Posts Tagged ‘Justice Department’
New FCPA Opinion Release
The Justice Department has published its first FCPA Opinion Release in six years, saying a U.S. investment adviser does not need to worry about paying a $237,500 fee to the banking subsidiary of a foreign government for services rendered. FCPA Opinion Releases are short Justice Department analyses of specific fact patterns that might leave a…
Read MoreJustice Dept. Updates Compliance Guidance Again
The Justice Department updated its guidance for evaluating effective compliance programs on Monday, adding new material about how often a company reviews the structure of its program, a compliance officer’s access to data, and how companies integrate acquisitions into their existing programs. The department posted the update without fanfare on Monday afternoon, and had made…
Read MoreA Note on DOJ Monitorships
Some gossip for compliance professionals who like to obsess about corporate compliance monitors: the Fraud Section at the Justice Department has started publishing the names of monitors assigned to corporate corruption cases. It looks like the names appeared on the Fraud Section website last week, and so far there are only 13 monitorships listed. Still,…
Read MoreLessons From Justice Dept Meltdown
You may have noticed that the Justice Department’s ethical reputation blew apart last week — shards of integrity streaking across the stage, leaving a miasma of unprincipled conduct looming over attorney general William Barr’s office. By now you probably know the story. Last week Barr intervened in the sentencing recommendation for Roger Stone, self-professed dirty…
Read MoreThe FCPA Threat That Wasn’t
The corporate compliance community had a surprise moment of mainstream media attention on Friday, when Trump Administration chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow told reporters the Administration is “taking a look at” the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and is considering potential reforms. This led to a wave of speculation on Twitter and the press that the…
Read MoreCooperation Policy for Sanctions Violations
Compliance officers have a new cooperation credit policy from the Justice Department to consider, this one addressing sanctions and export control issues. It differs just enough from other cooperation policies we’ve seen from the Trump Administration that compliance officers need to give this one more attention. The policy was announced last Friday by David Burns,…
Read MoreNew Guidance on Inability to Pay Penalties
The Justice Department has published fresh guidance about how it will evaluate a company’s claims that it can’t afford to pay monetary penalties, for all you legal and compliance officers trying to convince everyone that your firm lives in the poorhouse. Assistant attorney general Brian Benczkowski announced the new guidance Tuesday while giving a speech…
Read MoreDOJ Hints at New Enforcement Ideas
The Justice Department is considering new approaches to handle companies that can’t pay monetary penalties as part of a corporate misconduct settlement; and is also warning securities and commodities traders to step up the data analytics they do to uncover market abuses. So said deputy assistant attorney general Matthew Miner during a speech he delivered…
Read MoreFacebook, Power, and Antitrust Issues
Compliance officers have a lot to consider about this week’s news that Facebook will pay $5.1 billion in penalties and implement a raft of procedures to improve its privacy compliance. Above all, however, consider this: the market didn’t care. It didn’t. While we were all busy analyzing what Facebook’s settlements with the Federal Trade Commission…
Read MoreNext: New False Claims Act Guidance
Another day, another piece of guidance from the Justice Department about corporate compliance programs — this time, explaining how companies might win cooperation credit when facing violations of the False Claims Act. The Civil Division of the Justice Department posted the guidance Tuesday afternoon. The the material hews closely to what the Criminal Division has…
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