil and gas services, pharmaceuticals, financial services, manufacturing, and telecommunications. Additionally, he has developed compliance programs for Fortune 50 corporate clients, advised Boards and Audit Committees, guided companies and individuals in government investigations in multiple global jurisdictions and defended clients in criminal and civil litigation. He also represents companies and individual clients in investigations before multilateral institutions, including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, as well as the US Agency for International Development, the United Nations, and the Global Fund.

Episode 172 -- Interview of Brian Whisler on DOJ In the new Biden Administration

The Justice Department and regulatory agencies have emphasized the importance of corporate culture and the importance of ethics.  As companies approach this important issue, it is important to examine a variety of strategies to ensure that a corporate culture adheres to ethical standards. Jeffrey Tilton, CFE, a leader in the compliance field, has an interesting perspective on this issue.  In this Episode, Michael Volkov discusses the issue of culture and ethics.

Episode 171 -- Promoting Corporate Culture: Interview of Jeffrey Tilton

Beam Suntory, a global producer and distributor of distilled beverages, settled its FCPA case with DOJ for $19.5 million for bribes paid in India. The DOJ settlement follows an SEC FCPA settlement for $8 million announced on July 2, 2018.  The timing of the FCPA settlements is unusual and suggests that DOJ’s resolution involved unique issues relating to Beam Suntory’s cooperation. In this Episode, Michael Volkov reviews the FCPA settlement.

Episode 170 -- The Beam Suntory FCPA Settlement

The Department of Justice and eleven state Attorneys General filed an antitrust case against Google in the United States Court for the District of Columbia.  DOJ’s filing was hurried at the behest of the Attorney General Bill Barr, and reflects DOJ’s growing focus on high-tech businesses and monopolization conduct.  DOJ’s case joins a long list of high-profile monopolization cases, including Microsoft, AT&T and IBM.  DOJ’s filing represents the most significant antitrust enforcement action against big technology companies since DOJ’s 1998 filing against Microsoft. In this Episode, Mike Volkov reviews DOJ's case and provides relevant analysis. 

Episode 169 -- DOJ Files Antitrust Case Against Google

Michael Volkov tackles the current and hot topics in the legal realms of corruption, crime, and compliance.

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Corruption Crime & Compliance

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