FCPA Compliance Report

One of the areas that many companies have not paid as much attention to in their compliance programs is compensation. However, the DOJ and SEC have long made clear that they view monetary structure for compensation, rewarding those employees who do business in compliance with their employer’s compliance program, as one of the ways to reinforce the compliance program and the message of compliance....

One of the key goals of any compliance program is to train employees in awareness and understanding of the FCPA; your specific company compliance program; and to create and foster a culture of compliance. While it seems axiomatic that compliance training is a mainstay of any best practices compliance program, the conversation around training has evolved over the years. The 2012 FCPA Guidance start...

What is the message of compliance inside of a corporation and how it is distributed? In a compliance program, the largest portion of your consumers/customers are your employees. Social media presents some excellent mechanisms to communicate the message of compliance going forward. Many of the applications that we use in our personal communications are free or available at very low cost. Why not ta...

A 360-degree view of compliance is an effort to incorporate your compliance identity into a holistic approach so that compliance is in touch with and visible to your employees at all times. It is about creating a distinctive brand philosophy of compliance which is centered on your consumers. In other words, it helps a compliance practitioner to anticipate all the aspects of your employees needs ar...

What specifically are internal controls in a compliance program? The starting point is the FCPA itself, which requires issuers to devise and maintain a system of internal controls that can reasonably assure: Transactions are executed in accordance with management’s general or specific authorization; Transactions are recorded as necessary (I) to permit preparation of financial statements in conform...

There are numerous reasons to put some serious work into your compliance policies and procedures. They are certainly a first line of defense when the government comes knocking. The Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs - Guidance Document (2019 Guidance) made clear that “Any well-designed compliance program entails policies and procedures that give both content and effect to ethical norms an...

What is the value of having a Code of Conduct? In its early days, a Code of Conduct tended to be lawyer-written and lawyer-driven to wave in regulator’s face during an enforcement action as proof of ethical overall behavior. Is such a legalistic code effective? Is a Code of Conduct more than simply your company’s internal law? What should be the goal in the creation of your company’s Code of Condu...

In the Episode, I visit with Ephraim (Fry) Wernick. He is a partner in the Government Investigations and White-Collar Practice Group at Vinson & Elkins LLP in Washington, DC. Mr. Wernick joined V&E in June 2019 after serving 11 years as a federal prosecutor, including most recently as Assistant Chief of the U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, where he supervised dozens o...

In addition to a company’s senior management, there is a Board of Directors at the top. Yet the role of the Board is different than that of senior management. For the Board of Director, the Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs - Guidance Document (2019 Guidance) stated: Oversight – What compliance expertise has been available on the board of directors? Have the board of directors and/or ext...

Mike Volkov, in a blog post entitled “Mood in the Middle Versus Tone at the Top”, said, “Even when a company does all the right things at the senior management level, the real issue is whether or not that culture has embedded itself in middle and lower management. A company’s culture is reflected in the values and beliefs that exist throughout the company.” To fully operationalize your compliance...

Obviously, in every compliance program, the ethical tone of a company and accountability all starts at the top and most specifically senior management. The Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs - Guidance Document (2019 Guidance) stated, “The company’s top leaders – the board of directors and executives – set the tone for the rest of the company. Prosecutors should examine the extent to whic...

Operationalizing your compliance program can take many shapes and forms. Using the entire risk management process to embed your compliance program within the contours of your organization is an important key step that will allow you to have full visibility of your compliance risks through a longer life cycle. Forecasting allows you to consider your business strategy and wed the risks you can fores...

2019 was a very significant year for every compliance practitioner and compliance program. Not only was it the year with the single highest amount of FCPA enforcement actions, fines and penalties assessed against corporations but it also saw the greatest number of individual prosecutions. Yet perhaps most significantly there were three noteworthy releases of information by the federal government w...

In the Episode, I visit with Karen Woody, Assistant Professor of Law at Washington and Lee. Karen was in private practice for many years before going into Academia. She specializes in the SEC and issues around the Commission. Some of the highlights include: Karen moved this year from the Indiana University-Kelly School of Business to the Law School at Washington and Lee. We discuss some of the dif...

