Insights

April 10, 2022 | Compliance National Security Risk + Compliance

With the Russian-Ukraine war’s ever-expanding sanctions landscape, the supply chain is even more complex than it already was, and enforcement risk is even higher given the broader array of U.S. federal and international agencies’ intent on strict compliance. It is increasingly necessary to regularly evaluate supply chain and trade operations to ensure companies are meeting their compliance expectations.  

For one, sanctions compliance is more than payments filtering and screening. It is also about export controls and licensing, cryptocurrency, and other … Read More

April 7, 2022 | Compliance Design + Engineering Risk + Compliance Security Consulting

According to The Joint Commission (TJC), which oversees accreditation of hospitals and other healthcare facilities, about 73% of nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses leading to missed work days in healthcare are connected to workplace violence. This figure does not consider the number of unreported incidents, so the actual percentage is likely higher.

Effective January 1, 2022, TJC introduced revisions to workplace violence standards that provide guidance for developing strong workplace violence prevention systems.

As a participant in ASIS International’s publication … Read More

April 5, 2022 | Compliance

Now is the time to shore up your compliance risk management programs. Otherwise, the likelihood and severity of violations and enforcement could increase significantly. Just last week, Acting U.S. Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu, rightly warned of the need to strengthen your risk management programs due to the Russia / Ukraine war and other “tail risks,” which are defined as unlikely but highly impactful risk events. Tail risks have often included geopolitical risk, cyber risk, inflation and rate risk, … Read More

February 28, 2022 | Compliance Uncategorized

How do you know if your sanctions compliance program (“SCP”) is really working? Can your firm really afford to find out the hard way – violations with major penalties, especially after regulators uncover your management did not sufficiently invest in the right people, processes, and/or technologies to filter, freeze, and report targeted assets?

As we witness the Russian military assault in (and tremendous courage of) Ukraine, and its citizens, the West is responding with major financial sanctions to freeze assets … Read More

February 14, 2022 | Compliance Financial Crime Consulting

In 2022, companies are likely to see an increase in white collar and regulatory investigations and enforcement actions. Here are just a few reasons why this is likely to happen. First, in the late fall, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco indicated that the Justice Department would bring a renewed focus on corporate crime and that the Department was “going to find ways to surge resources” to its prosecutors. In January, another senior Justice Department official, Nicholas McQuaid, said at a … Read More

September 13, 2021 | Compliance Risk + Compliance

The pandemic hit, mayhem and lockdowns ensued, and trillions of dollars were appropriated for COVID relief by Congress. It’s a lot, and as response and recovery continues to unfold, fraudsters saw an opportunity and are taking it. In response, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) – historically a champion of the False Claims Act (“FCA”) – is leading a bipartisan group of senators who have proposed legislation, the False Claims Act Amendments Act of 2021 (“FCA Amendments Act of 2021”), that, if … Read More

June 14, 2021 | Compliance

With administration change comes policy change. As the Biden administration continues to implement its policies, we are seeing a changing view on sales of U.S. strategic goods to foreign entities.

Specifically, as reported by Reuters, the Biden administration will “…’reprioritize’ other factors including U.S. national security, human rights and nonproliferation….,” in addition to economic security with relation to exports of weapons and strategic goods. In addition, the administration will look more favorably at strategic goods exports that are defensive … Read More

December 14, 2020 | Compliance Risk + Compliance

Although regulators often seek to empower compliance officers within their institutions, a troubling question lingers as to whether regulators are undercutting this important message by simultaneously sending mixed or unrefined signals about when a Chief Compliance Officer should be held personally liable for the compliance failings of his or her firm. The director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations recently urged investment firms to empower Chief Compliance Officers (CCOs), saying, “The CCO is … Read More

November 11, 2020 | Compliance Financial Crime Consulting

In its recently issued Sanctions Systems Annual Report FY 2020, the World Bank Group (WBG) confirmed its commitment to investigate and sanction corruption and fraud occurring in bank-financed projects, despite the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.  The report, co-authored by the Integrity Vice Presidency (INT), the Office of Suspension and Debarment (OSD), and the Sanctions Board, revealed little coronavirus-related slowdown in the WBG’s enforcement activities.  To the contrary, the bank’s in-house investigatory teams initiated roughly the same number of … Read More

September 17, 2020 | Compliance National Security

As my colleague Ken Mendelson noted, the watchword for ACI’s recent CFIUS conference was “mitigation.”  As a result of the new rules implementing the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (“FIRRMA”), the number of deals requiring mitigation is likely to grow significantly.

The conference, however, focused mostly on the kinds of deals that would require mitigation.  The conference offered little detail regarding the specific mitigation measures that might be sufficient to get a transaction approved.  Those measures could … Read More