Insights

A typical instance of bribery occurs when an officer of a company bribes an official or politician. But who is the victim here – the company, whose assets were misappropriated, or the state, whose official abused his power? In English common law jurisdictions, the answer decides who receives any recovered assets, as Kobre & Kim’s Andrew Stafford KC and Evelyn Sheehan wrote in an analysis for International Comparative Legal Guides’ “Business Crime 2021.”

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Due to the global nature of fraud, and with rises in cases during the pandemic, it is important to stay abreast with developments in asset tracing tools around the world. Nine Kobre & Kim lawyers contributed three chapters on the ins-and-outs and latest trends of asset tracing in the British Virgin Islands, Hong Kong and South Korea in the newest edition of The Asset Tracing and Recovery Review.

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The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has enforced the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) at a record pace last year, building on a trend of the agency extending their reach extraterritorially, particularly over jurisdictions in Latin America. Kobre & Kim’s Evelyn Sheehan and Jason Short explain the DOJ’s expanding reach and provide some advice for private client professionals to navigate this landscape in an article for the Anti-Corruption Report.

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In the second episode of our “Wealth Talk” series on litigation scenarios facing high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) around the world, created by Kobre & Kim’s International Private Client (IPC) team and Wealth Briefing, Kobre & Kim’s John Han sat down with Robin Rathmell to discuss risks to HNWIs and their wealth professionals as they shift assets out of Hong Kong.

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“The coronavirus pandemic has created a legal minefield for companies,” opens the Wall Street Journal in a recent article exploring vulnerabilities such as remote working, complex government regulations and travel restrictions. Kobre & Kim’s Scott Hulsey, who specializes in complex government investigations and was a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice and Chief Compliance Officer at General Electric, sat down with the Journal to discuss the ins and outs of investigations work in an almost fully remote world.

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The ownership over TikTok is just the latest geopolitical fight between the U.S. and China, and a recently announced deal between TikTok and Oracle is now shrouded in uncertainty. Kobre & Kim’s Wade Weems, a Shanghai-based former U.S. Department of Justice National Security Division prosecutor, offers his thoughts on the deal in Politico.

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As the case of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou demonstrates, Chinese high-net-worth individuals can easily become targets of U.S. criminal charges and U.S. civil and regulatory penalties based on alleged economic crimes, even if they never step foot on U.S. soil. Kobre & Kim’s Wade Weems, Chang Liu and Nan Wang walk through the risks and offer some mitigation strategies in an article in China Banking News.

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Herbalife Nutrition Ltd. has settled with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) after a years-long investigation into Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations in China. Kobre & Kim’s Wade Weems, a Shanghai-based former DOJ prosecutor, analyzed the settlement with the Anti-Corruption Report.

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China’s enactment of the Hong Kong national security law, as well as the U.S. response, have caused many Hong Kong-based ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) and family offices to consider moving assets out of the region. Kobre & Kim’s John Han, Evelyn Sheehan and Wade Weems analyzed the relevant risks and offered some advice in an article for Law.com International.

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With TikTok’s partnership deal with Oracle cutting it close to the Trump administration’s September 20 deadline and falling short of an outright sale, Kobre & Kim’s Wade Weems, a Shanghai-based former U.S. Department of Justice National Security Division prosecutor, sat down with the Hong Kong-based newspaper South China Morning Post to examine the likely next steps.

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Despite, and in some cases because of, the pandemic, offshore jurisdictions such as the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands (BVI) central to global restructuring efforts have been undergoing notable changes. Kobre & Kim’s Ulrich Payne sat down with Burford Capital’s The Burford Quarterly as part of a roundtable discussion to examine these ongoing trends.

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In the first installment of a ten-episode series partnership between Kobre & Kim’s International Private Client (IPC) team and Wealth Briefing on the spectrum of litigation scenarios facing high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) around the world in 2020, Kobre & Kim’s Robin Rathmell sat down for a Q&A with Wade Weems, a Shanghai-based former U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutor, on risks facing international private clients in Greater China amidst ongoing U.S.-China trade tensions.

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What is the response to the latest attacks on the Ethereum Classic (ETC) blockchain, and what does this mean for the blockchain and digital currency industry as a whole? Kobre & Kim’s Benjamin Sauter, joined by CEO of ETC Labs Terry Culver, discussed these issues and more in a video interview with Forkast News.

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The usual response of companies to subpoenas from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is to cooperate. However, cooperation very often leads down a road to “organized surrender.” There is an alternate strategy that can bring success, Kobre & Kim’s Benjamin Sauter explained in an Op-Ed for Traders Magazine.

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A new framework between six antitrust agencies in five countries, including the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission, “confirms the increasingly cross-border nature of antitrust enforcement,” Kobre & Kim’s Benjamin Sirota told Compliance Week.

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