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The Morning Risk Report: Ericsson Accused of Breaching Bribery Settlement With Justice Department
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Good morning. U.S. prosecutors have determined that Ericsson AB has violated the terms of a $1.06 billion settlement agreement reached in 2019 over allegations of bribery in five countries, the Swedish telecom company said Friday.
The Stockholm-based company received correspondence from the U.S. Justice Department stating that the company had breached the agreement by failing to provide certain documents and information related to the settlement. Ericsson said it would continue to cooperate with the Justice Department and would have the opportunity to respond to the department’s letter. A department spokesman declined to comment.
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The Justice Department has occasionally issued public warnings about the consequences of violating the terms of a deferred prosecution agreement, but such breaches are rare.
The letter to Ericsson comes after a senior Justice Department official earlier in October said that breaching such agreements could lead to punishment more severe than was originally agreed to.
“We need to make sure that those who get the benefit of such an arrangement comply with their responsibility.” said John Carlin, a senior member of the deputy attorney general’s office. “If not, you should expect to see serious repercussions.”
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From Risk & Compliance Journal
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SEC’s Peirce criticizes conditions placed on Credit Suisse. A Republican member of the Securities and Exchange Commission criticized conditions placed on Credit Suisse Group AG as part of a reprieve granted to the Swiss bank in connection with its $475 million settlement over a fundraising scandal in Mozambique.
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Honeywell nears settlement with U.S., Brazilian authorities. Aerospace and industrial conglomerate Honeywell International Inc. said on Friday it has recorded a charge of $160 million to cover an expected loss related to bribery investigations by U.S. and Brazilian authorities.
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The federal court in San Jose, Calif. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
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Former Pfizer scientist says Theranos used logo without permission. The testimony supports claims by prosecutors that Theranos Inc. founder Elizabeth Holmes had forged a document to persuade investors that Theranos had been checked out and approved by Pfizer.
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Lev Parnas, Rudy Giuliani associate, convicted of campaign-finance charges. Mr. Parnas was charged with masking the true source of a $325,000 donation he made in the name of his energy company, Global Energy Producers, to a pro-Trump super PAC.
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Tom Burt, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for customer security and trust, in Washington earlier this year. PHOTO: ALEX WONG/GETTY IMAGES
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The Russia-linked hackers behind last year’s compromise of a wide swath of the U.S. government and scores of private companies, including SolarWinds Corp., have stepped up their attacks in recent months, breaking into technology companies in an effort to steal sensitive information, cybersecurity experts said.
In a campaign that dates back to May of this year, the hackers have targeted more than 140 technology companies including those that manage or resell cloud-computing services, according to new research from Microsoft Corp.
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Companies grapple with disclosing climate-change risks. When Bank of Montreal began considering how climate change could affect its business in 2019, it turned to others for help. The bank collaborated with a climate mapping company, used third-party software to study how its portfolios would fare under different scenarios and worked with academics at a Canadian university on a climate-risk research project.
Companies are racing to understand and communicate how a warming world could present new risks as investors press them for more information and regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, are exploring whether to make such disclosures mandatory.
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U.S. narrows focus to five technologies critical to dominance. The U.S.’s top counterintelligence official said he is narrowing his team’s focus to safeguarding five key technologies, including semiconductors and biotechnology, seeing their protection from rivals as determining whether America remains the world’s leading superpower.
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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Mark Zuckerberg at a Facebook town hall meeting at the company’s Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters in 2015. PHOTO: DAVID PAUL MORRIS/BLOOMBERG
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Facebook services are used to spread religious hatred in India, internal documents show. Mark Zuckerberg praised India in December as a special and important country for Facebook Inc., saying that millions of people there use its platforms every day to stay in touch with family and friends. Internally, researchers were painting a different picture: Facebook’s products in India were awash with inflammatory content that one report linked to deadly religious riots.
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Meanwhile, Facebook elsewhere increasingly suppresses political movements it deems dangerous. After the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, far-right activists launched an online campaign to form what they called a Patriot Party as an alternative to the Republican Party.
Facebook Inc. worked to kill it, citing information it said showed the movement was being pushed by white nationalists and self-styled militias who had worked to instigate the riot, according to internal company documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
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ESG gains could buy better terms in insurance program. U.S. companies deemed to have superior environmental, social and governance practices will be eligible for improved terms on directors-and-officers liability insurance policies under an initiative by a leading broker.
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A chartered cargo ship carrying containers at the Port of Portland, Ore., this month. PHOTO: NATHAN HOWARD/GETTY IMAGES
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Shippers find new supply-chain hurdles at alternate ports. When Flexport Inc. learned in the past month that an ocean carrier planned to shift cargo from the congested operations at the Port of Los Angeles to little Port Hueneme some 80 miles up the California coast, the freight forwarder found that trucking companies weren’t ready to go along with the changing direction of the imports.
Shippers looking to avoid bottlenecks at major gateways by diverting goods through alternate ports face tough tradeoffs and new questions.
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