Potential sanctions violations: To voluntarily self-disclose or not?

When Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco first described sanctions as “the new FCPA,” the risk landscape changed.

The idea of the Department of Justice (DOJ) scrutinizing sanctions on par with how it views bribery and corruption under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act alters the calculus of whether a company should voluntarily self-disclose potential violations.

“Part of what’s so scary about this for companies and in-house compliance professionals is that sanctions have traditionally been strict liability,” said Jessica Sanderson, partner at Volkov Law Group, during a panel discussion at Compliance Week’s Third-Party Risk Management Summit in Atlanta. “You don’t really need to know that you’re violating the law to be held responsible—at least for the administrative penalties.”