Federal whistleblowers have been exposing health care fraud for years. The False Claims Act (“FCA”) contains robust whistleblower provisions and protections that reward whistleblowers with financial payouts. The process for...more
9/19/2024
/ Anti-Kickback Statute ,
CVS ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Fraud and Abuse ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Medicare Advantage ,
Whistleblowers
DOJ is pushing hard for voluntary disclosures and urging companies to take advantage of its Voluntary Disclosure Program. The carrot is significant — a declination in exchange for cooperation, remediation and disgorgement....more
9/5/2024
/ Compliance ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Disgorgement ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fines ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Fraud ,
Self-Disclosure Requirements ,
Settlement ,
Voluntary Disclosure ,
White Collar Crimes
The Justice Department is encouraging companies to voluntarily disclose criminal violations — “Come in and confess” and DOJ offers promises of a declination. But even a declination comes with a requirement — the company has...more
9/4/2024
/ Angola ,
Bribery ,
Compliance ,
Corruption ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Disgorgement ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fines ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Popular ,
Voluntary Disclosure ,
White Collar Crimes
DOJ’s Antitrust Division has been relatively quiet in prosecuting criminal cartel or bid-rigging cases. Since 2015, the Antitrust Division’s criminal enforcement has fallen from the billions in penalties each year to the...more
8/27/2024
/ Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Bid Rigging ,
Construction Project ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Criminal Conspiracy ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Indictments ,
Market Allocation Scheme ,
Price-Fixing ,
Public Contracts ,
Sherman Act ,
Statutory Violations
While FCPA enforcement against companies has been relatively quiet this year, despite a strong beginning to the year — the SAP case for $220 million; and the Gunvor case for $661 million — DOJ has been pushing a number of...more
DOJ is feeling the heat. Corporate criminal enforcement numbers are down. in fairness, DOJ has been pushing individual criminal enforcement as an effective deterrent to corporate misconduct. Criminal prosecutions, when done...more
8/20/2024
/ Compliance ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Corruption ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Pilot Programs ,
Fraud ,
Money Laundering ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
White Collar Crimes
The Boeing 737 MAX case took another dramatic turn. On July 24, 2024, the Department of Justice filed with the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas a proposed plea agreement with Boeing. The plea...more
Gentiva, the renamed former Kindred at Home, agreed to pay $19.4 million to resolve claims that its predecessor company, Kindred at Home and related companies, violated the False Claims Act by retaining overpayments for...more
8/2/2024
/ Enforcement Actions ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Home Health Care ,
Hospice ,
Medicaid ,
Medicare ,
Overpayment ,
Qui Tam ,
Settlement Agreements
DOJ and Boeing have entered into a proposed plea agreement that will require judicial scrutiny and determinations of the public interest and the victims’ rights under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3771 [“CVRA”]. ...more
7/31/2024
/ Airplane Accidents ,
Aviation Industry ,
Boeing ,
Corporate Culture ,
Crime Victims ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Deferred Prosecution Agreements ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Internal Controls ,
Plea Agreements ,
Safety Standards ,
White Collar Crimes
The Boeing 737 MAX case took another dramatic turn. On July 24, 2024, the Department of Justice filed with the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas a proposed plea agreement with Boeing. The plea...more
7/30/2024
/ Airplane Accidents ,
Aviation Industry ,
Board of Directors ,
Boeing ,
Compliance Monitoring ,
Deferred Prosecution Agreements ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Plea Agreements ,
Restitution ,
Safety Standards
DaVita is a regular target of government enforcement actions involving fraud and illegal kickbacks. It has an extensive history of violations and settlements....more
Healthcare fraud is an ever-growing constant in our economy. It is a battle that presents new and exponential challenges. The U.S. Department of Justice, the HHS-Office of Inspector general and State Attorneys’ General all...more
7/23/2024
/ Bribery ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fraud and Abuse ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Kickbacks ,
Medicare ,
Medicare Fraud ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Physicians ,
Prescription Drugs
In a significant expansion of internal controls enforcement, the SEC announced a $2.1 million settlement with R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co. (“RRD”) for its handling of a 2021 ransomware attack and resulting disclosure failures. ...more
In this new era of aggressive sanctions enforcement, companies have to understand the red lines that define where criminal and civil enforcement risk increase. In contrast to the history of FCPA enforcement, DOJ and OFAC...more
In a recent decision, Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy, the Supreme Court voted 6-3 to reject the Securities and Exchange Commission’s use of in-house administrative proceedings to adjudicate securities fraud...more
7/2/2024
/ Administrative Authority ,
Administrative Proceedings ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Enforcement Actions ,
SCOTUS ,
SEC v Jarkesy ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Fraud ,
Securities Regulation ,
Seventh Amendment
OFAC has been busy and not so busy — what do I mean?
OFAC is administering a complex set of coordinated sanctions against Russia, in close coordination with the EU and the UK....more
We all know what a “core” sanctions violation looks like. The heartland of such misconduct has been described on numerous occasions in OFAC enforcement actions and settlements. In this environment, however, companies have...more
With the beginning of the “New FCPA” era coined by DOJ’s Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, we now need to focus on third-party risk and sanctions enforcement. The law, the practice, and the risks are important and not just...more
Sigma-Aldrich, Inc., d/b/a MilliporeSigma (“MilliporeSigma”), a U.S. life sciences company based in Massachusetts, escaped criminal charges for export control violations, despite a former sales person’s scheme to illegally...more
5/29/2024
/ China ,
Criminal Conspiracy ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Export Controls ,
Exports ,
Government Investigations ,
Guilty Pleas ,
Life Sciences ,
National Security ,
Wire Fraud
While OFAC’s enforcement actions and guidance points to important steps exporters must take when relying on third-party distributors and other intermediaries, the “reason to know” and affirmative obligations to monitor resale...more
5/23/2024
/ Anti-Corruption ,
Compliance ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Popular ,
Risk Management ,
Sanction Violations ,
Suppliers ,
Supply Chain ,
Third-Party Risk ,
Trade Agreements
Companies rely on robust distribution chains as an efficient mechanism to enter new markets without requiring a significant investment. Additionally, companies may maintain parallel sales activities in markets between their...more
Defendants often face a tough choice — challenge the government’s evidence and if convicted, face significant jail time. On the flip side, defendants who plead guilty and cooperate can earn significant sentencing reductions,...more
As DOJ, OFAC and BIS ramp up sanctions and export controls enforcement, they have continued to provide important compliance guidance. You have to give the enforcement agencies credit — on the one hand, they regularly warn of...more
4/18/2024
/ Anti-Corruption ,
Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
Compliance ,
Corruption ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Export Controls ,
Exports ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Sanction Violations ,
White Collar Crimes
The Justice Department is rightly trumpeting its successful sweep of the commodities trading industry. DOJ’s success is reflected in its six separate corporate resolutions and 20 individual convictions, resulting in over...more
Trafigura’s bribery scheme resembles the same schemes implemented by its significant competitors — Vitol, Glencore, Gunvor. At the core of the conduct, Petrobras and Brazilian government officials collected bribes in...more
4/10/2024
/ Brazil ,
Bribery ,
Compliance ,
Corruption ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Oil & Gas ,
Petrobras ,
White Collar Crimes