FCPA Compliance Report

Many companies have an investigation protocol in place when a potential Foreign Corruption Practices Act (FCPA) or other legal issue arises? However, many Boards of Directors do not have the same rigor when it comes to an investigation, which should be conducted or led by the Board itself. The consequences of this lack of foresight can be problematic, because if a Board of Directors does not get a...

In the case of Kokesh v. SEC, the US Supreme Court held the profit disgorgements operate as a penalty under the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. As such “any claim for disgorgement in an SEC enforcement action must be commenced within five years of the date the claim accrued.” The position of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) at the Supreme Court and in all other matters...

One of the things that I learned from the television series M*A*S*H was the need for triage. In the hospital setting, triage is the process of determining the priority of patients’ treatments based on the severity of their condition. This is considered in different language in the Justice Department’s (DOJ) Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs (Evaluation), which under Prong 7 reads, in par...

In this episode, I visit with Chris Morton, the SVP, Marketing and Corporate Development for Navex, about the firm's new resource for the Compliance Community, ComplianceNext.com. It is a free, compliance community driven learning platform designed to offer real-world education and skill enhancement for the compliance professional. Morton discusses its launch, the partners involved, highlights som...

Your company should have a detailed written procedure for handling any complaint or allegation of bribery or corruption, regardless of the means through which it is communicated. The mechanism could include the internal company hot-line, anonymous tips, or a report directly from the business unit involved. You can make the decision on whether or not to investigate with consultation with other grou...

In this episode, I visit with Robyn Bew, the Director of Strategic Content Development for the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) and Henry Stoever, the Chief Marketing Officer for the NACD. They discuss what is the NACD, who are its members and why directors or those desiring to be directors should join. We review some of the highlights from the 2017 NACD Directors Compensation Re...

This week, Jay and I have a wide-ranging discussion on some of the week’s top compliance related stories. We discuss:  Brazilian meatpacker JBS agrees to the largest fine ever for fine for bribery and corruption, $3.2bn in Brazil. See article in the Wall Street Journal. Samuel Mebiame, sentenced to two years behind bars for paying bribes to help Och-Ziff with lucrative mining deals in Africa. See...

In an article in the Compliance and Ethics Professional Magazine, entitled “Foxes and henhouses: The importance of independent counsel”, Dan Dunne discussed what he termed a “critical element” in any investigation, which he denominated as “fair and objective evaluation.” Dunne wrote that a key component of this fair and objective evaluation is the WHO question; that is, who should supervise the in...

The call, email or tip comes into your office; an employee reports suspicious activity somewhere across the globe. That activity might well turn into a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) issue for your company. As the Chief Compliance Officer (CCO), it will be up to you to begin the process which will determine, in many instances, how the company will respond going forward. This month’s podcast...

In this episode, Roy and I consider Sgt. Pepper's at 50; Artificial Intelligence in Compliance and how ComTech will change the face of compliance going forward.  For additional reading on these topics see: Compliance Lessons from Sgt. Pepper's  AI and Compliance Going Forward: Welcome to ComTech AI for Risk Management in Compliance  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Day 22-10 Questions to Better Operationalized Compliance I conclude this month’s series inspired by an article in the Harvard Business Review, entitled “Does Management Really Work?” by Nicholas Brown, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen. I found the article very useful because it gave succinct advice about what a business can do to improve its management practices and determined that this advice...

In this episode Matt Kelly and I take a deep dive into the revisions to the COSO ERM Framework, which were based on comments by practitioners. We consider the role of culture and risk, the integration of the COSO ERM Framework into functional business units moving to operationalize ERM in organizations and we consider how the ERM Framework differs yet is complimentary to the COSO Internal Controls...

Today I have back with me James Koukios, partner and Morrison Foerster on the firm's March 2017 report on the Top Ten International Anti-Corruption Developments for the month. We highlight the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals oral argument in the Hoskins case and the OCED Phase 4 reports on Finland and the UK. For a copy of the firm's report, click here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megapho...

How can you determine if Human Resources (HR) can meet the needs of a best practices compliance program? One place to start is with a gap analysis to determine what HR has in place that can facilitate your company’s compliance program. According to Bright Hub Project Management, a gap analysis “compares actual performance (or status) with the desired performance (or status). A gap analysis takes i...

The key concept from the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Program (Evaluation) is operationalization. For instance, under the query Shared Commitment is the following question - “How is information shared among different components of the company?” Under the Prong relating to Policies and Procedures the Designing Compliance Policies and Procedures asks, “What has be...

This week, Jay and I have a wide-ranging discussion on some of the week’s top compliance related stories. We discuss:  Tom reports on Compliance Week 2017. See his articles in Compliance Week, here and here. If the DOJ releases new information in the form of the Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs, does anyone read it. See article in GIR (sub req’d). Jay discusses the SCCE event he attende...

  One of the ways that Human Resources (HR) can help to operationalize compliance is to assist each level of an organization to have a proper tone. While the top of an organization rightly gets much of attention, the tone about doing business ethically and in in compliance is equally important in the middle of an organization.  A company must have more than simply a good ‘Tone-at-the-Top’; it must...

Episode 18 Show Notes  I. Compensation, Incentive and Compliance In this episode, Roy Snell and myself discuss how incentives are integral to the compensation plans of a wide range of workers. Many experts point to their value in rewarding behavior that is in the interest of the organization and for keeping workers focused on activities that help the bottom line. At the same time, however, the inc...

The role of Human Resources (HR) in anti-corruption compliance programs, is often underestimated. If your company has a culture where compliance is perceived to be in competition or worse yet antithetical to HR, the company certainly is not hitting on all cylinders and maybe moving towards dysfunction. Another way you can operationalize compliance is in HR’s involvement of employee promotion. In P...

In this episode Matt Kelly and I take a deep dive into the question of whether a company has a duty to disclose ransomware attacks. We consider it from the regulatory, legal, ethical, law enforcement, business, PR and some other angles. What may seem to be a straight-forward answer to a regulatory obligations turns out to be anything but.  For additional research, see Matt Kelly's blogpost, "Ranso...

The Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs document makes clear that operationalization of compliance into an organization should be done at multiple levels in a company. Creating an ethical culture is an important step for any company to burn compliance into the DNA of a business. It must be done at every level of an organization on a continuous basis.  In an article in the Harvard Business...

In this episode I visit with Chris McNett, SSGA Head of Environmental, Social and Governance on SSGA's ESG Institutional Investor Survey. Topics include: What was the reason for the State Street ESG Institutional Investor Survey?; What were the key findings?; ESG Adoption; Challenges to Adoption; How ESG pathways are evolving; Why is accelerating ESG so important?; What steps can a company take, f...

The exit interview can be a further mechanism to operationalize compliance. This type of interview is used when someone voluntarily departs from a company, as opposed to a lay-off or reduction in force exercise. Typically departing employees are more willing to share about their experiences, concerns and issues which led to their employment departure. In an article in the Harvard Business Review,...

Employment separation and layoffs can present some unique challenges for the compliance practitioner. Employees can use layoffs to claim that they were retaliated against for a wide variety of complaints, including those for concerns that impact the compliance practitioner. Yet there are several ways that operationalization will help to protect your company as much as possible. Before you begin yo...

This week, Jay and I have a wide-ranging discussion on some of the week’s top compliance related stories. We discuss:  Brazilian President Temer comes under corruption fire? See article in the New York Times. The turmoil at FIFA continues as FIFA’s ethics watchdogs quit in protest after their chairman was fired. See article in Bloomberg. Should compliance and ethics be wedded? New report by Instit...