Host Gregg N. Sofer welcomes Husch Blackwell’s Christopher Budke and Rick Shimon to the podcast to discuss when, why, and how corporate legal departments should turn to external investigators to execute internal investigations.
Host Gregg N. Sofer welcomes Husch Blackwell’s Christopher Budke and Rick Shimon to the podcast to discuss when, why, and how corporate legal departments should turn to external investigators to execute internal investigations.
Not all corporate crises or government inquiries require the expense associated with bringing on external investigators; however, as Gregg, Chris, and Rick note, incomplete or ineffective internal investigations can generate significant legal liability that escalate over time.
The podcast discussion provides practical tips to business and legal department leaders as to how to assess various government requests or demands for information, including the initial scope of the request, the importance of maintaining open channels of communication with the government, and the value of knowing with a high degree of confidence what precisely is being produced pursuant to an investigative request.
Gregg N. Sofer Biography
Gregg counsels businesses and individuals in connection with a range of criminal, civil and regulatory matters, including government investigations, internal investigations, litigation, export control, sanctions, and regulatory compliance. Prior to entering private practice, Gregg served as the United States Attorney for the Western District of Texas—one of the largest and busiest United States Attorney’s Offices in the country—where he supervised more than 300 employees handling a diverse caseload, including matters involving complex white-collar crime, government contract fraud, national security, cyber-crimes, public corruption, money laundering, export violations, trade secrets, tax, large-scale drug and human trafficking, immigration, child exploitation and violent crime.
Christopher Budke Biography
A 30-year veteran of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Chris uses his deep understanding of investigations to assist Husch Blackwell attorneys on a wide range of client representations. His broad base of experience includes complicated multinational, national, and regional criminal investigations with an emphasis in white-collar and financial crime, public corruption, health care fraud, organized crime, money laundering, criminal enterprise investigations and civil rights. Chris is a licensed Certified Fraud Examiner and has passed all parts of the Certified Public Accounting (CPA) examination.
Rick Shimon Biography
With over two decades as a federal agent, Rick has investigated countless criminal, civil and regulatory matters, including violations of export controls, sanctions and regulatory compliance, and has regularly counseled business leaders nationwide concerning U.S. export regulations and internal compliance programs. During his 22 years as a criminal investigator with the U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Export Enforcement (OEE), Rick led or supervised dozens of national security-focused investigations involving aircraft, electronics, satellites and other commodities controlled by the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 and International Emergency Economic Powers Act. As a recognized subject matter expert, Rick was regularly asked to conduct training across the nation for agents, lawyers and compliance professionals regarding the complex regulations that govern the export of U.S. goods and technology, as well as the necessary elements of an effective compliance program.