Tag: Donald Trump

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Regulatory Ramblings

Regulatory Ramblings: Episode 65 – The Trump Administration’s Decision to Halt FCPA Enforcement – The Implications for Asia and the World with  Tom Fox, Malcolm Nance, and Philip Rohlik 

This episode discusses the recent executive order signed by US President Donald J. Trump instructing the Department of Justice to halt enforcement of the decades-old, much-dreaded Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) pending a one-year review. In our initial “Regulatory Ramblings Spotlight” segment, we speak with Philip Rohlik, an American attorney in mainland China with the law firm Debevoise & Plimpton, to get a sense of what the president’s decision means for Hong Kong and the broader Asia-Pacific.

Following that, we have a longer chat on the global implications of President Trump’s move with Tom Fox, a veteran compliance and anti-corruption lawyer, noted FCPA specialist, and podcaster, and Malcolm Nance, a former US naval intelligence officer, counterterrorism specialist, and author.

Philip Rohlik

Philip Rohlik is counsel in Debevoise & Plimpton LLP’s Shanghai office. He is a member of the firm’s White Collar & Regulatory Defense and International Dispute Resolution Groups, and his practice focuses on international investigations, securities law, and dispute resolution. He is recognized by “The Legal 500 Asia Pacific—Greater China” (2024-2025) for his anti-corruption and compliance practice and has been described as “very thorough, “hands-on,” and “excellent investigation lawyer.”

Based in Asia since 2011, Philip leads the firm’s dispute resolution team in Shanghai. He joined Debevoise in 2000, having received his J.D. Magna Cumlaude from the New York University School of Law that same year. He received a B.A. Summa Cum Laude with honors from St. Louis University in 1997.

Tom Fox

Tom Fox is based in West Texas and is a prominent member of the compliance community and one of the most well-known legal practitioners regarding the FCPA. Over the past 15 years, he has been a general counsel and chief compliance officer. He is now an independent consultant, assisting companies with anti-corruption, anti-bribery compliance, and international transaction issues.

He is also the author of the award-winning FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog and the international best-selling book Lessons Learned on Compliance and Ethics. His podcasts have won numerous W3, Davey, Communicator, and Webby awards for podcasting excellence.

Tom is the author of the seminal text “The Compliance Handbook,” now in its 5th edition published by LexisNexis. In addition to his blog and podcast, he is a columnist for “Corporate Compliance Insights” and a contributing editor to the “FCPA Blog.” He is a well-known and frequent speaker on compliance and ethics issues, social media use, and corporate leadership.

Malcolm Nance

Malcolm Nance is based in upstate New York. He is a 20-year veteran of the US Navy, where he was an intelligence officer, cryptographer, and Russian and Arab language specialist. As a master chief, he was responsible for discipline throughout the ranks.
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He is best known for his appearances on MSNBC, where he warned about Russian interference in the run-up to the 2016 and 2020 US Presidential elections. Malcolm is also a best-selling author, with his books “The Plot to Hack America,” “The Plot to Destroy Democracy,” “The Plot to Betray America,” and most recently “They Want to Kill Americans,” all of which are well worth reading. Given the radical actions of the second Trump administration, his two most recent books seem eerily prescient. You can discover more from Malcolm at his Substack and his “Black Man Spy” podcast on YouTube.

Discussion:

Three weeks after returning to the White House, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on February 10 directing the Justice Department to pause prosecutions of Americans accused of bribing foreign government officials while trying to win or retain business in their countries.

Trump’s order pauses enforcement of the nearly half-century-old Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to review current and past actions related to the law and prepare new guidelines for enforcement.

The law, enacted in 1977, prohibits companies that operate in the United States from bribing foreign officials. Over time, it has become a guiding force for how American businesses operate overseas.

“It’s going to mean a lot more business for America,” Trump told reporters while signing the order in the Oval Office at the signing.

Interestingly enough, Trump wanted to strike down the FCPA during his first term in office, calling it a “horrible law” and claiming it made the US the subject of the world’s ridicule and derision.

Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International said the FCPA made the US a world leader in addressing corruption.

Trump’s executive order “minimizes—and could pave the way for eliminating—the crown jewel in the U.S.’s fight against global corruption,” Gary Kalman, executive director of Transparency International US, said in a statement.

The White House factsheet said that in 2024, the Justice Department and the Securities Exchange Commission filed 26 FCPA-related enforcement actions, and by year-end, at least 31 companies were under investigation.

