We have all read about the high-profile malicious cyber-attacks and ransomware demands and payments. The Colonial Pipeline case demonstrated how responsive law enforcement can be in tracking down perpetrators and recovering...more
11/4/2021
/ Crypto Exchanges ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Cybersecurity ,
Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) ,
Data Breach ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Hackers ,
Homeland Security Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) ,
NIST ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Popular ,
Ransomware ,
SDN List ,
Virtual Currency
I recently came across a paper prepared by students from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs that delves into the benefits that cryptocurrency and the blockchain can provide to the world’s unbanked....more
In a significant environmental crime enforcement action, the Justice Department resolved criminal charges under the Clean Water Act against Summit Midstream Partners LLC, a North Dakota pipeline company that discharged 29...more
8/25/2021
/ Clean Water Act ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Discharge of Pollutants ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Environmental Crimes ,
Fracking ,
Negligence ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pipelines ,
Popular ,
Water Pollution
The Securities and Exchange Commission is gaining traction in the enforcement of cybersecurity and disclosure requirements. The SEC has a lot on its plate these days – ESG, cybersecurity, and the traditional mix of...more
6/17/2021
/ Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Escrow Accounts ,
Failure to Comply ,
First American Title Insurance Co. ,
Form 8-K ,
Non-Public Information ,
Personal Data ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Popular ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Vulnerability Assessments
Sometimes it takes a public event to remind corporate risk managers about the importance of effective risk management. While corporate risk management functions have become yet another “hot” topic or new-fangled response to...more
Corporate boards face exponentially escalating risks – at the heart of this development is the rapid escalation of board member accountability. Board members are no longer operating in a sinecure, free from legal risks. The...more
The SolarWinds cyber-attack was devastating in scope and impact. If any lesson can be learned from this event, the SolarWinds case presents all the pitfalls, enforcement and reputational damage, rolled into one tragic series...more
3/10/2021
/ Cyber Attacks ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Form 10-K ,
Government Investigations ,
Hackers ,
Information Technology ,
Malware ,
Popular ,
Russia ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
SolarWinds
Deutsche Bank, the infamous German bank connected to former President Trump, settled FCPA and fraud cases with the Justice Department and the SEC, and agreed to pay a total of $130 million.
In this Episode, Michael Review...more
Matt Stankiewicz, Managing Counsel, The Volkov Law Group, and Michael Volkov discuss the latest events and trends within the cryptocurrency industry.
Several major enforcement actions have hit the news recently, such as the...more
Jessica Sanderson, Partner, The Volkov Law Group and Michael Volkov review significant developments in the civil False Claims Act (“FCA”) area from the past year. With mind-boggling federal spending in FY 2020 and the obvious...more
Sabre Corporation, the travel technology company, agreed to pay $2.4 million as a settlement with twenty-seven (27) State Attorneys General for a 2017 data breach involving hotel booking services....more
1/25/2021
/ Breach Notification Rule ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Protection ,
Hackers ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Popular ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Settlement Agreements ,
State Attorneys General
The Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission had another record year of enforcement. In fact, the last four years of FCPA enforcement included two years of record enforcement – 2019 and 2020. After...more
In a far-reaching action, the Health and Human Services – Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) issued a Special Fraud Alert underscoring the “inherent fraud and abuse risks” associated with company-sponsored speaker...more
Vitol’s bribery scheme stretched into three separate countries – Brazil, Ecuador and Mexico — and was carried out over a ten-year period.
The Statement of Facts is instructive in describing the means by which Vitol used...more
Banking regulators, the Office of Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve, recently collected a $400 million civil penalty against Citigroup for long-standing deficiencies in its enterprise risk management,...more
12/1/2020
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Banks ,
Citibank ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Compliance ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Enterprise Risks ,
Federal Reserve ,
OCC ,
Popular ,
Regulatory Violations ,
Risk Management
The Justice Department and regulatory agencies have emphasized the importance of corporate culture and the importance of ethics. As companies approach this important issue, it is important to examine a variety of strategies...more
Human traffickers, like all criminals, rely on the international financial system to facilitate their crimes and to disguise proceeds from their illegal activities. Traffickers open bank accounts to deposit and launder...more
11/17/2020
/ Corruption ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
FinCEN ,
Human Trafficking ,
Money Transfer ,
Payment Systems ,
Peer-to-Peer ,
Popular ,
Risk Management ,
Third-Party Risk
Boeing is the new poster child for corporate governance failures and misconduct. Move over Wells Fargo, General Motors, Volkswagen, Novartis, Siemens and Wal-Mart, and make room for Boeing. Like General Motors and its...more
OFAC has resumed its aggressive enforcement program. These enforcement actions include: (1) Keysight Technologies settled with OFAC for $473,157 for violations of the Iran Sanctions Program; (2) Comtech Telecommunications...more
JP Morgan Chase (“JP Morgan”) is not having a positive year when it comes to government enforcement. JP Morgan is at the brink of a multi-billion dollar FCPA settlement for its involvement in the 1MDB corruption scandal in...more
10/6/2020
/ CFTC ,
Compliance ,
Corruption ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Futures ,
JPMorgan Chase ,
Popular ,
Rare Earth Metals ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Fraud ,
Spoofing ,
White Collar Crimes
A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of New York returned an indictment against Javier Aguilar, an oil trader at Vitol, an energy and commodity trading company, for his role in a five-year international bribery and...more
9/28/2020
/ Arrest Warrants ,
Bribery ,
Compliance ,
Corruption ,
Criminal Conspiracy ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Ecuador ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Indictments ,
Money Laundering ,
Oil & Gas ,
Popular ,
White Collar Crimes
Global companies have to conduct periodic audits of its high-risk third party partners. With the continuing pandemic, such audits have to be conducted remotely. As a result, companies face significant challenges in...more
The Justice Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and the California Resources Board announced a joint settlement totaling roughly $1.5 billion with Daimler AG and its US subsidiary Mercedes Benz to resolve...more
9/22/2020
/ California Air Resources Board ,
Clean Air Act ,
Compliance ,
Corruption ,
DaimlerAG ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Environmental Violations ,
Mercedes-Benz ,
Motor Vehicles ,
National Emissions Standards ,
Popular ,
Regulatory Violations ,
Whistleblowers ,
White Collar Crimes
In the last five years, the Justice Department and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission have aggressively prosecuted “spoofing” cases. While the government’s record in these cases has been mixed, the government has...more
9/17/2020
/ CFTC ,
Commodity Futures Contracts ,
Compliance ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Deferred Prosecution Agreements ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Market Manipulation ,
Popular ,
Price Manipulation ,
Rare Earth Metals ,
Securities Violations ,
Spoofing ,
Traders ,
White Collar Crimes
Herbalife’s FCPA settlement is another one for books – the wreckage left includes two criminal indictments for Chinese officials who may never be apprehended, along with $123 million in penalties....more
9/3/2020
/ Bribery ,
China ,
Compliance ,
Corruption ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Herbalife ,
Meals-Gifts-and Entertainment Rules ,
Popular ,
White Collar Crimes