Compliance & Ethics

Brink’s Global Services USA, Inc. (BGS), a well-known name in currency transport, is paying the price for serious compliance failures. The company has agreed to millions in penalties following multiple violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), a key piece of U.S. anti-money laundering (AML) law. This settlement includes a $37 million civil penalty levied by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and a $50 million forfeiture linked to criminal charges for operating as an unlicensed money transmitter.

Lockheed Martin, the defense giant behind the F-35 fighter jet, has agreed to pay $29.74 million to settle allegations of inflating pricing on key contracts, marking another chapter in the ongoing scrutiny of government contracting. The payment comes on top of a prior reimbursement of $11.3 million to the Department of Defense (DOD) for similar violations involving undisclosed cost and pricing data.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has announced a major reorganization of its Division of Enforcement, with a renewed focus on fraud prevention and market integrity. Acting Chairman Caroline D. Pham unveiled the restructuring on February 4, 2025, aiming to streamline operations and more effectively allocate the agency’s resources to combating fraud while reducing the practice of "regulation by enforcement."

2024 was a year of growing momentum for the French National Commission on Informatics and Liberty (CNIL), as the watchdog took significant steps to ensure that businesses comply with data protection laws. With fines, compliance orders, and reprimands on the rise, the CNIL made it clear that GDPR violations would no longer go unchecked. The result? A year of record-breaking action in data privacy enforcement.

In a settlement with FINRA, Apex Clearing Corporation, a Dallas-based firm that provides clearing services for introducing broker-dealers, is paying a $3.2 million fine after being found in violation of securities lending regulations. While financial penalties are common in the industry, this case tells a much bigger story about trust, transparency, and accountability—issues that are increasingly at the heart of how financial services firms do business.

For a company that prides itself on transparency, Wise just got caught with its hands in the cookie jar. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has ordered the international remittance giant to shell out nearly $2.5 million in penalties for misleading customers about fees and failing to provide legally required disclosures. That total includes $450,000 in reimbursements to harmed consumers and a hefty $2.025 million fine.

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced yesterday that it is suing Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) to block its proposed $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks, a rival provider of wireless local area network (WLAN) technology. HPE and Juniper are the second and third-largest enterprise-grade WLAN providers in the U.S.