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
Microsoft Corporation has been ordered to pay a combined $3.3 million civil penalties in a coordinated enforcement effort brought by the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) and the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) resulting from alleged and apparent violations of U.S. Read More
Social media platform TikTok has been fined 12.7 million pounds (US$15.8 million) by the U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for breaches of data protection law, “including failing to use children’s personal data lawfully,” the ICO announced. According to the ICO, TikTok violated the U.K. General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) Read More
Wells Fargo will pay approximately $98 million in total penalties resulting from “unsafe or unsound practices relating to historical inadequate oversight of sanctions compliance risks at its subsidiary bank, Wells Fargo Bank,” the Federal Reserve Board announced. On March 30, the Federal Reserve Board announced that it fined Wells Fargo Read More
Germany’s auditor oversight body, APAS, and the country’s federal financial supervisory authority, BaFIN, announced sanctions against audit firm Ernst & Young for its audit work of now-defunct payment card processor Wirecard. Without identifying the firm by name, APAS announced that EY will be prohibited from taking on any new audits Read More
Brazilian mining company Vale has reached a $56 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve charges for allegedly making “false and misleading disclosures about the safety of its dams,” the SEC announced. In January 2019, Vale’s Brumadinho dam collapsed, killing 270 people, and “causing immeasurable environmental and Read More
Labcorp, a U.S. healthcare company, has agreed to a $2.1 million settlement with the U.S. government to resolve allegations that it overbilled the Department of Defense (DoD) for genetic tests performed by GeneDx, LLC, a third-party reference laboratory used by Labcorp to perform genetic tests for military members, the DoJ Read More
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) announced that it has censured Friedman, a New York-based accounting firm, and imposed a $100,000 civil penalty for the firm’s failure to reasonably supervise two unregistered Chinese firms in audits of 12 different public companies with operations in China. Friedman consented to the Read More
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) announced the appointment of Robert Rice as director of the Division of Enforcement and Investigations (DEI), effective March 31. Rice assumes the role from Mark Adler, who is retiring. Adler has served as DEI’s acting director since September 2022 and previously held several Read More
The Securities and Exchange Commission on March 22 served Coinbase with a “Wells Notice,” which the company said regards “an unspecified portion of our listed digital assets, our staking service Coinbase Earn, Coinbase Prime, and Coinbase Wallet after a cursory investigation.” The SEC issues a Wells Notice when it wants Read More
