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In this episode, cryptocurrency expert Matt Stankiewicz discusses why sanctions and AML compliance need to be taken seriously in the cryptocurrency industry. Matt Stankiewicz, a Partner at Volkov Law, is a leading industry expert on cryptocurrency. Bittrex, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, suffered twin enforcement actions for AML and Sanctions Compliance deficiencies. Matt takes a deep dive on the enforcement actions and outlines practical compliance steps that every cryptocurrency exchange should implement. Join us as we discuss: The enforcement action on Bittrex led by OFAC and FinCEN Why compliance risks are increasing in the cryptocurrency industry Practical steps that all cryptocurrency exchanges should implement  To reach Matt email him at: mstankiewicz@volkovlaw.com

Does compliance training have to be boring? Our guest explains how your organization can make compliance training engaging and fun for your employees. Maria D’Avanzo is the Chief Evangelist Officer at Traliant. Maria provides key insights on corporate ethics and compliance training programs. Maria describes how to take your training program to the next level and tailor the content to deliver training on important issues based on your company’s risk assessment..

Financial institutions are rapidly moving their operations to the cloud. In response to this development, and the increasing risks of cyber breaches, legislators and regulators are gearing up to impose significant cybersecurity requirements. Carlo Massimo is a journalist who covers Cyber Security and International Tech Policy. Carlo was a former contributing editor at the Wilson Center's Quarterly, writes Citizen Techs information week monthly policy column, and contributes to the Dark readings profile as a Features Writer. In this episode, Carlo talks about the implications of financial institutions moving to the cloud, and the response by lawmakers and regulators to this significant trend. Join us as we discuss: Carlos's perspective on possible designation of financial institutions operating in the cloud as "critical infrastructure" Are global financial institutions ready for new cybersecurity regulations aimed at mitigating the risks of a data breach The perspective from both the United States and the European Union on this important issue     Carlo’s article on Information Week: Legislators Gear Up to Regulate Cloud Resiliency

The Biden Administration promised a new, aggressive approach to corporate crime. Well, the Justice Department just delivered a new, comprehensive policy that raises a number of issues, some of which are likely to be controversial. The new policy incorporates reforms announced last October that largely centered on prior corporate criminal and civil records; appointment of independent compliance monitors and expanding review of responsible persons in an internal investigation. The Justice Department's new Corporate Enforcement Policy ("CEP"), however, expands on earlier policy changes but includes some new and far-reaching reforms that are intended to increase individual accountability and promote corporate culture through financial incentives and deterrence policies. This last idea is a significant expansion of DOJ's CEP and is sure to reverberate through the business and compliance community. Chief compliance officers face a new requirement for their companies -- creating an effective system of carrots and sticks to punish misconduct and increase rewards for ethical behavior. DOJ's new CEP also lays the groundwork for further consideration of corporate responsibility for preserving electronic messaging, ephemeral services and other electronic data. DOJ's discussion in this area reflects DOJ's frustration with corporate internal investigation that omits access to electronic data, especially in those situations where employees use personal devices for business-related communications.   The revised CEP provides guidance to prosecutors and the business community to ensure individual and corporate accountability through the evaluation of various factors, including: (1) Corporate History of Misconduct; (2) Self-Disclosure and Cooperation; (3) the Strength of a Company's Compliance Program; (4) the Use and Monitoring of Corporate Monitors (including their selection and scope of a monitor's work).  

The Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission reached a $41 million settlement with GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes S.A. ("GOL") to resolve criminal and civil foreign bribery charges.   GOL entered into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement ("DPA") with DOJ in exchange for payment of a $17 million criminal penalty. DOJ credited $1.7 million of that penalty against a $3.4 million fine that GOL agreed to pay law enforcement authorities in Brazil to resolve charges in Brazil.   In a separate resolution, GOL agreed to pay $24.5 million over two years to the SEC. The SEC's initial settlement calculation was for $70 million, but it was reduced to $24.5 million based on GOL's financial condition. In this Episode, Michael Volkov reviews the DOJ and SEC FCPA settlement actions.

Corporate culture is all the rage now, meaning it is an often used topic to signal commitment, sensitivity to issues of employee concern, and an awareness of governance trends. In practice, as we all know, culture is not just about words -- it is about action. As the often repeated phrase goes -- talk is cheap.  In this Corporate Culture Roundup Episode, Michael Volkov examines some culture-related issues involving: Culture + Action Steps; Civility in the Workplace and What Happens when HR and Compliance are Disconnected.  

