Compliance & Ethics

Federal officials have closed out the week with a one-two punch against False Claims Act misconduct, showing us how fraud takes different forms across the government programs millions of Americans rely on. One case centers on pandemic-era laboratory testing that investigators say sidestepped medical necessity and relied on kickbacks to fuel volume. The other involves international mail delivery, where logistics records were allegedly massaged to secure payments for timely performance that didn’t occur.

The UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has recently released updated guidance explaining how it evaluates corporate compliance programs during investigations and enforcement decisions, including newly added standards related to the “failure to prevent fraud” offense introduced under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA).

The Justice Department is pushing RealPage to unwind the software practices that federal antitrust officials say helped landlords move in lockstep on rent prices, a big shift authorities argue has undermined competition and contributed to surging housing costs for renters nationwide.

Lowe’s Home Centers is facing a $12.5 million penalty and a sweeping compliance overhaul after federal regulators said the company repeatedly fell short of lead-safety requirements during renovation work in older homes, work that stretched across hundreds of properties nationwide between 2019 and 2021.

Finnair is facing a big setback in a long-running antitrust investigation after Finland’s competition authority accused the airline of repeatedly providing misleading and incomplete information during the early stages of the case.

Cbus, one of Australia’s biggest superannuation funds, has been hit with a $23.5 million penalty after the Federal Court found the trustee failed to process thousands of death and disability insurance claims in a reasonable time, in some cases leaving families waiting more than a year for decisions at moments when they needed answers most.

Comunicaciones Celulares (better known as Comcel), the company behind TIGO Guatemala, has wrapped up a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigation that has managed to outlast joint-venture partners, ownership structures, and even an earlier DOJ case closure. The company’s newly finalized deferred prosecution agreement brings more than $118 million in fines and forfeiture, and a close to a decade-long saga that proves, once again, that FCPA matters rarely fade quietly into the night just because companies hope they will.