Everyone has jumped on the corporate culture bandwagon. For some new converts, they like to espouse corporate culture as a recent discovery, or a new-fangled approach for compliance programs....more
NAVEX Global always provides insightful and important whitepapers and annual reports. One of the more important annual reports is NAVEX’s Hotline and Incident Management Report. Given Navex’s important position in the...more
4/18/2023
/ Annual Reports ,
Anonymity ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Culture ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corruption ,
Employees ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Hotlines ,
Oral Complaints ,
Retaliation ,
Whistleblower Hotlines ,
Workplace Harassment Guidance
The Justice Department’s recent emphasis on ethics and compliance culture, along with greater specificity on “consequence management” is a welcome breath of fresh air. It is a policy coming for a long time and will bring...more
Not that I am a glutton for punishment, but I always find enforcement actions to supply a number of valuable lessons learned. There are always instructive nuggets of information, opportunities missed, and root causes that...more
4/5/2023
/ Banks ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Culture ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Ethics ,
Financial Transactions ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Popular ,
Sanction Violations ,
Wachovia ,
Wells Fargo
If there ever is an example of a rotten corporate culture, Wells Fargo sits at the head of the class. Since Wells Fargo’s sales pressure scandal, Wells Fargo has continued to suffer from a string of scandals and misconduct. ...more
3/30/2023
/ Banks ,
Code of Conduct ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Corporate Culture ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Corruption ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Ethics ,
Fines ,
Government Investigations ,
Guilty Pleas ,
Obstruction of Justice ,
OCC ,
Performance Incentives ,
Popular ,
Tone At The Top ,
Wells Fargo
The Justice Department continues to push on white collar corporate enforcement, and the intersection of national security sanctions and export controls with corporate criminal enforcement. Last week, Lisa Monaco, DOJ’s...more
3/10/2023
/ Administrative Appointments ,
Anti-Corruption ,
BSA/AML ,
Compliance ,
Compliance Management Systems ,
Corporate Culture ,
Corporate Governance ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Ethics ,
Export Controls ,
Money Laundering ,
White Collar Crimes
This is not your typical FCPA enforcement action Lessons Learned column. Instead, Ericsson’s breach of its DPA presents a laundry list of internal investigation errors – as a practitioner in this area, this is the nightmare...more
3/9/2023
/ Bribery ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Culture ,
Corruption ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Deferred Prosecution Agreements ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Document Management ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Ericsson ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Internal Investigations ,
Telecommunications ,
White Collar Crimes
LRN continues to provide important insights and trends on the importance of ethics and compliance programs. LRN’s annual report is an important resource and needs to be reviewed by the board, senior management and all...more
In a far-reaching decision with significant implications, the Delaware Chancery Court recently issued a decision confirming that Caremark duty of oversight obligations extends to senior officers. This will have an immediate...more
2/14/2023
/ Board of Directors ,
Breach of Duty ,
Caremark claim ,
Corporate Culture ,
Corporate Governance ,
Derivative Suit ,
Duty of Loyalty ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
McDonalds ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Shareholder Litigation
I always enjoy pulling out the crystal ball and looking forward with due consideration of last year’s trends. It is a perspective that gives us all the opportunity to identify important trends and to set an agenda for the...more
NAVEX continues to be one of the premier sources of essential annual benchmarking studies. Recently, NAVEX issued its 2022 Definitive Risk and Compliance Benchmark Report. The Report was based on over 1100 survey responses...more
We live in a challenging time — yes, another profound grasp of the obvious. From my narrow perspective, there are two significant trends occurring at the same time — people are angry and more willing to express their anger...more
Corporate culture is all the rage now, meaning it is an often used topic to signal commitment, sensitivity to issues of employee concern, and an awareness of governance trends. In practice, as we all know, culture is not...more
This is a topic that every compliance professional has to address in one form or another. Chief compliance officers are so busy that they often cannot even take the time to tackle this difficult issue. This is a real...more
You can always count on LRN. No ifs, ands or buts, LRN continues to issue the highest-quality and most meaningful research and guidance on ethics and compliance programs. LRN digs in to ask the hard questions, measures...more
It is hard to write yet another posting about Wells Fargo’s misconduct. Wells Fargo’s troubles continue unabated. I am not exaggerating — I promise. Every few months, we hear about another problem, another enforcement...more
For some reason, many companies do not include Ethics in the title of the CCO but expect the CCO to assume responsibility for a company’s ethical culture. Well, it is high time for companies to confirm this important...more
As we enjoy the remainder of the summer and get ready to launch into a new fall season (no, not football) but a time for renewal and recommitment, this may be a good opportunity to examine and analyze your own compliance...more
As Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart eloquently opined in Jacobellis v. Ohio (1964), on the legal definition of obscenity, “I know it when I see it.” This same test applies to other issues as well — when it comes to an...more
There are lots of sources for compliance guidance — prosecutors, regulators, compliance organizations, and many others have set forth important and valuable guidance for the design and implementation of an effective ethics...more
OK, I admit it. I have been — and continue to be– hyper-focused on the proper role and responsibilities for Chief Compliance Officers. Not that I see any cause for alarm, but it is easy to lose focus in the sea of so-called...more
The broad and pervasive scope of Glencore’s bribery conduct is obvious. The scope of its misconduct reflects Glencore’s fatal culture and commitment to profits at any and all cost. Glencore’s board and senior executive team...more
While I have devoted the first two postings to outlining all the downside risks of third-party management and threats to overall organization resiliency and operations, it is important to consider the positive upside of...more
The Stericycle FCPA case is yet another example of a complete culture and compliance breakdown. As I often repeat myself, there is no more important control than an ethical culture. When a culture veers into the unethical...more
The Department of Justice criminal prosecution of Mark Forkner, chief technical pilot at Boeing responsible for the 737 Max, ended in quick acquittal. DOJ prosecutors suffered an embarrassing loss in an attempt to hold...more
3/29/2022
/ Acquittals ,
Aircraft ,
Airplane Accidents ,
Aviation Industry ,
Boeing ,
Corporate Culture ,
Corruption ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Employee Misconduct ,
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ,
Jury Trial ,
Wire Fraud