WWCDA Annual Meeting 2024: Key enforcement trends from around the world

At this week's Women's White Collar Defense Association (WWCDA) Annual Meeting 2024, which I had the privilege to co-chair, I had the opportunity to moderate and sit in on a range of fascinating discussions.  

This included moderating an all-star panel – featuring Rita Mitchell, Isadora Fingermann, Rupinder Malik, Carolyn Fitzhugh McNiven, Anne Walsh and Nicole Willms – that addressed emerging enforcement trends from around the world, as well as new regulations, and an increased focus on individual liability. 

Here are a few of my takeaways from the discussion:

• UK: After a quiet period, expect the SFO, with a new director at the helm, to become more proactive and seek to widen its reach. Watch out for new strict liability offense for failure to prevent fraud under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023: companies with a U.K. nexus will need to consider a risk assessment and whether their compliance program is adequate to address fraud risk.  
• India: Notable developments include introduction of the revamped penal and procedural criminal laws and passage of new law strengthening protection of digital personal data. Ongoing expansion of anti-money laundering legislation to include cryptocurrency, EFTs, and other digital assets as regulated assets. Watch out for the upcoming rules under the new Digital Personal Data Protection Act and change in enforcement trends in cybercrime prosecutions.
• Germany: New whistleblower protection law went into effect in 2023, with companies required to set up external and internal reporting channels. However, the requirements do not fully align with U.S. standards and other EU regulations, so careful review is needed. Reassessment and strengthening of compliance processes and governance needed also due to new rigorous ESG supply chain due diligence and reporting regulation; investigations into this will be growing fast. Increased focus also on AML enforcement with a new German AML-Authority to be set up and the new European AML-Authority to be hosted in Frankfurt and planned for 2025.
• Brazil: The discussion highlighted its Supreme Courts’ scrutiny of leniency agreements and validity of some of the Lava Jato’s evidence. Last month, the Supreme Court suspended the payment of a BRL 8.5 billion (USD 1.7 billion) fine imposed on Odebrecht as part of the Leniency Agreement and authorized the company to renegotiate the terms to address concerns that there was unlawful pressure during negotiations. Also, a recent major case related to booking and records’ fraud may suggest a push for more investigations coming from CVM (Brazilian Securities Commission).
• U.S.: The discussion noted FDA’s focus on data integrity in premarket submissions. Every submission to FDA is subject to potential criminal liability for false statements contained in it and it is critical to scrutinize third-party testing data before submitting to FDA, particularly in light of the Responsible Corporate Officer doctrine that threatens individuals in the US.

In this audience of 300+ lawyers and consultants from across the globe, updates from Brazil, Germany, India, the UK, and the U.S., were supplemented by input and questions from lawyers based in Australia, France, and the Netherlands. 

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