Red Flags Rising

Mike and Brent return to discuss lessons from Brent’s Aikido instructor and Marine Corps combat veteran Frank Doran and how those lessons can help trade compliance professional work through compliance jams. Mike and Brent discuss the enforcement wave that unfolded in March 2026 (01:28); their March 10, 2026, National Security Law & Enforcement event in New York City (01:51); how that event was designed to get to practical solutions (02:30); the need today to have a broader “compliance aperture” (03:59); the importance of effective communication up to management and boards, especially around “central compliance risks” (the standard under Delaware law) (04:37); Carole Basri’s prediction that soon many companies will have Chief National Security Officers (05:31); two significant enforcement actions from Q1 2026 (07:42); the DOJ National Security Division’s March 30, 2026, announcement regarding voluntary disclosures (11:37); two significant indictments from Q1 2026 (12:06); boards of directors’ duty of oversight when it comes to national security (13:39); the relevance of increased agitation from the U.S. Congress for more enforcement (18:39); the status of the proposed Remote Access Security Act (19:35); and what is the compliance path forward, including Brent’s Fraud Four Circle Framework (21:57). Mike and Brent then conclude with a special edition of Brent Carlson’s “Managing Up” about Frank Doran and the meaning and importance—to not only infantrymen but also compliance professionals—of “Pull, Push, Tap, Aim, Fire” (24:40).
BIS enforcement actions: https://www.bis.gov/enforcement/export-violations
DOJ NSD Voluntary Disclosure Policy (Mar. 30, 2026): https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/reporting-voluntary-self-disclosures-violations-national-security-laws-under-department-wide
More about Frank Doran: https://aikido-west.org/frank-doran
Frank Doran, "Pull, Push, Tap, Aim, Fire" (1995): https://aikido-west.org/pull-push-tap-aim-fire
Boards of Directors and the Duty of Oversight: "Boards of Directors Lovin’ It after McDonald’s? A Fresh Look at Directors’ Duty of Oversight in the New Era of Sanctions & Export Control Corporate Enforcement," NYU PCCE Blog (Jan. 12, 2024), https://wp.nyu.edu/compliance_enforcement/2024/01/12/boards-of-directors-lovin-it-after-mcdonalds-a-fresh-look-at-directors-duty-of-oversight-in-the-new-era-of-sanctions-export-control-corporate-enforcement/
Brent’s Fraud Four Circle Framework article: "A Light Shines Through the Darkness in Disputes, Investigations, and Trade Compliance: A Fresh Look at the Classic Fraud Triangle with the Fraud Four-Circle Framework℠," NYU PCCE Blog (Jan. 8, 2026), https://wp.nyu.edu/compliance_enforcement/2026/01/08/a-light-shines-through-the-darkness-in-disputes-investigations-and-trade-compliance-a-fresh-look-at-the-classic-fraud-triangle-with-the-fraud-diamond-framework-sm/

Mike and Brent welcome Estelle Atkinson, a reporter with Global Investigations Review (GIR), to speak about her recent three-part series, “Fallen Chips,” published on January 26, 27, and 28, 2026 (linked in the show notes). They discuss how Estelle learned of the U.S. government investigation of Zenith Semiconductor in Chandler, Arizona (01:14); that company’s background (06:03); when employees started to realize that things were not quite right at the company and how that led to employees going to the FBI (08:19); how Estelle got to know the employees and why they were willing to help her with her story (10:30); how her experience illustrates more broadly the challenge companies have in responding to whistleblower reports or allegations (11:48); how diversion starts close to home, and is not always in some exotic “offshore” location (15:31); how U.S. administration policies to promote the export of the U.S. AI “stack” are not without controls or national security considerations (15:58); why success under America’s AI Action Plan and the American AI Export initiative will depend on effective, risk-based export controls compliance programs (16:21); the role of media in American life (19:14); why the standard PR or IR “playbook” of asserting “full compliance with the law” creates risks if companies aren’t expressly incorporating the full definition of “knowledge,” to include “an awareness of a high probability,” into export controls compliance (20:14); and what GIR readers can expect to see (or read) next from Estelle (20:49). Mike and Brent conclude with yet another installment of Brent Carlson’s “Managing Up” (22:39).
GIR: https://globalinvestigationsreview.com/
Fallen Chips Part I: Inside the FBI Raid that Rocked an Arizona Chip Start-Up (Jan. 26, 2026): https://globalinvestigationsreview.com/just-sanctions/article/fallen-chips-part-i-inside-the-fbi-raid-rocked-arizona-chip-start
Fallen Chips Part II: Silicon Secrets and the Risks Hiding in Plain Sight (Jan. 27, 2026): https://globalinvestigationsreview.com/just-sanctions/article/fallen-chips-part-ii-silicon-secrets-and-the-risks-hiding-in-plain-sight
Fallen Chips Part III: The Fault Lines of the US-China Tech War (Jan. 28, 2026): https://globalinvestigationsreview.com/just-sanctions/article/fallen-chips-part-iii-the-fault-lines-of-the-us-china-tech-war
More about Estelle: https://globalinvestigationsreview.com/authors/estelle-atkinson
Contact Estelle: [email protected]
Contact Brent: [email protected]
Contact Mike: [email protected]

