Bribe, Swindle or Steal

Johan H. Andresen chairs the Council on Ethics for the largest sovereign wealth fund on earth. With over US$1 trillion in assets, Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global holds 1.3% of the world’s stocks, including investments in over 9000 companies across 70 countries. Andresen explains how the Council works to ensure that this vast array of investments reflects the values of the people of Norway.

David Montero discusses his new book "Kickback" and tells the story of how Saddam Hussein found collaborators willing to help him thwart the purpose of the Oil-for-food program and prop up his thuggish regime.

Michelle de Kluyver of Addleshaw Goddard provides an overview of Brexit and then drills down on its potential impact on specific compliance issues, including anti-bribery, AML and sanctions.

Pia Vining of TRACE discusses the five most common due diligence challenges her team sees and the growing sophistication of the international community of third party intermediaries.

Kara Brockmeyer, former Chief of the SEC’s FCPA Unit and now with Debevoise & Plimpton, discusses key enforcement actions, the shifting legal landscape and compliance trends from 2018, together with a few predictions for 2019.

Lisa Miller, Integrity Compliance Officer with the World Bank Group, describes the work her team does to help bring small-to-medium sized enterprises back into the fold after sanctions.

 For today’s holiday podcast, we’re re-posting the amazing story of wine fraudster, Rudy Kurniawan, who duped so many experts with his counterfeits.   Peter Hellman of the Wine Spectator tells the story in his excellent book:  In Vino Duplicitas

Tax evasion, money-laundering and fraud: Jeff Kelly Lowenstein describes his research--and that of colleagues--into the surprising forms of financial crime associated with lotteries. (Their research was supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism)

Bruce Horowitz of TRACE Partner Firm Paz Horowitz Abogados in Quito talks about current anti-bribery challenges and enforcement trends in Ecuador.

Robert Clark, Manager of Legal Research at TRACE, discusses the challenges associated with measuring something as widespread and varied as corruption and refinements to the 2018 TRACE Bribery Risk Matrix after another year of research.