Tag: FCPA

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FCPA Compliance Report

Episode 457-James Koukios on October MoFo’s International Anti-corruption developments

In the Episode, I visit with James Koukios, a partner at Morrison and Foerster in Washington DC. Koukios is a former prosecutor from the Department of Justice who worked in the FCPA Unit. He is back to discuss the firm’s monthly newsletter the Top 10 International Anti-Corruption Developments for October 2019.
Some of the highlights include:

  • The DOJ Issues Guidance on Corporate Inability-to-Pay Claims. We consider is this something new or codification of prior practices?
  • The Unaoil guilty pleas. Are they huge, even bigger than Panalpina?
  • The EU whistleblower initiative. Is this a sea change or something else? What might it mean for anticorruption enforcement?
  • OECD Expresses Concern over Brazil’s Foreign Bribery Enforcement. Has there been a change in Brazil enforcement or is this simply a part of the natural ebb and flow of enforcement actions?
  • Are things really going to heat up in Mexico in terms of investigations involving Pemex? Should US companies which have done business in Mexico be scrubbing their operations?

Resources
To see the firm’s Top 10 International Anti-Corruption Developments for October 2019, click here.

Categories
Compliance Into the Weeds

Ericsson from the Internal Controls Perspective

Compliance into the Weeds is the only weekly podcast which takes a deep dive into a compliance related topic, literally going into the weeds to more fully explore a subject. In this episode, Matt Kelly and I go into the weeds about the Ericsson FCPA enforcement action from the internal controls perspective.
Some of the highlights include:

  • What does this enforcement action tell up about internal controls?
  • How were the business units able to evade internal controls for so long?
  • Was there control override?
  • What is the role of ERP systems such as Oracle and SAP in compliance?
  • If a company refuses to use standard ERP systems, is that a control failure under the FCPA?
  • What are the lessons learned for a corporate compliance program?
  • What does all this mean for compliance professionals going forward?

Resources
Tom’s blog posts, both the FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog.
Part 1-Overview
Part 2-The Bribery Schemes

Categories
Daily Compliance News

November 25, 2019, the Another FCPA Guilty Verdict edition

In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

  • Another guilty verdict in FCPA trial. (WSJ)
  • Samsung guility of FCPA violations, pays $75MM and gets DPA. (DOJ Press Release)
  • Tyler Swift calls out Carlyle Group over Scooter Braun imbroglio. (NYT)
  • Corruption protests in Colombia. (Independent)
Categories
Daily Compliance News

November 23, 2019, the Bribery is Just Tipping edition

In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

  • Maybe Hoskins should have used this defense “Bribing is just tipping”. (Law360)
  • Work for WeWork, T—S—, unless of course you are Adam Neumann. (NYT)
  • Mother was right, “Don’t Lie”. Former Och-Ziff exec sentenced to prison for lying to FBI. (WSJ)
  • Banks snubbed on Aramco IPO. (FT)
Categories
This Week in FCPA

Episode 181-the Fishy Letters edition

SEC Chair Jay Clayton is reduced to having a PR firm create fake investor comments to support a SEC rule change. The Astros cheating scandal gets worse. As Tom worries MLB might take away his replica World Series Championship Trophy and Jay consoles him about when a team cheats and wins, they turn to some other of this week’s top compliance and ethics stories which caught their collective eyes.

  1. Using the same defense as Hoskins, Boustani admits bribery and corruption in Mozambique Tuna Boat case. Will it work out any better for him? Steward Bishop and Frank Runyeon in Law360. (Sub Req’d)
  2. SEC whistleblower tips go down for the first time. Kristen Broughton in the WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal. Kevin LaCroix sees it otherwise, on the D&O Diary.
  3. Jay Clayton gins up fake written comments to support regulation change. Zachary Mider and Ben Elgin report in Bloomberg.
  4. Former Keppel Offshore lawyer sentenced to time served. Dick Cassin reports in the FCPA Blog.
  5. Why punishing the bribe takers is equally important as punishing the bribe payors? Matthew Stephenson explains it all in the Global Anti-Corruption Blog.  
  6. Does an aggressive position in a Wells submission hurt a company in a SEC enforcement action? Lawyers from Simpson Thatcher explore in NYU’s Compliance and Enforcement Blog.
  7. What is ‘enforcement fatigue’ and how did Alstom overcome it? Dylan Tokar reports in the WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal.
  8. of Treasury bringing more sanctions cases against shipping companies. Kristin Broughton reports in the WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal.
  9. What will risk and compliance look like in 2020? David Banks considers in Navex Global’s Ethics & Compliance Matters blog.
  10. How does M&A benefit from an independent assessment? Jay continues his series on CCI.
  11. What are the implications of Gen Z on the front lines of compliance? Gaurov Kapoor explores in CCI.
  12. Recent FCPA enforcement actions shows the SEC will use FCPA Accounting Provisions to hold a company liable for ineffective AML controls. Clay Porter in the National Law Review.
  13. Navex’s Loren Johnson joins the podcast to talk about Navex Global’s 2020 Benchmarking Survey.You can participate in Navex Global’s annual survey by clicking here.

Tom Fox is the Compliance Evangelist and can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com. Jay Rosen is Mr. Monitor and can be reached at jrosen@affiliatedmonitors.com.
For more information on how an independent monitor can help improve your company’s ethics and compliance program, visit our sponsor Affiliated Monitors at www.affiliatedmonitors.com.