Back in January 2024, Mike and Brent had the good fortune to meet Carole Basri at an event at NYU Law School. On this episode of Red Flags Rising, they welcome her as a guest to talk about her specialties: national security, geopolitics, and corporate compliance. They specifically discuss Carole’s extensive professional background (00:59), a new treatise on National Security Law that Carole, Mike, and Brent are writing for the Practising Law Institute (PLI) (04:00), an upcoming event co-hosted by the New York State Bar Association’s International Section, Corporate Compliance Committee and Morgan Lewis, to which the new Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement David Peters is an invited keynote speaker (08:18), why public enforcement officials remarks are relevant under U.S. export controls and other probability-based (i.e., “red flags”-driven) national security laws (09:26), how the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) was not only an example of that but also was really a child of an era where economic interdependency required a level of transparency and clean commerce to continue (12:00), and the relationship between Bretton Woods, Belt and Road, and Mike’s favorite book, Tales of an Economic Hitman, and what could be viewed with hindsight as effectively a U.S. policy decision to trade its own economic security for decades of (relative) world peace, increased global productivity, and increased living standards (16:52). Brent then closes out the discussion with the latest installment of his “Managing Up” segment (21:57), after which Mike makes some (further) book recommendations based on the discussion for those interested in further exploring some of the idea and concepts covered during the discussion:
Robert Lighthizer, No Trade Is Free: Changing Course, Taking on China, and Helping America's Workers (2023), https://www.amazon.com/No-Trade-Free-Changing-Americas/dp/0063282135
John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hitman (1st ed. 2004, currently on the 3rd ed. 2023), https://a.co/d/0fdEyBAg
W. Timothy Galloway, The Inner Game of Tennis (first published in 1972) (now a 50th anniversary edition is available), https://a.co/d/0hxybPKN
Daniel Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Slow (2011), https://a.co/d/03Q0vF0M
Michael Lewis, The Undoing Project (2016), https://a.co/d/09lcTL1M
More about Carole: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carole-basri-038998/
Contact Brent: [email protected]
Contact Mike: [email protected]
Interested in learning more about the March 10, 2026 event? Contact Mike & Brent at the email addresses above.

Mike and Brent return for the new year with a refresher on The Fraud Diamond Framework(SM) introduced in Episode 34 and an explanation of how it would apply in practice as trade compliance professionals try to expect the unexpected in 2026. They discuss the importance of designing and implementing “compliance backstops” as geopolitical guardrails (01:47), how Stoic philosophy and the good work of Mo Bunnell (CEO and Founder of Bunnell Idea Group, author of Give to Grow) help build resiliency (03:40), review The Fraud Diamond Framework(SM) (05:57), describe how the framework can help trade compliance personnel to make and defend triage decisions (10:59), the implications of many trade compliance programs reaching a point in their evolution where they need to be able to demonstrate true integrity and effectiveness (13:45), the new 25% tariffs on certain semiconductors (14:38), and notable economic sanctions enforcement decisions related to lawyers’ advice or lawyers themselves (15:56). They conclude with Brent’s first Managing Up of 2026 (21:04).

Mike and Brent welcome author and compliance professional Severin Wirz to the pod to discuss his first book, Bribery Beyond Borders: The Story of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. They discuss with Severin his inspiration for writing the book (02:44), the book’s focus on the people and personalities involved in the events between 1975 and the 1977 passage of the FCPA (05:50), the political and geopolitical scandals that kept up the momentum for a law banning overseas bribery (06:59), what his research uncovered beyond the traditional FCPA origin story (10:49), the relevance of the Cold War to the FCPA’s passage—specifically how corruption by capitalists fed into Communist propaganda (12:39), how the political “sausage” was made (16:33), stories of personal courage and risk-taking that made the FCPA possible (18:27), the use of the phrase “post-Watergate morality” as a critique of the FCPA and other reform efforts (21:48), how anti-corruption laws actually help American companies competing for business overseas (29:21), where the FCPA stands today (31:17), and how corruption is a social construct that, to paraphrase former federal appellate judge and author himself John Noonan, to exist as a legal concept must first exist in the minds of everyday people (35:40).
Mike and Brent then conclude with another installment of Brent Carlson’s “Managing Up” (38:14).
Bribery Beyond Borders: The Story of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act—
Learn more at Corporate Compliance Insights here: https://www.corporatecomplianceinsights.com/bribery-beyond-borders-fcpa-severin-wirz/
Available at Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Bribery-Beyond-Borders-Foreign-Practices/dp/1735028592
More about Severin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/severin-wirz-3574b574/
Contact Brent: [email protected]
Contact Mike: [email protected]