In the initial segment, Philip Rohlik chats with “Regulatory Ramblings” host Ajay Shamdasani about what the Trump administration’s actions will mean for the fight against bribery and corruption in Hong Kong, Greater China, and APAC writ large. They discuss the possibility that with less FCPA enforcement, the UK Bribery Act (2010) might fill the void to some extent, while acknowledging that the British Serious Fraud Office lacks the resources of the USDOJ to make extraterritorial enforcement a reality.

Philip also shares his advice on what he would tell compliance officers and in-house/general counsel at banking or financial institutions or major corporations in Hong Kong, Singapore, or Beijing. Hint: Now is not the time to relax.

We then turn to the longer conversation portion of the broadcast, where we examine some of the more global, macro-level effects of President Trump’s recent executive order.

Tom and Malcolm shared their visceral responses when they first heard the announcement that the administration would halt FCPA enforcement. Tom asks why Trump took so long because he had raised similar concerns during his first term (2017-21).

They share their concerns about what it will mean for the global fight against bribery and corruption while acknowledging the limitations of the UK Bribery Act. Still, mainland China’s anti-corruption legislation is worth considering as well.

The conversation concludes with Malcolm and Tom advising the legal and compliance professionals serving financial firms and multinational corporations in Asia, the Middle East, and the world more generally. They concur that now is not the time to slack off regarding anti-graft efforts.

They conclude that the FCPA is still a powerful tool. Given the current president’s vindictive and transactional nature, we might expect selective enforcement of the Act under his administration. Indeed, given past experience, it might be inevitable.

Regulatory Ramblings podcasts is brought to you by The University of Hong Kong – Reg/Tech Lab, HKU-SCF Fintech Academy, Asia Global Institute, and HKU-edX Professional Certificate in Fintech, with support from the HKU Faculty of Law.

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Regulatory Ramblings

Regulatory Ramblings: Episode 61 – Extraterritorial Enforcement of US Laws in Asia Under Trump in 2025  / Hong Kong’s New Stablecoin Bill with Ben Hammond and Ross Feingold 

In the first part of our inaugural broadcast of 2025, we’ll speak with lawyer and analyst Ross Feingold on the extraterritorial enforcement of US laws and regulations in the Asia-Pacific region as President Donald Trump returns to the White House on January 20. We’ll follow up on that with a chat with Hong Kong-based lawyer Ben Hammond about the city’s forthcoming Stablecoin law.

Ross Feingold is Head of Research at Caerus Consulting, a consultancy that advises clients on worldwide risk management. Admitted to practice law in New York and Washington, DC, he was previously an in-house counsel at the Royal Bank of Scotland, Deutsche Bank, and J.P. Morgan. Ross has lived in Asia for over twenty years—including in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taipei—and speaks fluent Mandarin.

He is also a lecturer and political analyst, a director of the Paris-based Association of American Residents Overseas, and, during his Hong Kong days, the Asia chairman of Republicans Abroad.

In this episode of Regulatory Ramblings, Ross speaks with host Ajay Shamdasani about the extraterritorial enforcement of US laws and regulations under the Trump administration, including sanctions and trade tariffs, with an eye toward the Asia-Pacific region.

With Donald Trump set to return to power shortly, many in this region are jittery about how he’ll handle his second time in the Oval Office. It’s an open question whether or not the Trump administration will increase legal and compliance costs for firms in Asia.

In the run-up to last November’s election, the president-elect threatened 60% tariffs on Chinese goods. He has since followed up by saying he would issue the first of “many” executive orders, including a 10% tariff on Chinese exports.

Worse still, President Trump threatened the BRICS nations should they move to undermine or dump the US dollar for trade purposes.

Ross shares his views on what the region’s banking and financial institutions and multinational corporations should expect from the new administration on the overseas enforcement front, including sanctions related to Iran and Russia and the ongoing chip and technology war between the US and China.

Reflecting on his experience as an in-house lawyer at some of the world’s most renowned banks, he also offers some suggestions for what general counsel and compliance officers in the region’s financial sector, especially, should be cognizant of when preparing for what the next iteration of the Trump administration might dish out.

A big part of that is Trump’s threat to take action against the BRICS nations should they undermine the role of the US dollar in international trade. While the greenback isn’t going away anytime soon, it’s unclear to what degree Trump will carry forward with his admonition.

Ben Hammond is the managing partner of the law firm Ashurst in Hong Kong. In this episode, he articulates his views on the city’s new Stablecoin Bill, which was gazetted on December 6, 2024, and had its first reading before the territory’s Legislative Council on December 18.

Hongkongers are getting closer to experiencing the many applications of stablecoins, from domestic payments to cross-border trade settlements as a bill covering the digital currency winds its way through the Legislative Council.