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Why a Duck

Coconuts and SEC Year End FCPA Enforcement Actions

From Vaudeville to the Silver Screen to the Small Screen, the Marx Brothers made an impact wherever people found them. Now Tom Fox and Mike Volkov have wedded their love of the Marx Brothers with their passion for compliance and bring them into the boardroom to help explain and explore the sometimes-chaotic world of governance, risk-management, ethics and compliance. In this episode they discuss the movie Coconuts and how it informs the three SEC fiscal year end FCPA enforcement actions.  Highlights from the podcast include:

  1. What can we learn from Quad/Graphics and sham 3rd parties?
  2. Beware of over expansion without appropriate FCPA controls.
  3. Why does control override inform the enforcement action involving Westport Fuels Systems?
  4. The M&A implications of Westport Fuels Systems?
  5. Why does the Barclays FCPA enforcement action get back to FCPA basics?
  6. How effective is your training program?

Resources
From Tom Fox

  1. Westport Fuels
  2. Barclays
  3. Quad/Graphics

From Mike Volkov

  1. Barclays
  2. Quad Graphics

Marx Brothers
Coconuts-the full movie on YouTube.

Categories
This Week in FCPA

Episode 180 – the Hoskins is Guilty edition

The fallout from the Hoskins guilty verdict still resonates. Tom and Jay reflect upon it, what it means to play by the rules and then turn to some other of this week’s top compliance and ethics stories which caught their collective eyes.

  1. Hoskins found guility. Dylan Tokar reports in WSJ. Dick Cassin the FCPA Blog. Tom and Mike Volkov consider in the FCPA Compliance Report. How the verdict bolsters the DOJ, in GIR.
  2. Astros accused by ex-player of cheating in 2017 Championship season. David Schonenfield breaks down sign-stealing in com. Michael Rosenberg reports in Si.com. Buster Olney says the Astros cannot be trusted to investigation themselves, in ESPN.com. Tom weighs in on the FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog.
  3. How do you balance perception based culture with fact based compliance? Anna Romberg in Navex Global’s Ethics & Compliance Matters blog.
  4. Twists and turns in the Cognizant case. Bill Wichert in Law360. (sub req’d)
  5. What can WeWork teach us about private company compliance. Erica Salmon Byrne in the FCPA Blog.
  6. A Guidebook to Corporate Governance, on Forum on Corporate Governance.
  7. Deutsche Bank whistleblower loses appeal. Jon Hill in Law360. (sub req’d)
  8. Why do you need oversight of merged companies? Jay explores in his continuing series on CCI.
  9. TRACE corruption ratings for 2019 are out. Matt Kelly reviews in Radical Compliance.
  10. Is FCPA enforcement inconsistent? Three lawyers from Bass, Berry say yes in CCI.
  11. Take a deep dive into SEC 2018/9 enforcement numbers. Cleary Gottlieb lawyers on NYU’sCompliance and Enforcement Blog.
  12. The Compliance Kitchen, a podcast hosted by Silvia Surman, premiers on the Compliance Podcast Network.

Tom Fox is the Compliance Evangelist and can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com. Jay Rosen is Mr. Monitor and can be reached at jrosen@affiliatedmonitors.com. For more information on how an independent monitor can help improve your company’s ethics and compliance program, visit our sponsor Affiliated Monitors at www.affiliatedmonitors.com.

Categories
FCPA Compliance Report

Episode 452, the Hoskins Jury Verdict

In this episode I visit with Mike Volkov about the Hoskins verdict, which was announced on Friday, November 8. In it Lawrence Hoskins was found guilty on six counts of violating the FCPA, three counts of money laundering, and two counts of conspiracy. Hoskins was acquitted on one money laundering count. We explore this case from the trial perspective. Some of the highlights include:

  • What was the significance of the verdict?
  • What evidence did the prosecutors have to put forward to prove agency?
  • How do prosecutors think through jury presentations?
  • Did the fact that Hoskins basic defense was that he was in charge of a criminal conspiracy and not an agent play poorly in front of the jury ?
  • What might all this mean for FCPA prosecutions going forward? How about internal investigations?
  • What does this case say about being the first to cooperate?
  • What signal does this case say about DOJ prosecution of individuals under the FCPA?
Categories
Daily Compliance News

October 30, 2019, the Hoskins Goes to Trial edition

In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

  • Hoskins goes to trial. (WSJ)
  • John Wood Group may be in deep trouble over use of Unaoil. (Sunday Post)
  • Boeing’s CEO knew about pilot’s warning before 2nd (NYT)
  • Did PG&E lines start the Sonoma Fire? (Washington Post)
Categories
Compliance Into the Weeds

Quad/Graphics FCPA Enforcement Action

Compliance into the Weeds is the only weekly podcast which takes a deep dive into a compliance related topic, literally going into the weeds to more fully explore a subject. Today we have a special live and in person podcast recording from Converge19. In this episode, Matt Kelly and I go into the weeds to explore the recent SEC enforcement action against Quad/Graphics and its Peruvian subsidiary. Matt comes in smoking on the egregious conduct of the company and the lack of criminal sanctions against the company.
Some of the highlights include:

  • How did the company garner credit for prompt disclosure when it knew about the conduct for 3 years?
  • Why have there been no criminal indictments against individuals?
  • How many sham vendors, invoices and payments does a company need to take notice?
  • Where was compliance?
  • Why is it the sham-ness of it all?

For additional reading see the following:
Matt’s blog post, Graphics Firm Draws $10 FCPA Settlement, on Radical Compliance.
Tom’s blog post, Quad/Graphics-the Sham-ness of it all, on the FCPA Compliance Report.