In the Episode, I visit with James Koukios, a partner at Morrison and Foerster in Washington DC. Koukios is a former prosecutor from the Department of Justice who worked in the FCPA Unit. He is back to discuss the firm’s monthly newsletter the Top 10 International Anti-Corruption Developments for October 2019. Some of the highlights include: ·       The DOJ Issues Guidance on Corporate Inability-t...

In the Episode, I visit with James Koukios, a partner at Morrison and Foerster in Washington DC. Koukios is a former prosecutor from the Department of Justice who worked in the FCPA Unit. He is back to discuss the firm’s monthly newsletter the Top 10 International Anti-Corruption Developments for September 2019. In this podcast we discuss: What are you key takeaways from the 3 fiscal year ending F...

In this episode I visit with Stacie Hartman, co-chair of the Financial Services Group at Steptoe & Johnson LLP. She offers insight in how this new appeal to whistleblowers could impact the type or volume of enforcement cases within the CFTC. Stacie leads major cases in courts around the country and in enforcement proceedings before the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Securities and Ex...

Welcome to a special five-part podcast series from the Compliance Podcast Network. In this series I am taking a look at the Hughes Hubbard & Reed 2019 FCPA and Anti-Bribery Alert. I visit with five firm lawyers involved in the preparation of the report, each of whom is a subject matter expert in an area of the FCPA and anti-corruption. In this Part 5, I visit with Salim Saud, Partner at Saud Advog...

Welcome to a special five-part podcast series from the Compliance Podcast Network. In this series I am taking a look at the Hughes Hubbard & Reed 2019 FCPA and Anti-Bribery Alert. I visit with five firm lawyers involved in the preparation of the report, each of whom is a subject matter expert in an area of the FCPA and anti-corruption. In this Part 2, I visit with Laura Perkins, co-Executive Edito...

Welcome to a special five-part podcast series from the Compliance Podcast Network. In this series I am taking a look at the Hughes Hubbard & Reed 2019 FCPA and Anti-Bribery Alert. I visit with five firm lawyers involved in the preparation of the report, each of whom is a subject matter expert in an area of the FCPA and anti-corruption. In this Part 3, I visit with Bryan Sillaman, Managing Partner...

Welcome to a special five-part podcast series from the Compliance Podcast Network. In this series I am taking a look at the Hughes Hubbard & Reed 2019 FCPA and Anti-Bribery Alert. I visit with five firm lawyers involved in the preparation of the report, each of whom is a subject matter expert in an area of the FCPA and anti-corruption. In this Part 4, I visit with Michael DeBernardis, on developme...

Welcome to a special five-part podcast series from the Compliance Podcast Network. In this series I am taking a look at the Hughes Hubbard & Reed 2019 FCPA and Anti-Bribery Alert. I visit with five firm lawyers involved in the preparation of the report, each of whom is a subject matter expert in an area of the FCPA and anti-corruption. In this Part 1, I visit with Kevin Abikoff, co-Executive Edito...

In this episode I visit with Lauren Briggerman, Member at Miller & Chevalier and Katherine Pappas, Counsel at Miller & Chevalier about the firm’s most recent edition of the publication Executives at Risk, the Summer/Fall 2019 edition. Some of the highlights include:  What is the publication “Executives at Risk”? What were some of the noteworthy Investigations covered in the report? a. Pharma Execu...

In this special five-part podcast series, I have been joined by Mikhail Reider-Gordon, Managing Director of Global Affairs at Affiliated Monitors, Inc. (AMI) the sponsor of this podcast series. We have discussed various aspects of monitorships, including why independence matters, the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Guidelines on Monitors, Gordon’s professorial career at the International Anti-Cor...

In this special five-part podcast series, I am joined by Mikhail Reider-Gordon, Managing Director of Global Affairs at Affiliated Monitors, Inc. (AMI) the sponsor of this podcast series. In this series we discuss various aspects of monitorships, including why independence matters, the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Guidelines on Monitors, Gordon’s professorial career at the International Anti-Co...