Tag Archives: Anouck Giovanola

Personal Liability for Compliance Officer in MoneyGram Settlement: Powerful Motivator or Chilling Deterrent?

by Erin Schrantz, Anouck Giovanola, and Justin Spiegel

On May 4, 2017, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (“SDNY”) and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) announced the settlement of civil claims brought under the Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”) against the former Chief Compliance Officer of MoneyGram International, Inc. (“MoneyGram”), Thomas Haider, stemming from MoneyGram’s failure to implement and maintain an effective anti-money laundering (“AML”) program or to timely file suspicious activity reports (“SARs”).[1]  The settlement represented the resolution of the first-ever suit filed by the federal government against an individual compliance officer in the finance industry,[2] and is likely to add fuel to increasing anxiety regarding the Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) willingness to hold corporate executives liable for compliance failings. Continue reading →

The First FCPA Pilot Program Declinations: Initial Returns and Unanswered Questions

by Anouck Giovanola and Justin Spiegel

On April 5, 2016, the Department of Justice’s Fraud Section announced a new Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) enforcement pilot program (the “Pilot Program”) designed to “promote greater accountability for individuals and companies that engage in corporate crime by motivating companies to voluntarily self-disclose FCPA-related misconduct, fully cooperate with the Fraud Section, and, where appropriate, remediate flaws in their controls and compliance programs.”[1]  The memorandum announcing the Pilot Program sets forth four prerequisites for corporations seeking to obtain credit under the program—voluntary self-disclosure of the misconduct, full cooperation with the investigation, timely and appropriate remediation, and disgorgement of all profits related to the violation—and describes the additional cooperation credit available to companies under the terms of the Pilot Program. Continue reading →