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As we close out the year, it is now time to begin the retrospective reviews and predictions for the New Year. I will try to keep them to a minimum but I find it important to reflect and look forward to new challenges. Compliance is a fast moving profession. More
Events
Webinar: Anti-Corruption Enforcement and Compliance -- The Year in Review January 5, 2016, 12 noon EST Sign Up Here The past year -- 2015 -- was another eventful year in global anti-corruption enforcement. While the US Department of Justice enforcement activity slowed, the SEC and other governments increased enforcement activity. DOJ&
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You know a company’s culture is suffering when you hear the CEO or senior executives say the best way to develop a “Speak Up” culture is to just tell all the employees “we want to hear from you.” I am an advocate for simplicity but sometimes simplicity can slip
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Lauren Connell, Managing Associate at The Volkov Law Group, joins us again for a posting about self-reporting FCPA violations. Lauren's profile is here, and she can be reached at lconnell@volkovlaw.com. One of the critical questions when evaluating a potential FCPA violation is to decide whether
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If your company is big enough and has the resources to consider establishing an internal ombudsman’s function, consider yourself lucky. When compliance professionals and lawyers use the term “ombudsman,” it is important to define how the term is being used. The most effective model for an ombudsman is the
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Just when you thought things could not get any weirder, along comes the New York Department of Financial Services and proposes a new regulation that sets forth minimum requirements for anti-money laundering transaction monitoring systems and sanctions watch list filtering. The regulations include an annual requirement that the Chief
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A Chief Compliance Officer can get so overwhelmed with risks that it is hard to keep their focus on priorities. Risks are everywhere and no compliance program can address every risk – the trick is keeping your eye on the ball and focusing on the significant risk. There are lots of
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DOJ’s compliance counsel, Hui Chen, pronounced this year as the compliance year of third party due diligence. This has been a good year for compliance, but I would not characterize this year as limited to third party due diligence. I am not sure why Ms. Chen focused on third
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The Justice Department’s hiring of Hui Chen as the new Compliance Counsel is an important development in DOJ’s prosecution of corporate defendants. It is not clear yet what impact Ms. Chen will have. At a recent event at NYU (video here), Andrew Weissmann, the head of the Fraud
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For years, companies and compliance professionals have largely dismissed UK Bribery Act enforcement risks. Ever since the effective date for the UK Bribery Act, defense lawyers have been waiting for the SFO to begin serious enforcement actons. Last week may be the beginning of a new era in UL Bribery
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I always use the “Streetcar Named Desire” line to describe the challenges a Chief Compliance Officer faces – CCOs depend on the kindness of strangers. It is a little bit of an exaggeration but bear with me. CCOs are not superheroes and cannot by themselves ensure an effective ethics and compliance
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Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.~ Vince Lombardi Like so many areas in life, a successful ethics and compliance program depends on teamwork. My last two postings, Parts 4 and 5, will highlight these