OFAC

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When I first heard the news last week that the U.S. Department of Treasury and other federal agencies had imposed penalties and settlements against Bank of America totaling more than $1.2 billion for anti-money laundering and trade sanctions violations, I told colleagues that we would not have to wait long for a follow-on D&O lawsuit. Sure enough, just days after the Treasury Department announcement, a plaintiff shareholder filed a securities class action lawsuit against the Bank and certain of its executives based on the defendants’ alleged misrepresentations concerning the bank’s compliance and internal controls. This type of lawsuit following in the wake of regulatory enforcement actions raises important and interesting issues, as discussed further below.

Continue Reading AML Penalties-Related Securities Suit Hits Bank of America

Bill Boeck

Ransomware attacks are on the increase, putting the target organizations in the uncomfortable position of having to decide whether or not to pay the demanded ransom. As if that were not tough enough, an October 1, 2020 advisory statement by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) warns that companies paying ransoms under these circumstances may risk violating OFAC regulations and could be subject to penalties. In the following guest post, Bill Boeck takes a look at the OFAC advisory and its implications.  Bill is Lockton’s Global Cyber Product and Claims leader and U.S. Financial Lines Claims Practice Leader. A version of this article previously was published as a Lockton client alert. I would like to thank Bill for allowing me to publish his article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this blog’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Bill’s article.
Continue Reading Guest Post: OFAC Warns Against Paying Cyber Ransoms to Sanctioned Entities

vascoIn the latest example of a case where alleged violations of U.S. trade sanction laws have led to a follow-on civil lawsuit, on July 28, 2015, a plaintiff shareholder filed a securities class action lawsuit against VASCO Data Security International and certain of its directors and officers. The lawsuit follows the company’s announcement that it has self-reported a possible violation of federal prohibitions against sales of goods to parties in Iran. A copy of the plaintiff’s complaint can be found here.
Continue Reading The Developing Phenomenon of Trade Sanction-Related Follow-On Civil Litigation

In a lawsuit suggesting a new area of potential liability for corporate directors and officers, a shareholder of J.P. Morgan Chase has filed a derivative lawsuit against the company, as nominal defendant, and certain of its directors and officers alleging breaches of fiduciary duty in connection with the company’s recent $88.3 settlement with the U.S.…