The Hong Kong government’s proposed Stablecoins Bill is approaching becoming law as the city seeks to balance financial stability and consumer protection while advancing its virtual assets agenda.

Stablecoins are digital assets issued by private entities that maintain a fixed value relative to a government-issued fiat currency or other reference rate. Generally, they have served as a bridge for transactions involving digital assets on blockchains, which cannot directly interact with fiat currencies.
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Potential uses of stablecoins could include automating incentives, rebates, or loyalty points in digital wallets, like the Octopus program, by using their programmability or the ability to input rules and data in the blockchain.
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Additionally, stablecoins can provide access to new investment avenues like tokenized funds, which use the blockchain for sales and redemptions, where assets under management are expected to climb to about US$600 billion in seven years from US$2 billion at the end of this year, according to a report from Aptos Labs, Boston Consulting Group, and Invesco.

Ben is also a partner in Ashurst’s financial services regulatory group, where he leads its non-contentious regulatory practice in the territory. He advises clients on a broad range of transactional and non-transactional regulatory areas.
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With his extensive expertise in digital economy matters, Ben has advised clients across various regulatory areas. Most notably, in February 2023, he advised Goldman Sachs on using its tokenization platform, GS DAP™, to issue an HK$800 million tokenized green bond for the Hong Kong government—it was the first tokenized green bond issued by a government globally.
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In February 2024, Ben led a team supporting HSBC as the platform provider to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority—the city’s banking regulator and de facto central bank—on the world’s first multi-currency “digitally native” bond offering.
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Ben discusses his professional background and how he first became involved with digital assets. He delineates what to expect from the Special Administrative Region’s new stablecoin bill, why it is important, how it will move the industry forward, and why it took so long.

He also shares what the bill will mean from a regulatory perspective for legal, compliance, and risk staff at institutions dealing in such instruments and what value he believes lawyers add in such technology-oriented matters when most of them are not technically trained.

Regulatory Ramblings podcasts is brought to you by The University of Hong Kong – Reg/Tech Lab, HKU-SCF Fintech Academy, Asia Global Institute, and HKU-edX Professional Certificate in Fintech, with support from the HKU Faculty of Law.

Useful links in this episode:

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Everything Compliance

Everything Compliance – Episode 110, The Bayeux Tapestry Edition

Welcome to the only roundtable podcast in compliance as we celebrate our second century of shows. Everything Compliance has been honored by W3 as the top talk show in podcasting. In this episode, we have the quintet of Jay Rosen, Jonathan Armstrong, Jonathan Marks, Tom Fox, and Matt Kelly, who discuss a potpourri of issues. We conclude with our fan-fav Shout Outs and Rants section.

  1. Matt Kelly at the SEC enforcement action against McDonald’s for giving disgraced former President Steve Easterbrook a severance package without explaining its reasons. He rants about the Department of Justice CCO certification requirement for Danske Bank.
  1. Jonathan Marks reviews the Fraud Pentagon and explains the additions of arrogance and convenience to the Fraud Pentagon. He Rants about the recent FAA failure, which crippled the US airline industry.
  1. Tom Fox has his first dual shout-out. His first shout-out is to US District Judge Middleton for sanctioning Donald Trump and his lawyer, jointly and severally, for $938,000 and the recently deceased musician David Crosby.
  1. Jonathan Armstrong looks at the NIS II Directive. He rants about the Tory proposed law against publicizing small boats that would make showing or even talking about the Bayeux Tapestry illegal.
  1. Jay Rosen looks at when and how is a compliance program ‘good enough.’ He shouts out to the NFL for the playoffs and for getting us the best four teams in the final four.

The members of Everything Compliance are:

  • Jay Rosen– Jay is Vice President, Business Development Corporate Monitoring at Affiliated Monitors. Rosen can be reached at JRosen@affiliatedmonitors.com
  • Karen Woody – One of the top academic experts on the SEC. Woody can be reached at kwoody@wlu.edu
  • Matt Kelly – Founder and CEO of Radical Compliance. Kelly can be reached at mkelly@radicalcompliance.com
  • Jonathan Armstrong –is our UK colleague, who is an experienced data privacy/data protection lawyer with Cordery in London. Armstrong can be reached at armstrong@corderycompliance.com
  • Jonathan Marks is Partner, Firm Practice Leader – Global Forensic, Compliance & Integrity Services at Baker Tilly. Marks can be reached at marks@bakertilly.com

The host and producer, ranter (and sometime panelist) of Everything Compliance is Tom Fox, the Voice of Compliance. He can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com. Everything Compliance is a part of the Compliance Podcast Network.