Recent pronouncements made by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission leadership, alongside the recent overhaul of the SEC Enforcement Manual, collectively signal a back-to-basics enforcement approach that appears beneficial for companies in their dealings with the agency.
Jaclyn Jaeger
Jaclyn Jaeger is a freelance contributor to Compliance Week after working for the company for 15 years. She writes on a wide variety of topics, including ethics and compliance, risk management, legal, enforcement, technology, and more. Prior to joining CW, she spent four years as a legal reporter for Lawyer’s Weekly. Jaclyn attended undergraduate school at St. Joseph’s College of Maine and graduate school at Emerson College, earning degrees in journalism.
Posted inEthics & Culture
False Claims Act enforcement themes for 2026
The U.S. Department of Justice touted a record $6.8 billion in False Claims Act (FCA) recoveries in fiscal year 2025, much of that total stems from prior years’ cases and does not necessarily reflect the administration’s current enforcement direction.
Posted inRisk Management
New York governor’s veto narrows scope of New York LLC Transparency Act; Here’s What to Know
Certain non-U.S. LLCs that were formed under the law of a foreign country and authorized to do business in New York State must prepare now to ensure compliance with new beneficial ownership information disclosure requirements, or potentially face hefty penalties.
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
National Fraud Enforcement Division: A dangerous escalation of compliance risk
Chief compliance officers and general counsel, beware: The Trump administration’s merging of its whole-of-government enforcement approach with its political agenda forewarns of escalating compliance risk on a national scale.
Posted inFinancial Services
SEC closes FCPA probe into Calavo Growers
The Securities and Exchange Commission has closed its Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigation into Calavo Growers, three months after the Department of Justice closed its FCPA investigation into the produce and agriculture company.
Posted inRisk Management
Oil and gas executives mull the real costs of Venezuelan oil
U.S. oil and gas companies strong-armed into participating in the nationalization of Venezuela’s oil industry decades ago now face government pressure of the opposite kind: Invest billions into rebuilding a dilapidated oil and gas infrastructure for a high-risk country that still owes billions in unsettled debts.
Posted inAnti-Bribery
Tariff evasion enforcement: The new FCPA
Companies that import goods into the United States will face heightened enforcement scrutiny for attempted acts of customs fraud, including tariff evasion, under the Trump administration. Thus, chief compliance officers and in-house counsel face a new kind of pressure to ensure they are mitigating risk in this area.
Posted inEthics & Culture
Misused and abused: What the President’s pardon power would do to your compliance team
President Donald Trump’s unprecedented misuse and abuse of a pardon power that dates back 250 years serves as a real-world scenario of what can happen when a system of checks-and-balances – like, say, a corporate ethics and compliance program – is upended by a tyrannical executive.
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
Part Two: FCPA cases closed by DOJ, SEC since January
Since the start of the Trump Administration, the Department of Justice has been winding down a number of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigations with little public attention. This second article further explores how and why these FCPA matters have been closed.
Posted inAnti-Bribery
Part One: A case-by-case analysis of FCPA investigation closures
Foreign corruption enforcement relating to national security matters has been a common theme under the Trump administration. A second common theme continues to be the discrete way in which the DOJ has ended several FCPA investigations.
