Covington & Burling recently released a Chinese language version of DOJ’s revised Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs. The translated document, posted by the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Blog, includes DOJ’s March update that introduced changes to how it assesses corporate compliance programs’ approach to communications platforms (see 2303030056, 2304050081 and 2304240019).
Compliance departments are “well-poised to handle” DOJ’s recently revised policies for how it assesses corporate compliance programs’ approach to communications platforms (see 2303030056), and “it’s totally within their competency and wheelhouse to do so,” said Julie DiMauro, a compliance professional with Global Relay, which helps businesses supervise and report communications intelligence. DiMauro rebutted comments from a former DOJ official who said this month that the new policies are “virtually unenforceable” (see 2304050081).
Claudia Patricia Diaz Guillen, Venezuela's former national treasurer, and her husband, Adrian Jose Velasquez, each were sentenced to 15 years in prison for their roles in a bribery and money-laundering scheme in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, DOJ announced April 19. The duo accepted and laundered over $136 million in bribes from Venezuelan billionaire and Globovision news network owner Raul Gorrin Belisario in exchange for access to purchase bonds from the Venezuela National Treasury at a favorable exchange rate.
DOJ’s recent sanctions-related subpoenas of Credit Suisse Group and UBS Group are more evidence of the agency’s increasing “emphasis” on corporate enforcement, Rahman Ravelli said in an April 6 client alert. The agency launched a probe on both Swiss banks to examine whether they helped Russian oligarchs evade sanctions, Bloomberg reported last month, and Rahman Ravelli said the effort is part of a “wave of subpoenas” issued by DOJ in recent weeks.
A recent announcement by DOJ that revises how it assesses corporate compliance programs’ approach to communications platforms (see 2303030056) may be “impractical” and “could threaten the more important, everyday work being done by compliance departments,” said Billy Jacobson, former assistant chief for Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Enforcement at DOJ. Although the revised policies seek to update the criteria the agency uses in its Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs guidance document to take into account a company’s approach to messaging applications -- including WhatsApp -- they may not work well in practice, Jacobson said.
The former head of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, pleaded not guilty on March 30 during a proceeding at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to bribing Chinese authorities, Reuters reported. The bribery charge, filed as a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, was added to Bankman-Fried's indictment this week and alleges that the former executive paid around $40 million in cryptocurrency to one or more Chinese government officials to "induce them" to unfreeze certain cryptocurrency trading accounts held by Alameda Research, one of Bankman-Fried's other companies (see 2303280037) (U.S. v. Samuel Bankman-Fried, S.D.N.Y. # 22-00673).
DOJ announced the resolution of two civil cases in a Texas district court on March 27 in which the government recovered around $53.1 million, including a promissory note worth $16 million, that played a part in a bribery scheme in Nigeria that violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The $53.1 million mark represented the "net liquidated value" of assets taken from Nigerian businessmen Kolawole Akanni Aluko and Olajide Omokore.
The U.S. this week charged FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act's anti-bribery provisions. Filing a superseding indictment at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York March 27, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Bankman-Fried and others paid around $40 million in cryptocurrency to one or more Chinese government officials to "induce them" to unfreeze certain cryptocurrency trading accounts held by one of Bankman-Fried's companies, Alameda Research (U.S. v. Samuel Bankman-Fried, S.D.N.Y. # 22-00673).
Ericsson pleaded guilty to breaching its 2019 deferred prosecution agreement with DOJ relating to its violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The company admitted to violating the FCPA and agreed to pay over $206 million in criminal penalties during a proceeding at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Bloomberg reported (U.S. v. Ericsson, S.D.N.Y. # 19-00884).
Trade lawyers are expecting a sharp increase in DOJ export control and sanctions prosecutions in the coming months as the agency’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section undergoes a hiring spree, and several law firms said the increased attention on sanctions violations may cause some companies to bolster their compliance programs.