The Department of Treasury on April 25 announced the release of its first ever “De-risking Strategy,” which broadly addresses financial institutions’ de-risking strategies and their impact on certain customers. The strategy further recommended several policy solutions. As described by Treasury, de-risking refers to financial institutions “terminating or restricting business relationships Read More
The Department of Justice announced the arrest of a convicted felon and disbarred attorney for his alleged involvement in a multi-million-dollar fraud scheme. According to the allegations in the complaint, from its formation around late 2015 until in or about July 2020, Dominion Bank and Trust Company operated as a Read More
General Motors will pay a $365,000 civil penalty in a settlement agreement with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division for alleged discriminatory practices in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), the DoJ announced. Alongside the settlement agreement with GM, the DoJ’s Civil Rights Division released a fact sheet Read More
The U.K. Financial Reporting Council (FRC) announced it has launched two separate investigations in relation to audits conducted by Ernst & Young. On April 20, the FRC said it has commenced an investigation in relation to an audit conducted by Ernst & Young of the consolidated financial statements of Made.com Read More
The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has published a memorandum highlighting the incentives U.S. companies and universities can receive when they submit voluntary self-disclosures (VSDs) of U.S. export control violations. In the April 18 memorandum, Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement Matthew Axelrod stressed that “effective compliance Read More
The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced its “largest standalone administrative penalty in BIS history.” The resolution with Seagate Technology (Seagate US) and Seagate Singapore includes a $300 million penalty, a mandatory multi-year audit requirement, and a five-year suspended denial order for alleged violations of U.S. Read More
Adobe, a computer software company, has agreed to a $3 million settlement with the U.S. government to resolve allegations that it paid kickbacks in exchange for Adobe software sales to the federal government, the Department of Justice announced. According to the April 13 settlement agreement, between January 2011 and December Read More
The U.K. Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has imposed sanctions against KPMG and a former KPMG director for eight breaches relating to the fiscal year 2016 audit of financial statements of Luceco, a producer and distributor of lighting products and wiring accessories. On April 13, the FRC announced it imposed a Read More
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on April 3 issued a policy statement explaining the legal prohibition on abusive conduct in consumer financial markets and summarizes over a decade of precedent. In 2010, in response to the financial crisis, Congress passed the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) creating prohibitions on Read More
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced in a final decision that it has “reluctantly” terminated its enforcement action against the former chief compliance officer of Rabobank N.A., the U.S.-based subsidiary of Netherlands-based Rabobank. As CCO, Laura Akahoshi was responsible for overseeing Rabobank’s Bank Secrecy Act and Read More
