VinciWorks

In this episode, we look at a case involving the US government's first-ever prosecution of a corporation for providing material support for terrorism. In this case, Lafarge and its subsidiary pled guilty to giving donations and "taxes" to ISIS and al-Nusrah Front (ANF), two of the world's most notorious terrorist organisations, in exchange for the continued operation of their cement plant in Syria...

Richard Rufus was part of both Charlton Athletic teams that earned promotion to the Premier League during the Alan Curbishley era, playing in the 1998 Football League First Division play-off final against Sunderland that Charlton won on penalties. Ten years after being inducted into Charlton's Hall of Fame in 2013, he was convicted for fraud. He was able to convince friends, family members and ass...

China is of growing concern to compliance professionals on a number of fronts. From sanctions on Uyghur forced labour to supply chain disruption to warnings about China's banks, the world's second-largest economy is both of critical importance and an increasingly critical risk. In this episode, we look at China's role in corporate compliance, and what companies should be aware of when doing busine...

In this episode, Nick and Naomi are back to talk about yet another big money laundering case involving a bank. This time they look at how banks can mess up their anti-money laundering systems - and get fined, royally. Specifically, Commerzbank's London Branch being hit with a whopping £38m fine by the FCA for not having good AML controls. Resources: Try our AML compliance training: https://vinciwo...

What are the big topics affecting law firms? In this special episode recorded shortly after the Law Society's Risk and Compliance conference, Gary Yantin and Nick Henderson break down the key issues of concern for the legal industry. Resources: Try our AML compliance training: https://vinciworks.com/courses/aml/ Download free AML resources: https://vinciworks.com/resources/aml/ Learn more about ou...

In a case before the High Court, the World Uyghur Congress argued that UK authorities should have launched money laundering investigations into the cotton imports brought into the UK from the Xinjiang region of China because of the high likelihood of forced labour that was present at the start of the supply chain. The court refused the claim but the reasons indicated that other supply chain challe...

Many firms are still carrying out paper-based identification and verification of clients during the onboarding process. But is this the most efficient method? In this episode, we are joined by Thirdfort's AML Services Manager Harriet Holmes, Compliance Office's Managing Director Andy Donovan and VinciWorks' Director of Product (Omnitrack) Ruth Mittelmann Cohen to explore the extent to which paper-...

In this episode, Nick Henderson and Naomi Grossman examine a compliance case that rocked the world of Credit Suisse, the venerated global investment bank and a crown jewel of Switzerland. It seems that Credit Suisse has been lurching from one scandal to the next, much of it due to their lack of serious anti-money laundering efforts. But this case is really significant because it's the first time a...

Under UK law, a corporation can face criminal prosecution if it fails to prevent certain actions from being undertaken by its employees or contractors. The UK government have recently announced they are pushing ahead with a game-changing new regulation to expand the 'failure to prevent' family of offences to fraud. In this episode, Director of Learning and Content Nick Henderson-Mayo and Directory...

In November 2022 HMRC released the summary of responses from their consultation on the UK's Mandatory Disclosure Rules (MDR). The consultation clarified that: 1. The historic lookback period will go back to 25th June 2018 (and not 29th October 2014 as originally stated). 2. Reporting will be via XML only. With UK MDR expected to come into force in the first half of 2023, we were joined by John San...

In a rapidly changing economy, companies are ever more reliant on a well-functioning supply chain to get things done. From outsourcing payroll to launching a new product, supply chain management has never been more crucial. Examining the risks posed by new suppliers is equally vital. A worrying incident can have a knock-on effect on your business, from reputational risk to fines or criminal action...

As the year comes to a close, leading SRA consultancy service, Compliance Office, look at the latest SRA compliance developments and hot topics for law firms. Founder Andy Donovan speaks to leading regulatory solicitors Julie Norris and Iain Miller at Kingsley Napley and Ruth Mittlemann Cohen, an AML product specialist at VinciWorks. They look at: What the SRA's increases in fining powers mean in...

