Join a webcast with an experienced panel of anti-corruption compliance practitioners that will cover the key trends shaping anti-corruption enforcement and provide practical views on how companies can update their anti-corruption compliance programs to meet the many challenges facing business today.  In particular, the webcast will

1. summarize global anti-corruption enforcement trends in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and other key countries;
2. recap the latest FCPA trials and their implications;
3. address today’s best practices for establishing and refreshing an effective anti-corruption compliance program; and
4. look at the importance of risk-based third-party due diligence.

The panel’s collective knowledge, gained from advising clients daily on the legal and business challenges posed in this area, will benefit directors, senior executives, in-house counsel, and compliance personnel alike.

Presenters:

• F. Joseph Warin serves as chair of the Litigation Department for Gibson Dunn’s Washington, D.C. office and as co-chair of the firm’s White Collar Defense and Investigations group.  A recognized expert in the FCPA and U.K. Bribery Act, Mr. Warin has served or is serving as FCPA compliance monitor (or counsel to the first non-U.S. FCPA compliance monitor) for three companies.
• Benno Schwarz is a member of Gibson Dunn’s White Collar Defense and Investigations and International Corporate Transactions groups.  Based in Gibson Dunn’s Munich office, Mr. Schwarz is an expert in global anti-corruption compliance having conducted corruption-related internal investigations throughout the EU, Russia, and China.
• Michael Diamant is a partner in Gibson Dunn’s Washington, D.C. office and practices in its White Collar Defense and Investigations group.  Mr. Diamant is an expert on the FCPA, the UK Bribery Act, and corporate compliance issues.
• Joseph Spinelli is a Managing Director in Navigant’s Global Investigations and Compliance segment and is a leading authority on white-collar crime matters with more than 30 years of forensic investigations experience, including as a special agent in the FBI and a principle in a Big Four accounting firm.

To attend this free webcast scheduled for Wednesday, February 29, at 12 pm Eastern, please sign up below.

A second “insider” at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. allegedly leaked tips to hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam, U.S. prosecutors told the judge presiding over the case of former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta.

The government’s disclosure about another Goldman Sachs tipster for Mr. Rajaratnam, who was convicted of insider trading in May, came during Tuesday’s arraignment of Mr. Gupta on revised insider-trading charges that broaden the scope of the alleged conspiracy. Mr. Gupta, 63, pleaded not guilty.

As a matter of fact, his over-hyped insider-trading prosecutions, the main focus of the Time piece, are doing the Street a favor, by targeting people who actually ripped off Wall Street — individuals like hedge fund managers Raj Rajaratnam and Danielle Chiesi, who functioned a bit like the goons who used to dope race horses in the old days.

via Preet Bharara’s toothless bite of Wall Street – Salon.com.

As the STOCK Act, a bill to stop insider trading by members of Congress, heads to the House of Representatives after passing a Senate vote, the House Democratic leader has become a specific target of the legislation. There are jobs bills and a payroll tax extension mired in Washington gridlock, but the STOCK Act is sailing through Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support, with a House vote expected Thursday.

via STOCK Act heads for House vote – CBS News.

In this webcast, two of the leading commentators in the FCPA area–Professor Mike Koehler and Howard Sklar-present sharply conflicting opinions on this key issue. Drawing upon his just-released paper on the topic (“Revisiting a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Compliance Defense”), Professor Koehler will argue in favor of Congress creating an FCPA compliance defense. He will explain why the unique aspects and challenges of complying with the FCPA in the global marketplace warrant a specific FCPA compliance defense and how the DOJ already recognizes a de facto FCPA compliance defense, albeit in opaque, inconsistent and unpredictable ways.

On the other side of the issue, however, Howard Sklar contends that there are two overriding reasons why Congress should not include a compliance defense to violations of the FCPA. Sklar contends that corporations will not see any incremental benefit from making effective compliance a defense, and, moreover, that taking discretion out of the hands of the prosecutors will create unintended and adverse consequences that will more than offset any slight benefit corporations see. In short, he will explain how the end result of any FCPA compliance defense would be a weakening, not a strengthening, of corporate compliance programs.

Please join panelists Mike Koehler, Assistant Professor of Business Law at Butler University; and Howard Sklar, Senior Counsel, Recommind, as they address these issues and your questions in this free webcast. To attend this webcast scheduled for Tuesday, February 21, at 1 pm Eastern, please sign up below.

Texas financier Allen Stanford drew on a secret Swiss bank account for personal expenses like yacht maintenance and to pay bribes, the government’s top witness said at Stanford’s fraud trial on Friday.

via Stanford had secret fund for bribes, yacht-witness. — Reuters

The measure the Senate approved Thursday to ban lawmakers from stock trading on inside information didn’t just pass. It waltzed through the chamber, gathering a whopping 96-vote majority in a bipartisan display that’s become rare in the extreme these days…. So considering the bill could have as easily been called the No Brainer Act, how could anyone vote against it? Well, three people found reasons: Republican Sens. Richard Burr (N.C.) and Tom Coburn (Okla.) and Democratic Sen. Jeff Bingaman (N.M.).

via Why three senators said no to an insider trading ban in Congress – The Term Sheet.

On Thursday, February 2, the Senate voted 96-3 in favor of its version of the STOCK Act, which bans members of Congress and their staff from trading based on inside information. The House is expected to consider the Senate-passed STOCK Act on the House floor next week.

via Senate Passes STOCK Act, House Will Consider Bill Next Week – Compliance Week.

Hank Walther has joined Jones Day as a partner in the firm’s Corporate Criminal Investigations Practice. Prior to joining Jones Day, Walther served as chief of the Health Care Fraud Unit in the U.S. Department of Justice, where he supervised all health care fraud investigations and prosecutions pursued by the Criminal Division. During his tenure at the DOJ, Walther was also a supervisor in the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Unit, where he oversaw foreign corruption investigations and prosecutions and coordinated with U.S. and foreign law enforcement, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and other federal agencies.

via DOJ Health Care Chief and Former FCPA Assistant Chief joins Jones Day.–Jones Day press release

James Davis, a college roommate of Stanford’s who went on to become his moneyman, told a federal jury in Houston yesterday that in the summer of 1991 Stanford handed him a document and asked him to fly with it to London. There, he was to take the document to a 10-foot square cubicle and fax it to a potential client. The purpose of the trip, Davis testified, was to hide the fact that the company named on the document’s letterhead, British Insurance Fund Limited, didn’t actually exist….

via R. Allen Stanford’s money man knew it was fraud – NYPOST.com.