As the leading hotline provider in the global market, NAVEX is in the unique position of collecting and analyzing employee reporting trends. Each year, NAVEX issues an important report on current trends in employee reporting, whistleblowers, internal investigations and potential retaliation.   NAVEX's database consists of 1.37 million reports made in 2021 at organizations around the world.  In this Episode, Michael Volkov reviews the key findings from the 2022 report. Here is a link to the report.

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district judge's post-conviction dismissal of FCPA counts against Lawrence Hoskins, a former Alston executive, for his involvement in bribery scheme to secure a $118 million energy contract in Indonesia.    The Hoskins FCPA case has had a long and tortious path through the court system, and the Second Circuit's decision, which was decided by a 2 to 1 majority, ended with a fractured court decision that raised more questions than provided answers. The majority decision appeared to reflect a pre-ordained decision searching for legal and factual arguments to support the resolution. Indeed, the dissent presented a cogent and more defensible position. In this Episode, Michael Volkov reviews the Second Circuit's decision.

Chief compliance officers have access to a vast amount of data generated by their compliance programs. CCOs have to establish effective monitoring processes. A critical part of this process is to build a compliance program dashboard. This is a practical issue of real importance.  In this Episode, Michael Volkov reviews this important issue.

In a bipartisan success story, the House recently passed The Enablers Act, which is a far-reaching reform bill aimed at reducing AML and corrupt financial activity in the United States. Scott Greytak, Advocacy Director at Transparency International USA, and Erica Hanichak, Director of Government Affairs, from the FACT Coalition, join Michael Volkov for a discussion of this legislative accomplishment and the implications for the battle against corruption.

LRN has released a new and informative report on Assessing Corporate Culture. LRN's report provides invaluable guidance and practical steps for corporate boards to lead in the management, oversight and monitoring of corporate culture. A link to the report is below, along with an earlier LRN report on Benchmarking Ethical Culture. In this Episode, Michael Volkov interviews Ty Francis, Chief Advisory Officer at LRN, concerning LRN's recent report on Assessing Corporate Culture. LRN Report Assessing Corporate Culture -- https://pages.lrn.com/-a-practical-guide-to-improving-board-oversight-tapestry LRN Report on Benchmarking Ethical Culture -- https://blog.lrn.com/introducing-the-benchmark-of-ethical-culture-report

The Justice Department and various regulatory agencies continue to emphasize the importance of continuous improvement, testing and review as part of robust assessment procedures in an effective compliance program. The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control has specifically stated that a sanctions compliance program should include "a comprehensive, independent, and objective testing or audit function" so that a company can determine "how their program[] [is] performing and should be updated, enhanced, or recalibrated to account for a changing risk assessment or sanctions environment." The Health and Human Services -- Office of Inspector General has made similar statements underscoring the need to conduct compliance audits and testing.   An important part of every compliance program focuses beyond the design and operation of the program to the important issue of whether the program itself is working. In this respect, DOJ and regulatory agencies have noted that CCOs should be striving to develop "continuous" monitoring systems and avoid "snapshots" in time. In order to execute such monitoring, compliance has to maintain broad access to operational data across all key functions in a company. This data has to be used to update regularly risk assessments, compliance policies and procedures and financial controls. In this Episode, Michael Volkov takes a broad review of testing and auditing of ethics and compliance programs.

I have been -- and continue to be-- hyper-focused on the proper role and responsibilities for Chief Compliance Officers. Not that I see any cause for alarm, but it is easy to lose focus in the sea of so-called hot issues -- ESG, Diversity, Climate Change, Threats to Democracy, Cybersecurity and Data Privacy, each of which is an important component and focus for organizations. All of these issues intersect, are interdependent and should be addressed through organizational commitment.   But I want to take a step back and return to an issue of importance -- the proper role of CCOs. To do so, we need to remind everyone about basic requirements, lessons learned and ways forward to meet the fast-changing times. CCOs have to maintain and then advance their positions. In my view, given the interdependence of all of the important issues mentioned above, the role of the CCO has become even more critical.   In this Episode, Michael Volkov reviews the standards applicable to the CCOs function in an effective compliance program. 

