Latest Updates

August 4, 2024

Israel’s Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority Updates List of At-Risk Countries of the FATF

Following the Financial Action Task Force’s announcements, the Israel Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority published a list of countries and jurisdictions at high risk of money laundering, terror financing, and proliferation financing.

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July 15, 2024

Dr. Zvi Gabbay Conducts Workshop for El Al Managers

Dr. Zvi Gabbay and Zvi Rabin led the workshop "Prohibition on Using Inside Information – Do's and Don'ts" for a group of El Al managers. The workshop was held as part of a compliance, enforcement, and cyber week for senior management at El Al.

May 8, 2024

Significant Sanctions: Anti-Money Laundering Obligations in Israel

The Israel Securities Authority is tightening enforcement on companies, especially in the cryptographic assets sector, and is scrutinizing companies’ anti-money laundering procedures and policies and their implementation.

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March 3, 2024

Israel Securities Authority: Oversight of Unsupervised Entities

In a paradoxical twist, the Israel Securities Authority also monitors unsupervised entities, to prevent them from exceeding their operational parameters without a license. Consequently, the ISA possesses the power to request documents and information from these entities, emphasizing the importance of responding honestly and comprehensively to such demands.

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February 22, 2024

Risk to Israeli Entities Posed by International Sanctions – What Is the Exposure and What Are the Dangers?

The United States, the European Union, and other countries have been imposing economic sanctions on Israel for quite some time. The recent sanctions imposed on Israeli settlers suspected or convicted of committing violence against Palestinians may be a harbinger of a broad regime of sanctions that may affect business activities in Israel.

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November 23, 2023

Barnea: Webinar on the Work of Compliance Officers during Wartime

Our firm hosted a webinar in collaboration with the Association of Corporate Counsel in Israel on the issue of compliance during wartime. As part of the webinar, Dr. Zvi Gabbay, head of our firm’s Capital Markets Department, emphasized the compliance actions required during wartime by offering comparisons to other recent global war zones.

September 6, 2023

Compliance Forum: Israeli Association of Corporate Counsel Webinar

We held, together with the Israeli Association of Corporate Counsel, a webinar focused on compliance. Dr. Zvi Gabbay gave a lecture entitled, “What Do Regulators Want to See? Training and Implementation of Compliance Procedures.” Anat Shubat from our firm, along with Ella Chertok from ICL Group, explained how to combine creative thinking with best practices in compliance trainings.

May 29, 2023

SEC vs. Philips: Expansion of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

The SEC is expanding the application of US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act provisions. It is commencing law enforcement proceedings against non-American companies operating outside the United States and against actions that merely raise concerns of acts of corruption. Companies with international operations must familiarize themselves with the FCPA’s provisions and prepare accordingly.

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February 1, 2023

Dr. Zvi Gabbay Participates in “Conference to Open Year of Compliance – 2023”

Dr. Zvi Gabbay, the head of our firm’s Capital Markets Department, participated in the Israeli compliance community’s annual conference for 2023. He spoke in a panel discussion with Hani Amar, a partner at BDO in the corporate governance and regulation division, and Adv. Ariel Sagi, a compliance officer and board member at Rafael.

January 15, 2023

Podcast: Administrative Enforcement

Dr Zvi Gabbay, the head of our firm’s Capital Markets Department, guest starred on an episode of the podcast hosted by the Association of Corporate Counsels in Israel. The episode focused on tools for dealing with administrative enforcement.

Episode 30 – How to prevent an enforcement procedure and how to manage it correctly– Dr. Zvi Gabbay

December 20, 2022

Israel Securities Authority Seeks Permission to Expand Authority beyond Securities Offenses

The Israel Securities Authority is seeking to expand its power. If its draft bill is accepted, this will have far-reaching consequences, as the ISA will have the power to investigate offenses related to fraud, bribery, money laundering, and cryptocurrencies (which the ISA considers to be securities).

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December 19, 2022

Can DeFi Use Exempt a Project from Compliance?

Activity in the form of financial decentralization (Decentralized Finance - DeFi) does not exempt from requirements in the field of prevention of money laundering prohibition or compliance with sanctions. It turns out that DeFi is subject to the same "laws of gravity" as projects in the traditional financial industry.

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December 13, 2022

ISA – New Obligations for Foreign Brokerage Service Providers

The Israel Securities Authority’s (ISA) new draft amendment to the general permit to offer foreign brokerage services in Israel proposes to obligate permit holders to supervise the activities of marketers on their behalf. For example, permit holders must carry out due diligence examinations of marketers.

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June 23, 2022

Regulation: Internal Enforcement and Compliance

Yesterday, Dr. Zvi Gabbay, the head of our firm’s Capital Market Department, lectured for compliance officers at BDO’s financial academy. Zvi’s lecture focused on internal enforcement, which can significantly mitigate corporations’ exposure to enforcement proceedings being instituted by regulatory authorities, significantly reduce the pecuniary sanctions that might be imposed in respect of violations, and contribute to a corporation’s good reputation for maintaining a culture of compliance and integrity.

January 25, 2022

Dr. Avishay Klein Lectures on Privacy to Compliance Officer Training Course

Dr. Avishay Klein, who leads our firm’s privacy and data protection practice, gave a lecture to future compliance officers on privacy protection risks and the GDPR.

August 26, 2021

Adv. Dror Arad-Ayalon Joins Firm as Special of Counsel

Adv. Dror Arad-Ayalon has joined our firm as a special advisor in the fields of white collar, ethics, and defamation. Dror has earned a reputation for his extensive experience in representing defendants in criminal cases that have received widespread media coverage.

July 13, 2021

Webinar: Responsibility of Compliance Officers in Organization

The Compliance Forum of the Association of Corporate Counsel in Israel hosted a webinar this morning on the responsibilities of compliance officers in organizations. As part of the webinar, Dr. Zvi Gabbay discussed new trends and developments, as well as the normative basis for imposing personal responsibility on compliance officers in organizations.

November 26, 2020

What Do Massive Weddings Have to Do with Corporate Compliance?

Our firm organized a webinar for legal advisers and compliance officers, in partnership with ACC. As part of the webinar, firm partner Dr. Zvi Gabbay lectured on the connection between ethics and obedience. Are they in competition or do they complement one another?

To listen to Zvi’s lecture in Hebrew, click here

October 15, 2020

The Leaked FinCEN Files Harm the Fight against Money Laundering

In mid-September 2020, a series of articles were published by a group of foreign journalists, based on the collection and analysis of over 2,500 leaked documents from FinCEN, the US equivalent of the Israel Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority. The leak of such sensitive information may cause banks and financial institutions to think twice before reporting suspicious financial activity, which would be a mistake. Check out Dr. Zvi Gabbay's op-ed in Calcalist on the subject.

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September 3, 2020

Israel Securities Authority Publishes Sentencings Guidelines for Administrative Procedures

For the first time, the Israel Securities Authority has published Sentencing Guidelines for Administrative Procedures which contain the considerations guiding its determination of sanctions for individual violators and corporations in an administrative procedure.

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