When you review the actual law surrounding books and records and internal controls, you wonder to yourself what took the Justice Department and the SEC so long to discover the full power of the provisions....more
I was recently inspired by Tom Fox’s excellent writings on the COSO 2013 framework, and his examination of internal controls issues – see here, here, and here. Today, I begin my own series on internal controls but from a...more
If you enjoy Spencer Tracy and Kate Hepburn movies like I do, you know the value of a great partnership. Tracy and Hepburn movies are classics, and their chemistry was powerful (on the screen and off)....more
No company wants a corporate monitor. If you ask any General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer or Chief Executive Officer, they can list an infinite number of alternative punishments they would rather suffer than have a...more
The key to being a successful (FCPA) prognosticator is never to keep score. If you do, you are likely to be disappointed.
Instead, I follow the strategy of calculated distraction – for example, I predicted last year...more
1/7/2015
/ Alstom ,
Avon ,
Bio-Rad Laboratories ,
Chief Compliance Officers ,
Cobalt ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Crimes ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Indictments ,
Internal Controls ,
Qualcomm ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
SFO ,
UK Bribery Act ,
Wal-Mart
Giving away my old age, we all loved the 1960s Batman series starring Adam West. Thanks to the Batman show we were given a long list of words to underscore Batman and Robin’s slugfests with the weekly villain (e.g. Penguin,...more
1/5/2015
/ Alstom ,
Avon ,
Bribery ,
China ,
Corporate Management ,
Corporate Officers ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Internal Controls ,
Personal Liability ,
Popular ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Siemens
Life can be very humbling. The SEC has definitely humbled me.
For years now, I have been claiming that companies spend too much time worrying about gifts, meals and entertainment expenses under the FCPA, rather than...more
12/18/2014
/ Bruker ,
Chief Compliance Officers ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Gifts ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Internal Controls ,
Meal and Entertainment Expenditures ,
Multinationals ,
Popular ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Companies can become hyper-focused on anti-bribery compliance. It is easy to do – just look on the Internet, Twitter and Linked In. There are plenty of groups, hash tags, postings and discussions on anti-corruption issues....more
Compliance officers need to dig into and understand a company’s internal controls. Many compliance officers tend to leave that issue to Internal Auditors – that is a big mistake....more
Anti-corruption compliance is not as hard as it looks. In fact, by taking a step back, compliance professionals can gain insights.
At the direction of compliance professionals, companies like to develop and adopt...more
Companies with ineffective internal controls face risks of embezzlement and self-dealing by employees, bribery, export control violations and other possible legal violations. The payment of foreign bribes often occurs in...more
The SEC knows that it has broad enforcement authority. In the FCPA arena, the SEC has civil authority over bribes, but more importantly, enforcement authority over books and records and internal controls. It is this latter...more
Ten years ago, Sarbanes-Oxley was the focus of compliance and corporate governance reform. Sarbanes-Oxley was enacted in response to major corporate scandals involving financial reporting fraud and accounting...more
Companies are paying more attention to strategic risk management. The reasons for this are not just the aggressive enforcement environment but the technological age in which we live....more
Tone-at-the-top says it all. Without the support of the CEO, a Chief Compliance Officer is limited in what he or she can accomplish. If there is no commitment from the CEO, a CCO can propose and possibly build great...more