All UK law firms are required to establish an independent audit function to examine, evaluate and make recommendations regarding the adequacy and effectiveness of their practice's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing policies, controls, and procedures. This can be carried out via an internal or an external auditor. In this episode, we speak to the Director and Founder of SRA consu...

Getting third-party risk management right is critical for businesses. In this episode, CoreStream's SVP of business development, Paul Cadwallader, explores how businesses can ensure effective procedures for extended enterprise management. We'll dive into how to identify and mitigate risks through effective and efficient processes and what to consider when implementing risk-based third-party due di...

Since the UK Modern Slavery Act came into force, it is estimated that the number of people trapped in forced labour or forced marriages has actually increased, with the number now believed to have reached over 50 million. A mixture of armed conflict, climate change and the global pandemic has made modern slavery a growing challenge, despite an increase in regulations in many countries. With the UK...

ESG - Environmental, Social and Governance - helps businesses measure their impact on the world. It goes broader than profit and loss and is more detailed than corporate social responsibility.  Over the past year, we have fielded hundreds of questions on ESG. From how to get started to understanding how to choose the right ESG framework for you, businesses at all stages in their ESG journey have u...

In July 2021, HM Treasury launched a new AML consultation entitled 'Amendments to the Money Laundering Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds Regulations 2017 (MLRs)'. The planned updates, most of which are coming into force on 1 September, are required to ensure that the UK continues to meet international AML standards, whilst also clarifying how the UK's anti-money laundering and counter-terr...

Keeping money launderers out of legal services has long been a priority of the SRA. In 2021, the SRA visited an average of 7 law firms a month to check on their money laundering systems. The majority were told to make changes to the way they work. Further, in its latest threat assessment, the National Crime Agency (NCA) estimated that at least 70,000 people are engaged in serious organised crime i...

Since Russia launched its invasion on Ukraine at the end of February, the west has imposed significant sanctions on Russia, Belarus, and Vladimir Putin's oligarchs who fund his war. The rapidly evolving nature of the situation has made sanctions compliance an increasing challenge for businesses, but also one that is vital to understand and has prompted many organisations to review their compliance...

The team at VinciWorks took part in a mental health and wellbeing experiment inspired by mental health advocate Rob Stephenson. In this experiment, we invited people to share their daily mental health score in their Slack status and then invited half of those people to post a mental health update, if they wanted, in a special closed Slack channel. We wanted to see if sharing a score makes a differ...

After two years of social and financial pressures, and with the pandemic still prevalent in our everyday lives, not everyone is comfortable with returning to the workplace in person. Are your employees struggling with returning to the office? Are they anxious and uncomfortable? How are they doing mentally now that lockdown is over, and what impact has virtual or hybrid working had on their mental...

In this episode, we focus on mental health in professional services firms. While we're taking law firms as a broad example of professional services, these lessons and ideas really extend to wider professional services firms. VinciWorks' Director of Best Practice Gary Yantin supports law firms in getting compliance right, and he has been speaking with two experts in this field. Ben Morris, Head of...

Happy fourth birthday GDPR! Since GDPR came into force four years ago, fines have reached a total of over €1.6 billion, with the majority of fines having been levied in the past 12 months. Also during that time, the UK left the EU, data protection regulation reforms were announced in the UK and the ICO appointed a new commissioner. On the fourth anniversary of GDPR coming into force, we looked at...

Welcome to our new mini-series which is going to focus on mental health and wellbeing, particularly as we transition away from an era of covid restrictions and enter into a new world of hybrid working. In this episode, Director of Learning and Content Nick Henderson goes through the basics of mental health and wellbeing from a compliance perspective. We'll look at how leaders can set the tone, the...

In this episode, Nick speaks to VinciWorks' CMO Yehuda Solomont to look at the trends in compliance training and what they mean. Yehuda has all the numbers and statistics at hand to give some real insight into the most popular topics, as well as other trends, such as the increased need for relevant training, how long a course should be and whether gamified learning and VR and catching on.