Compliance & Ethics

Two Canadian steel companies and one of their top executives have agreed to pay $19 million to resolve allegations that they evaded customs duties by falsely declaring the origin of imported steel products entering the United States. Canada-based Farjess, Royal Canadian Steel, and part-owner and president Feroz Jessani allegedly avoided paying duties on flat-rolled steel products by misrepresenting their countries of origin to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The OCC has outlined a series of supervisory and regulatory changes aimed at reducing burden on community banks while preserving what the agency described as a risk-based approach to oversight. The reforms touch everything from Community Reinvestment Act examinations to capital calculations, model risk management, and cybersecurity reviews.

A federal judge in Nevada has ordered payment processor Cliq and two of its executives to pay $6.5 million in sanctions after finding they violated a 2015 court order intended to prevent the company from facilitating consumer fraud.

Reuters first reported on Sunday night that France’s Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority (ACPR) had sanctioned Societe Generale with a reprimand and a €20 million fine tied to failures in its role as an insurance intermediary. According to the regulator, the bank failed to comply with pre-contractual information obligations and its duty to advise customers when selling both bundled and standalone insurance products.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s campaign against state crackdowns on prediction markets reached Minnesota on Tuesday, as the agency filed suit to block a new law that would make operating or assisting in the operation of a prediction market a criminal felony.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced this week that Adani Enterprises Limited agreed to pay $275 million to settle allegations tied to 32 apparent violations of U.S. sanctions on Iran after importing liquified petroleum gas that American authorities say actually originated there.

The Federal Court of Australia has ordered the operator of online retailer Snaffle to pay $21.7 million (AUD 33.5 million) in penalties after finding the company unlawfully overcharged tens of thousands of consumers through its credit contracts.