Michael Volkov is the CEO of The Volkov Law Group LLC, where he provides compliance, internal investigation and white collar defense services. He can be reached at [email protected].
Michael has extensive experience representing clients on matters involving the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the UK Bribery Act, money laundering, Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC), export controls, sanctions and International Traffic in Arms, False Claims Act, Congressional investigations, online gambling and regulatory enforcement issues. Michael served for more than 17 years as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Columbia; for five years as the Chief Crime and Terrorism Counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Chief Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security Counsel for the Senate and House Judiciary Committees; and as a Trial Attorney in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Michael also maintains a well-known blog: Corruption Crime & Compliance, which is frequently cited by anti-corruption professionals and professionals in the compliance industry.
GRC professionals in particular know the importance of tone at the top. When a leader has an ethical lapse, the ramifications can be far-reaching. Michael Volkov discusses the potential fallout of managerial misdeeds. Company managers are the linchpin of a corporate compliance program. Without belaboring the “Tinker to Evers to Chance” baseball analogy, a corporate culture of compliance requires an important information and...
Read more
Michael Volkov details the settlement between the U.S. OFAC and Haverly Systems, which was found to be in violation of federal sanctions.
Read more
Michael Volkov sheds light on recent False Claims Act cases brought against Duke University and MedStar Health – both with violations spanning multiple years.
Read more
The Department of Justice has recently amended its policy on corporate enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Michael Volkov covers the DOJ’s clarification of the de-confliction parameters, as well as its stance on the use of ephemeral messaging systems like WhatsApp.
Read more
News broke last week of a scandal in which high-profile executives and celebrities allegedly used bribery to secure their children’s admission to colleges across the U.S. Michael Volkov gives background on the story and its principal players. In a shocking announcement, federal prosecutors announced the arrest and charges against numerous individuals in connection with a nationwide criminal investigation focusing on college entrance...
Read more
What a difference a year makes — The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) announced two sanctions settlements in the beginning of 2019, a stark difference from 2018 when OFAC announced its first enforcement action in June 2018. Michael Volkov provides specifics on sanctions violations from Kollmorgen and the cosmetics company ELF. ELF Cosmetics On January 31, 2019, OFAC announced...
Read more
When companies are in financial straits, budget cuts are a reasonable expectation. But how deep should the cuts go when it comes to the E&C program? Businesses can’t profess their support for ethics and compliance and then strip resources away. A fundamental requirement for an effective ethics and compliance program is that it is supported by "adequate resources." This does not mean a...
Read more
Findings from NAVEX’s Annual Study NAVEX Global recently released the annual Hotline and Incident Management Report, a key tool compliance practitioners can use to benchmark and evaluate the performance of the company’s reporting hotline. Michael Volkov provides an overview of the findings, discussing trends and assumptions. Employee hotlines are – sorry about this – a "hot" topic these days in compliance. NAVEX...
Read more
The More Things Change, The More They Stay the Same With 2018 officially behind us, Michael Volkov looks at FCPA enforcement in 2018, discussing some of the DOJ’s most notable actions. Happy New Year! Another year is in the books for FCPA enforcement and compliance. The headline for this past year (like many other years) is/was – The more things change, the more...
Read more
And Striking the Right Balance to Fight It The reality is that the vast majority of corporations have a fraud problem to some degree. It’s a growing problem – one indicator pointing to a rise in overall economic crime globally. Michael Volkov outlines various methods to detect and prevent fraud and gives us a peek into the mind of a corporate fraudster....
Read more
To Prevent and Detect Compliance programs exist for the purpose of protecting against misdeeds, and the most effective programs are those that exist within a culture of ethics. Michael Volkov discusses the truism that a company’s culture and its compliance controls are mutually reinforcing. I do not think there is much disagreement on the basic purpose of an ethics and compliance program....
Read more
Why Your E&C Program Should Be Operationalized An ethics and compliance program is in trouble from the start if it meets with staunch opposition from any element within in the organization. Michael Volkov explains why the best programs are operationalized, with buy-in and cooperation from every function. The beauty of an effective ethics and compliance program is captured in the well-known phrase...
Read more
CCI is the Web's premier independent news source for compliance, ethics, audit & risk. CCI is owned and managed by CCI Media Group LLC.
