Tag: profit disgorgement

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Daily Compliance News

Daily Compliance News: April 23, 2026, The Who Gets Profit Disgorgement Edition

Welcome to the Daily Compliance News. Each day, Tom Fox, the Voice of Compliance, brings you compliance-related stories to start your day. Sit back, enjoy a cup of morning coffee, and listen in to the Daily Compliance News. All, from the Compliance Podcast Network. Each day, we consider four stories from the business world, compliance, ethics, risk management, leadership, or general interest for the compliance professional.

Top stories include:

  • Spain seeks to close the investigation into the wife of the Spanish PM. (Reuters)
  • Anthropic is investigating unauthorized use of Mythos. (FT)
  • Crypto billionaire accuses the Trump family’s Liberty World of ‘criminal extortion’. (WSJ)
  • Matt Levine explores who should get disgorged profits. (Bloomberg)

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To learn about the intersection of Sherlock Holmes and the modern compliance professional, check out my latest book, The Game is Afoot-What Sherlock Holmes Teaches About Risk, Ethics and Investigations on Amazon.com.

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Compliance Into the Weeds

Compliance into the Weeds: Balt and TradeStation: Lessons for the Compliance Professional

The award-winning Compliance into the Weeds is the only weekly podcast that takes a deep dive into a compliance-related topic, literally going into the weeds to explore it more fully. Looking for some hard-hitting insights on compliance? Look no further than Compliance into the Weeds! In this episode of Compliance into the Weeds, Tom Fox and Matt Kelly look at the Declination awarded to Balt SAS and the OFAC enforcement action involving TradeStation. 

First, they review a Corporate Enforcement Policy declination for French medical-equipment company BAL SAS and the company’s U.S. subsidiary after self-disclosing, cooperating and remediating misconduct involving a U.S. subsidiary executive and a Belgian consultant allegedly funneling about $600,000 in bribes to a French public hospital official using sham consulting agreements, invoices, and poor documentation; BAL disgorged about $1.21 million in profit on roughly $1.68 million in revenue and disclosed while its internal investigation was still ongoing, raising timing and high-margin red-flag issues.

Second, they cover OFAC’s $1.1 million settlement with TradeStation for accidentally disabling sanctions-screening controls for nearly a year, enabling hundreds of transactions from Iran, Syria, and Crimea; despite having layered tools on paper, IT changes and lapsed subscriptions undermined those controls, underscoring the need for ongoing monitoring, testing, and auditing.

 Key highlights:

  • Balt FCPA Case
  • Disclosure Timing
  • Profit Margin Red Flags
  • Controls and France Angle
  • TradeStation Overview
  • How Screening Failed
  • Monitoring and Accountability
  • Costs and OFAC Lessons

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A multi-award-winning podcast, Compliance into the Weeds was most recently honored as one of the Top 25 Regulatory Compliance Podcasts, a Top 10 Business Law Podcast, and a Top 12 Risk Management Podcast. Compliance into the Weeds has been conferred a Davey, a Communicator Award, and a W3 Award, all for podcast excellence.

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Compliance Into the Weeds

Supreme Court Upholds Profit Disgorgement


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 Tom Fox take a look this week’s United States Supreme Court decision in Liu v. Securities and Exchange Commission, which upheld the SEC remedy of profit disgorgement. We consider the background facts of the case and how the Court reached its decision. We also consider what the decision might mean for FCPA enforcement and compliance professionals going forward.
For a copy of the decision in Liu v. SEC, click here.

Categories
Uncategorized

FCPA Compliance Report-Episode 332, Marc Bohn on the Kokesh Decision

Kokesh v. SEC, the US Supreme Court held the profit disgorgements operate as a penalty under the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. As such “any claim for disgorgement in an SEC enforcement action must be commenced within five years of the date the claim accrued.” The position of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) at the Supreme Court and in all other matters involving this issue was that profit disgorgement were not punitive, hence not a penalty but rather remedial in nature so the SEC could clawback all monies generated as a result of the illegal action. The decision, authored by Justice Sotomayor, was a 9-0 opinion which in the rarified world of Supreme Court decisions is about as clear a message as one can get. The Court first determined that profit disgorgement met the definition of a “penalty” under two basis, “First, whether a sanction represents a penalty turns in part on “whether the wrong sought to be redressed is a wrong to the public, or a wrong to the individual.” Second, a pecuniary sanction operates as a penalty if it is sought “for the purpose of punishment, and to deter others from offending in like manner” rather than to compensate victims.” [citations omitted] Thus, if a statute provided a compensatory remedy for a private wrong, it should not be characterized as penalty. For additional thoughts from Marc, see his piece on the FCPA Blog. For additional thoughts from myself, see my piece on the FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog. [tweet_box design=”default” url=”http://wp.me/p6DnMo-3kd” float=”none”]The Kokesh decision has significant implications for FCPA enforcement going forward.[/tweet_box]]]>

Categories
This Week in FCPA

This Week in FCPA-Episode 35

th edition:

  1. Hernandez and Beech FCPA guilty pleas. Hernandez Criminal Information, Beech Criminal Information.
  2. VW guilty plea in emissions-testing scandal. Link to article in New York Times.
  3. VW executive Oliver Schmidt arrested in US. See article on FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog.
  4. Zimmer Bio-Met in follow-up FCPA enforcement action. See article on FCPA Blog.
  5. Mondelez FCPA enforcement action. See SEC Cease and Desist Order and article on FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog.
  6. Supreme Court to take up 5 year statute of limitations for profit disgorgement under Securities Act, which applies to FCPA enforcement actions brought by SEC. Article in Law360.
  7. NFL Playoff update on Patriots, Cowboys and Texans.

[tweet_box design=”default” url=”http://wp.me/p6DnMo-2XB” float=”none”]What were the FCPA matters, issues and lessons from the week ending January 13, 2017? Check out This Week in FCPA.[/tweet_box]]]>