This Week in FCPA-Episode 216 - the 1MDB Moves Towards Resolution edition
12 O'Clock High, a podcast on business leadership-Business Leadership Failures from 2019-Goldman Sachs
Top Five Corporate Scandals of 2018: Episode II-1MDB and Goldman Sachs
The end of the road for Roger Ng, the Goldman Sachs Investment Banker, who played a critical role in the Goldman Sachs 1 MDB Malaysia scandal, was not a pretty one. District Judge Margo Brodie gave Ng a severe sentence of...more
On the top of its record of success, DOJ won two big and highly-contested cases. The first against Elizabeth Holmes and the second against Roger Ng. In perhaps one of its most significant failures, DOJ was handed a quick...more
The scandal emanating from the 1 Malaysia Development Berhad fund (1MDB) continues to ripple through criminal law enforcement and criminal prosecutions. ...more
Bear with me for a second, but remember Presidential Candidate Romney’s statement in 2011 that “Corporations are people.” Starting with that premise, my so-called “Person” of the Year award for 2020 goes to, drumroll . . ....more
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
The breadth of Goldman Sachs’ corruption in the recent DOJ and SEC FCPA enforcement action underscored the important global goal of reducing corruption. It goes without saying – corruption has a pernicious impact on economic...more
Report on Supply Chain Compliance 3, no. 21 (October 29, 2020) - Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay a penalty of USD 2.2 billion for its role in the robbing of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a Malaysian development...more
It would be a mistake to think that the $2.9 billion settlement Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has agreed to pay in order to resolve allegations of widespread bribes to government officials in Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates...more
Goldman Sachs has a new leadership role – unfortunately, it is for corruption. It would be a serious mistake to characterize or describe the Goldman corruption scheme as the result of a few, bad actors. Instead, Goldman...more
Goldman Sachs now sits atop all charts with the largest US FCPA bribery penalty, totaling approximately $2.9 billion. The second largest is Ericsson’s 2019 FCPA settlement for $1 billion....more
The Justice Department finally closed out its investigation of Goldman Sachs’ massive bribery scheme involving Malaysia’s 1MDB fund. The case is now the largest in US FCPA history (based on its payment to DOJ and related US...more
PE-backed Inspire Brands is in negotiations to take over Dunkin’ Brands Group, the parent of both Dunkin’ and Baskin-Robbins, in a deal valued at nearly $9 billion. Inspire includes Buffalo Wild Wings and Jimmy John’s among...more
A California appeals court has affirmed a lower court decision requiring Uber and Lyft to “treat their California drivers as employees, providing them with the benefits and wages they are entitled to under state labor law.”...more
The former deputy finance chair of the Republican National Committee and prominent fundraiser for President Trump has agreed to plead guilty with lobbying on behalf of Jho Low, an indicted and fugitive financier, who was...more
Goldman Sachs has reached a deal for $3.9 billion with the Malaysian government to resolve allegations of wrongdoing related to the massive 1MDB scandal. Goldman was the “main banker for the Malaysian fund” and raised...more
Report on Supply Chain Compliance 3, no. 13 (June 25, 2020) - Jho Low, the alleged mastermind behind the looting of Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad, has been using his connections to Kuwaiti...more
Amazon closed out the trading day yesterday as an official member of the $1 trillion club for the first time. Because Jeff really needed a win, folks. The company joins Microsoft, Alphabet, and Apple in that rarified...more
This week I have a special five-part podcast series where I am joined by Amii Barnard-Bahn to review some of the top business leadership failures of 2019. Today, we take a look at leadership failures from Goldman Sachs and...more
Well, Phase One is official, thanks to a White House signing yesterday that included Chinese Vice Premier Liu He. With that act comes our first substantive look at the deal that’s been thus-far shrouded in secrecy. Some...more
It is time to break out the crystal ball for FCPA 2020 Predictions. In preparing for this, I always rely on my past admiration of Carnac the Magnificent....more
Goldman Sachs is reportedly in negotiations with federal prosecutors to resolve claims about its role in the Malaysian 1MDB scandal for upwards of $2 billion. A settlement—which “could include a guilty plea from Goldman’s...more
I thought Frosty was a good analogy to consider the disgraced Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s former partner Tim Leissner, as he is certainly back again. Yesterday, I begin a two-part blog post series on Leissner’s settlement with...more
The Grinch is certainly a title that could be an allegory with disgraced Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s former partner Tim Leissner about now. He was the lead Goldman Sachs banker who facilitated the firm’s work on bond offerings...more
As reported by Byron Tau and Aruna Viswanatha in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), “Jho Low, the businessman-turned-fugitive accused of masterminding a multibillion-dollar fraud involving Malaysia’s sovereign-wealth fund, agreed...more
As universally expected, the Fed’s Open Market Committee delivered its third interest rate cut of 2019 yesterday, though it did so while signaling that it’s likely to pause before taking action again and “is now shifting into...more