Whistleblower News From The Inside -- January 20, 2017

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team

Las Vegas Sands agrees to pay nearly $7M to resolve FCPA charges — Las Vegas Sands Corp. agreed to pay a $6.96 million criminal penalty to resolve the government’s investigation into violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in connection with business transactions in the People’s Republic of China and Macao.  According to admissions by Sands, certain Sands executives knowingly and willfully failed to implement a system of internal accounting controls to adequately ensure the legitimacy of payments to a business consultant who assisted Sands in promoting its brand in Macao and the PRC, and to prevent the false recording of those payments in its books and records.  DOJ

Western Union will pay $586M for aiding in wire fraud — The global money service company Western Union has admitted it helped people commit wire fraud, among other criminal violations, and agreed to pay $586 million. The settlement is the result of an investigation that found Western Union was “willfully failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program.”   NPR 

Whistleblower wins 13-year campaign against HSBC — A lone whistleblower has won a 13-year “David and Goliath battle” against HSBC and Britain’s chief financial watchdog, resulting in a multimillion-pound compensation payout to thousands of people. The Financial Conduct Authority said HSBC had voluntarily agreed to set up a £4m compensation scheme for people who had lost out financially as a result of having to pay “unreasonable” debt collection charges imposed by two subsidiaries of the bank.  The Guardian