Bribe, Swindle Or Steal

This podcast has become a bit of a holiday tradition on the podcast. Peter Hellman describes Rudy Kurniawan’s audacious scheme to defraud wine collectors in his excellent book, “In Vino Duplicitas: The Rise and Fall of a Wine Forger Extraordinaire.”

Bill Steinman, senior partner at boutique compliance firm Steinman & Rodgers, walks us through some continuing trends—and a few surprises--from 2019.

Olivier Catherine, Group General Counsel of Sonepar in Paris, describes in detail the company’s experience as the first to complete an audit by the French Anticorruption Agency (AFA), from the initial letter launching the review through the Sanctions Committee’s dismissal of all claims.

Kevin Chapla, a Civil Affairs Officer with the US Army, discusses the work his team has done with foreign governments and civilian populations to reduce the poaching and trafficking of wildlife in Central Africa.

We’re reposting a popular podcast during the American Thanksgiving holiday. We want to keep the fascinating Theranos story, still to be updated with Elizabeth Holmes’ fraud trial set for August 2020, in front of our listeners.

Paul Lavery of McCann FitzGerald in Dublin discusses the conflict between the GDPR’s emphasis on privacy and the requirement under anti-bribery laws that companies undertake reputational due diligence on their business partners. There is a direct and as yet unreconciled conflict between privacy and transparency.

Nicola Bonucci, Director of Legal Affairs at the OECD, describes successes and failures of the anti-bribery convention as well as some of the challenges still ahead.

Priyanka Goswami of Quad Law, TRACE’s partner firm in New Delhi, provides a great overview of the compliance landscape in India, together with a lot of very practical advice for companies operating there.

Sam Eversman with KsaUsaLegal in Riyadh talks about current anti-bribery efforts in Saudi Arabia, recently relaxed restrictions for women travelers and what, if anything, we can take away from the 2017 incarceration of the Saudi elite at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

Danielle Cannata, Senior Counsel, International Trade at SABIC, talks about some of the challenges, surprises and successes arising out of doing business in Saudi Arabia.

We’re not posting a new podcast next week. Our fantastic editor, Brad Shoemaker of Creative Zombie Studios, is getting married this weekend and is busy with more important things! Instead, we’re reposting Brad’s favorite TRACE podcast: "The Death of Sergei Magnitsky". We’ll be back next week with an interview from Riyadh.

Renee Dudley of ProPublica discusses her fascinating research into the unsettling world of ransomware: how it works, the role that “recovery services” play and where the ransom money ends up.

Jonathan Turner, Vice President, Ethics & Compliance, at Smith & Nephew in Memphis, discusses the admissions scandal that has rattled several top-tier U.S. universities and ties some of the lessons learned back to the work of compliance professionals.

Author Jim Rossi discusses the widespread, relatively low-dollar cons he uncovered in his book “Cleantech Con Artists” set in Las Vegas.

On today’s podcast, we speak with Merritt Smith of TRACE. Merritt has expertise in data science and public policy and the intersection of the two fields. We talk about how AI can support anti-bribery compliance and risk assessments, but also whether the advantages of AI have been overstated and underdelivered.

Peter Humphrey and his wife were well-respected compliance professionals active in China when they were arrested, tried and imprisoned for two years.

A 22-year veteran of Treasury and consultant to the Dept. of Justice, John Madinger sheds light on some of the money laundering schemes he has uncovered and why the Breaking Bad car wash scheme probably wouldn’t have worked.

We’re re-posting this excellent discussion of the Enron scandal with Peter Elkind. Peter is the co-author, with Bethany McLean, of the best book on the Enron scandal.

Bob Mackin, a multimedia journalist based in Vancouver, discusses the extradition case involving Meng Wanzhou of Huawei, the proposed new beneficial ownership registry for real estate in British Columbia and the occasionally shady influence of Chinese money in Canada.

Diana Henriques describes Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, discusses how difficult it is to uncover fraud by those who prey on the trust of others and addresses the simple, consistent controls that saved some investors from losses.