WEBINAR DETAILS
Date: 29 October 2020
Time: 1:30 PM UTC
Duration: 60 min
Language: English
Format: Online
This webinar is over - watch on demand here
WEBINAR DESCRIPTION

Worldwide: Global Investigations During the Covid 19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on nearly all aspects of businesses and governments around the world, including the conduct of internal investigations and law enforcement actions, but taking steps to remain fully compliant with policy and law has been further complicated by inconsistencies in enforcement from one jurisdiction to the next. In some jurisdictions, we have noted a continued slowdown in law enforcement activity, while in others we are seeing a relative return to normalcy. The challenge at the heart of the pandemic, given this range of official responses, is that while law enforcement may not be as visible, the expectations of governance, compliance, self-reporting, or response to criminal misconduct remain largely unchanged. Providence and lessons from the 2008 financial crisis have provided some useful insights on how criminal misconduct risks, including increased fraud and bribery, intertwine with pandemic-related business disruption. Against this backdrop, our expert panel – covering the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and India – will discuss how internal investigations and law enforcement expectations may have changed, how companies should respond to such issues in the new normal, and suggest best practices to mitigate or avoid government investigations.

SPEAKERS
Sherbir Panag

Sherbir Panag is the chair of Panag & Babu’s, internationally acclaimed and highly respected – Compliance and Investigations Practice. Sherbir has deep experience in defending multinational companies and conducting internal investigations in matters involving criminal and regulatory proceedings, as well as counselling clients on navigating India in a compliant manner. Sherbir’s practice has consistently been listed as a market leader for white collar crime in India and is ranked by Who’s Who Legal, Global Investigations Review, Chambers & Partners and the Legal 500. Through the course of his career, Sherbir has helped multinational companies across sectors, address their complex and sensitive issues. Sherbir has led investigations and acted as defence counsel in some of India’s most high profile cases, which have also had an interplay with law enforcement in the United States, Europe and Asia. These matters have involved allegations of bribery and other misconduct under Indian and foreign anti-corruption laws such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, U.K. Bribery Act; financial and regulatory fraud (e.g., non-performing assets / loan impairment, tax evasion, insolvency and bankruptcy proceedings); procurement fraud; infrastructure fraud (e.g., misuse of development funds sanctioned by multilateral development banks); violation of sanctions laws; and violation of corporate governance and corporate policy norms.

David Simon

David W. Simon leads Foley’s Government Enforcement Defense & Investigations International Practice, representing clients particularly in the areas of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), government enforcement, and the conduct of internal investigations to preempt or mitigate actions taken by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and other enforcement agencies. His practice focuses on (1) conducting domestic and international internal investigations, (2) successfully defending companies and senior executives in enforcement actions and litigation with the government, and (3) delivering practical regulatory advice and building compliance programs to help avoid enforcement actions in the first place. David is experienced in guiding corporate boards and company management through challenging government enforcement matters and understands that corporate compliance problems are fundamentally business problems that require business-centric solutions.

Eike Grunert

Eike is head of the German Compliance practice and a member of the firm-wide White Collar Crime, Investigations & Compliance team. He advises large and medium-sized businesses and corporations in the areas of corporate compliance and internal corporate investigations. Eike conducts comprehensive compliance risk assessments, special audits on behalf of corporations as well as national and international regulators, and internal investigations, for example, corruption, fraud, and tax. He has extensive experience in international cross-border investigations, and has conducted compliance investigations, audits and reviews in over 40 countries over the past years, including, among other, China, Hong Kong, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Argentina, Russia, Switzerland, various CEE countries, Italy, the US, and other. Eike's practice has a particular focus on the design, implementation, monitoring, review, and effectiveness assessment of Compliance Management Systems for the most relevant risk areas, not limited to corruption, antitrust, treasury/financial controls, procurement & logistics (including export controls and sanctions), contract management, workforce, fraud, tax, information and data protection and product compliance. Eike has published various articles and books and regularly presents on compliance related topics such as business partner compliance, supply chain management, corporate liability, internal investigations, and gatekeeper liability. Further, Eike was a jury panel member on the first compliance management system benchmarking analysis of the German DAX 30 corporations published by Fuchs Briefe in 2017.

Jason Sugarman

Jason Sugarman QC has been a practising Barrister specialising in white-collar commercial fraud cases for some 21 years. Jason’s expertise extends to corporate criminal matters such as Intra-Community Carousel fraud, Serious Fraud Office Prosecution and defending commercial wrongdoing cases, Financial Service Regulation and corruption cases. Jason has over 20 years’ experience of dealing with government departments including: SFO (A List since 2013-17) BIS (formerly DTI), Customs and Revenue and Department of Work and Pensions. He has also been instructed a grade 4 specialist CPS prosecutor with specialisms in fraud and serious sexual offences including rape.

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