Aaron Nicodemus
Aaron Nicodemus covers regulatory policy and compliance trends for Compliance Week. He previously worked as a reporter for Bloomberg Law and as business editor at the Telegram & Gazette in Worcester, Mass.
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News BriefSpanish telecomm Telefónica S.A. fined $85M over bribes to government officials in Venezuela
A subsidiary of Spanish telecommunications provider Telefónica S.A. will pay $85.2 million to settle a charge that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act when it paid bribes to Venezuelan officials to gain preferential access to a currency auction.
News BriefNavy Federal Credit Union to pay $95M in fines, redress over ‘surprise’ overdraft fees
Navy Federal Credit Union will pay a $15 million fine and return $80 million in “surprise” overdraft fees to its members to resolve an enforcement action from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
News BriefU.K. sanctions 56 entities connected to Russia’s 'war machine'
The U.K. has issued 56 new sanctions against entities and individuals involved with Russia’s war effort, including several private mercenary groups operating in Africa that are connected to the Kremlin.
PremiumUnderfunding of BSA/AML compliance made TD Bank an unwitting partner to cross-border crime
Law enforcement officials stumbled on TD Bank’s role in money laundering while investigating a Mexican drug cartel. They found that the bank’s corporate culture considered compliance, particularly BSA/AML compliance, a low priority. As they dug deeper, authorities discovered that multiple money laundering schemes had infiltrated the bank’s network.
News BriefReal estate firm JLL fined by Canada’s FINTRAC for AML, KYC failures
Canada’s anti-money laundering regulator fined Toronto-based real estate firm Jones Lang Lasalle $107,827 Canadian dollars (U.S. $77,632) for six violations of its anti-money laundering rules, after discovering gaps in recordkeeping and reporting requirements for know your customer rules.
News BriefJPMorgan Chase to pay $151M in penalties, restitution to settle disclosure lapses
Two affiliates of JPMorgan Chase have agreed to pay $151 million to settle five separate enforcement actions for making misleading disclosures, breaching fiduciary duties, and other failures related to investors.
PremiumSpeakers at Compliance Week AI & Compliance Summit talk future rules around technology
While companies are exploring and building artificial intelligence technology, lawmakers and regulators are trying to identify what ground rules they need to set. These guardrails are what companies and governments alike believe are essential parts of ensuring safe and responsible use of the technology.
News BriefTreasury set to block investment flow on American AI, semiconductor tech to China
The U.S. Treasury Department has issued a final rule–and created a new division to oversee it–that will attempt to limit outbound investments to China related to sensitive technologies with military applications.
PremiumHow to adopt AI tools the right way at your company, from people who’ve tried
Companies are adopting artificial intelligence tools at a breakneck pace, but it’s increasingly clear that they set guardrails early. AI leaders say that approaching the technology with safety and ethics in mind will help ensure its upside benefits, while avoiding the significant risks it poses as well.
News BriefUnisys, three other firms fined a combined $7M for underplaying damage from SolarWinds hack
Four current or former public companies will pay a total of nearly $7 million in fines to settle charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission that they underplayed or failed to disclose material information about how the SolarWinds Orion hack affected them.
News BriefWisdomTree pays $4M SEC fine for including fossil fuel, tobacco securities in ESG funds
Fund management company WisdomTree will pay $4 million to settle allegations by the Securities and Exchange Commission that it improperly invested in fossil fuel and tobacco companies in environmental, social and governance (ESG) funds despite promising to avoid them.
News BriefDOJ proposes rule that would block sale of Americans’ personal data to Chinese, Russian firms
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has proposed a new rule that would regulate the use of Americans’ personal information by foreign companies and foreign persons in six “countries of concern,” prohibiting and restricting the sale of data to thwart the use of data for cyber-enabled activities, espionage, coercion, influence and ...
PremiumKeys to a successful GenAI use policy: Clear roles, training, vendor management
For all the hype surrounding generative artificial intelligence, the technology has been met with a healthy skepticism in the compliance community. Compliance practitioners want to know: Is it safe? Can it be deployed ethically? Are the risks greater than the rewards? And what should an AI acceptable use policy contain?
PremiumRaytheon parent RTX settles false claims, defective pricing, Qatar FCPA violations for $950M
The other shoe finally dropped for Raytheon and parent company RTX, as two U.S. regulators announced nearly $1 billion in penalties to settle defective pricing in defense contracts, false claims related to inflated prices on government contracts, and bribes paid to government officials in Qatar that violated the FCPA.
News BriefGovernment contractor fined $307K after third-party hack compromised personal data
It was a double whammy of cybersecurity no-nos for a federal contractor hit with a data breach: The personal data of Medicare beneficiaries contained in unencrypted screenshots were allegedly compromised when their third-party vendor’s server was hacked.
News BriefPoor internal controls led to FCPA violations in Moog’s $1.7M settlement with SEC
A company culture geared to “win business at any cost” encouraged employees of New York-based aerospace manufacturer Moog to pay bribes in India to win contracts, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged.
PremiumWhat’s your risk appetite? EU firms grapple with ‘ridiculously complex’ ESG reporting rules
Discussions on the increasingly complex ESG rules in the EU were the crux of some conversations at Compliance Week Europe, a two-day conference in Amsterdam Oct. 15-16. The event brought together Compliance Week and its sister organization, the International Compliance Association, and more than 200 GRC professionals across industries.
PremiumTD Bank fined nearly $3.1B by U.S. regulators for AML compliance failures
TD Bank will pay nearly $3.1 billion in penalties to four U.S. regulators to settle charges that it “chose profits over compliance” when it allowed three money laundering networks to filter more than $670 million in dirty money through the company.
News BriefSEC enforcement head Grewal to step down
Gurbir Grewal, director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement, will step down from his post Oct. 11. Grewal, who had served as the division’s director since 2021, will be replaced by Sanjay Wadhwa, currently the division’s deputy director, the SEC said.
News BriefT-Mobile reaches $31.5M settlement with FCC over multiple data breaches
T-Mobile, which experienced three huge data breaches in the past three years, agreed to pay $31.5 million in penalties and remediation for failing to protect millions of its customers’ personal information as part of a settlement with the Federal Communications Commission.