The Department of Justice continues to respond to the compliance community's concerns about the new certification requirement adopted as part of the Glencore FCPA enforcement action. DOJ has adopted this new requirement to "empower" CCOs and to ensure that CCOs have a "seat at the [senior management] table." While these are all laudable goals, CCOs continue to question whether DOJ's new certification requirement will undermine their authority by opening CCOs to internal pressure to execute a certification despite concerns about the status of a company's compliance program. In this Episode, Michael Volkov reviews DOJ's new CCO certification requirement.

In following the Justice Department and the Securities Exchange Commission FCPA enforcement actions, I am always reminded of the popular phrase — “reading the tea leaves.” (or “tasseography,” a fortune-telling method based on tea leave patterns in tea sediments). Despite a slow initial year in 2021, the Biden Administration’s stamp and push on FCPA enforcement is becoming clear.  Keep in mind, DOJ and SEC officials have promised a new, tougher approach to FCPA enforcement. Change in government enforcement policies and results take time. However, no one expected the changes to take this long. In addition, the initial enforcement push has raised some interesting questions concerning the specific steps taken by enforcement officials. In looking at the most recent FCPA enforcement actions (i.e., Stericycle, Glencore, and Tenaris), there are significant new trends and some important issues. In this Episode, Michael Volkov reviews the important trends and issues surrounding FCPA Enforcement in 2022.

The SEC announced another FCPA settlement in 2022. FCPA enforcement, in general, is picking up. Tenaris, a global supplier of steel pipes and related services for the energy industry agreed to pay the SEC $78 million to resolve FCPA violations that occurred in Brazil. The US Department of Justice closed its investigation without bringing charges. In this Episode, Michael Volkov reviews the SEC settlement.

In a long-anticipated and major enforcement action, the Justice Department and the Commodities and Futures Exchange Commission resolved a sprawling investigation with Glencore International A.G. and Glencore Ltd, a Swiss-based commodity trading and mining company.   Both companies entered guilty pleas for FCPA violations and a commodity price manipulation scheme. Glencore paid over $1.1 billion to resolve these two major investigations.   The resolution in the U.S. was part of a coordinated set of criminal and civil resolutions involving the United States, the United Kingdom and Brazil. In this Episode, Michael Volkov reviews the settlement and the implications for future enforcement actions.

The global economy has suffered two significant shocks -- first, the pandemic sent shockwaves through every organization, and second, the war in Ukraine. Both of these events exposed the importance of risk management, especially with regard to supply chain and distribution operations. Hence, the renewed focus on third-party risk management and the repetitive description of "holistic" third-party risk management.    Reality has a way of forcing change and we are now experiencing significant adjustments to overall risk management procedures. At the top of every list has to be third-party risk management beyond legal and compliance risks -- we have new disruptive risks that have to be identified, quantified or ranked, and then addressed. In this Episode, Michael Volkov outlines the new reality and opportunities stemming from holistic third-party risk management.

The Justice Department ended its FCPA enforcement drought by announcing its first corporate settlement in 2022. In a parallel action, the SEC announced its settlement with Stericycle for $28 million for FCPA violations. The SEC’s settlement was its second with a company for 2022 (the first was KT Corp.). Under the settlement, Stericycle resolved investigations being conducted by the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission and Brazil. Stericycle agreed to enter into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement and pay more than $84 million. Stericycle will pay $52.5 million in criminal penalties, $28 million to the SEC in civil penalties and disgorgement, and approximately $9.3 million to Brazilian authorities. DOJ agreed credit up to one-third of the criminal penalty against fines the company pays to Brazil authorities. Significantly, the DPA requires Stericycle to obtain an independent compliance monitor for a two-year period and then submit a self-report for the rest of the DPA term.  Stericycle is a global waste management company which is headquartered in Illinois. In its factual admission, Stericycle admitted a wide ranging scheme involving payment of bribes to foreign officials in Brazil, Mexico and Argentina. In total, Stericycle paid approximately $10.5 million in bribes to foreign officials in Brazil, Mexico and Argentina to secure business contracts from which Stericycle profited by at least $21.5 million. In this Episode, Michael Volkov reviews the Stericycle FCPA enforcement action.

In this Episode Tom Fox and Mike Volkov review recent DOJ trial successes and stumbles -- Tom and Mike review DOJ trial strategy, successes and failures and approach of the antitrust division.