Balt and TradeStation: Lessons for the Compliance Professional

The award-winning Compliance into the Weeds is the only weekly podcast that takes a deep dive into a compliance-related topic, literally going into the weeds to explore it more fully. Looking for some hard-hitting insights on compliance? Look no further than Compliance into the Weeds! In this episode of Compliance into the Weeds, Tom Fox and Matt Kelly look at the Declination awarded to Balt SAS and the OFAC enforcement action involving TradeStation. First, they review a Corporate Enforcement Policy declination for French medical-equipment company BAL SAS and the company’s U.S. subsidiary after self-disclosing, cooperating and remediating misconduct involving a U.S. subsidiary executive and a Belgian consultant allegedly funneling about $600,000 in bribes to a French public hospital official using sham consulting agreements, invoices, and poor documentation; BAL disgorged about $1.21 million in profit on roughly $1.68 million in revenue and disclosed while its internal investigation was still ongoing, raising timing and high-margin red-flag issues. Second, they cover OFAC’s $1.1 million settlement with TradeStation for accidentally disabling sanctions-screening controls for nearly a year, enabling hundreds of transactions from Iran, Syria, and Crimea; despite having layered tools on paper, IT changes and lapsed subscriptions undermined those controls, underscoring the need for ongoing monitoring, testing, and auditing. Key highlights: Balt FCPA Case Disclosure Timing Profit Margin Red Flags Controls and France Angle TradeStation Overview How Screening Failed Monitoring and Accountability Costs and OFAC Lessons Resources: Matt in ⁠Radical Compliance⁠ Tom in the ⁠FCPA Compliance Report⁠ Tom ⁠Instagram⁠ ⁠Facebook⁠ ⁠YouTube⁠ ⁠Twitter⁠ ⁠LinkedIn⁠ A multi-award-winning podcast, Compliance into the Weeds was most recently honored as one of the Top 25 Regulatory Compliance Podcasts, a Top 10 Business Law Podcast, and a Top 12 Risk Management Podcast. Compliance into the Weeds has been conferred a Davey, a Communicator Award, and a W3 Award, all for podcast excellence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices