On January 1, 2021, Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021. Included among its provisions is the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), which, in short, requires qualifying businesses to disclose so-called “beneficial owners.” The purpose undoubtedly is to root out shell companies that avoid detection, regulation or enforcement through complex, opaque ownership
Compliance
Ransomware is the Latest Major Risk for Compliance and Legal Departments
Over the past few weeks, revelations of ransomware cyber-attacks on U.S. businesses have rocked the country’s infrastructure and have held hostage companies’ computer systems that are necessary to provide essential services to the nation. In a typical ransomware attack, hackers exploit a security vulnerability to gain access to a company’s computer system. After gaining access,…
Antitrust Law Gets a “Like” From Federal Regulators in 2020
If it seems like 2020 was the year when everyone was talking about antitrust on their socially distant Zoom calls, that is because government antitrust lawyers have been busy. Just before the year began, the Department of Justice announced the formation of the Procurement Collusion Strike Force and, in January 2020, the Antitrust Division rolled…
Lock-up the Formula and Throw Away the Key: Recent Trade Secret Guilty Plea Highlights Continued Focus on China-related Trade Secret Prosecutions
Trade secrets are often a company’s most valuable asset, whether those secrets involve cutting-edge medical research or the formula for Coca-Cola. Businesses must take significant steps to protect these valuable “crown jewels” at all costs, whether by securing them on a network or a locked room, encrypting them, or restricting employee access on a need-to-know…
Not Very New Wine in an Old Bottle: Recent Revisions to the DOJ FCPA Resource Guide
The Department of Justice (DOJ) just released an updated version of its Resource Guide to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. While the new version does not announce any groundbreaking changes, it now includes updates and references to recently issued policies, such as the DOJ’s Corporate Enforcement Policy, Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs, and the Corporate…