THE WEEKLY BRIEF

Thursday, March 12, 2026

Welcome to your look at what CCI is covering this week:

The FCPA Is Still Alive; a Former Coal Exec Found Out the Hard Way

There's a widespread view in compliance circles that traditional FCPA enforcement is effectively over — a casualty of the Trump administration's 2025 pause and pivot toward cartels and national security. A federal jury in Pittsburgh didn't get that memo. Last month, Charles Hunter Hobson, a former Corsa Coal vice president, was convicted on seven counts, including two FCPA violations after a nine-day trial.

In a Q&A with CCI, Eric Olshan — the former AUSA who built the original prosecution — explains what helped keep the case on track and why executives should never assume an employer's resolution protects them.

Remember: The FCPA’s bribery provisions carry a five-year statute of limitations (which some congressional Democrats are seeking to extend, by the way). Why is that relevant? Conduct happening right now is prosecutable well into the next administration.

LEGAL, RISK & REGULATION

What the Iran Conflict Means for Your Sanctions and Supply Chain Program

When regimes destabilize, the compliance exposure moves fast and stays long. The immediate risk surface — sanctions lists in flux, supply chains rerouting through the Strait of Hormuz, crypto outflows spiking — sits against an OFAC statute of limitations that just doubled to 10 years.
By Nick Henderson-Mayo, VinciWorks

COMPLIANCE PROGRAM BEST PRACTICES

The Incredible Shrinking Compliance Officer

Compliance keeps absorbing new mandates — ESG, AI governance, whatever's next — without absorbing new resources to match. Consider remedies more creative than "ask for more headcount."
By Mary Shirley, CCI columnist

• Why Compliance Stays Reactive — and What Legal Ops Can Teach It by Valerie Charles, Integreon

CULTURE & ETHICS

Culture and governance failures rarely announce themselves — they accumulate quietly, in what leadership tolerates and what boards fail to ask.

• No Compliance Tool Can Fix a Culture Where Shortcuts Go Unchallenged by Natalia Gindler-Corsini, Prae Venire

• Audit Committees: Resilient or Reactive? by Pat Niemann, EY
  

IN OTHER NEWS

• AI Is Transforming Life Sciences. The Oversight Structures Are Still Catching Up. by Katie Rubino, Wiggin and Dana

   

• Small and Midsize Banks Are Being Held to Large-Bank Standards. Have Their Compliance Programs Adapted? by Susanne Turnbo, Sendero

COMING NEXT WEEK

Watch this space for analysis of the DOJ's hot-off-the-presses department-wide corporate enforcement policy and an EU data privacy reality check.

Sponsored

DOJ priorities for FCPA enforcement are shifting. A new whitepaper from Ground Truth Intelligence explains what the post-pause strategy means for compliance teams.

What you’ll learn

• Why DOJ is focusing on corruption tied to cartels and national security

• The new urgency around third-party risk in high-risk regions

• How AI and OSINT expose shell companies and payment trails

• Why early detection and self-reporting still matter most

• Watch On-Demand Webinars

• Download Resources

• Visit CCI Press
• Join the Book Club

• Listen to Podcasts

• Review Upcoming Events

• Become a Contributor

• Advertise with CCI