Compliance into the Weeds - SOX Compliance, PCAOB Inspections and Audits
Compliance into the Weeds-Episode 57-SOX Reform or Not?
Compliance into the Weeds-Episode 51, the PCAOB and Compliance
Compliance into the Weeds-Espiode 47
Everything Compliance-Episode 12
Day 5 of One Month to Better Investigations and Reporting-the Board’s Investigation Protocol
Compliance into the Weeds-Episode 30-SOX 404(b)
FCPA Compliance and Ethics Report-Episode 145-SEC Enforcement of the FCPA, Part II
The U.S. Supreme Court recently held that proving an employer’s retaliatory intent is not required for whistleblowers seeking protection under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. In Murray v. UBS Securities, LLC, 144 S. Ct. 445 (2024),...more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Whistleblower Program was created in Section 922 of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, which amended the Securities Exchange Act to include a whistleblower provision. It has since...more
On February 8, 2024, the United States Supreme Court issued an opinion in Murray v. UBS Securities, LLC, 601 U.S. ___(2024), a case involving a former UBS employee’s claim that he was terminated for making an internal report...more
In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court reaffirmed the whistleblower protections of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the case, Murray v. UBS Securities, LLC et al. (February 8, 2024). The Supreme Court’s decision reaffirms an...more
This is the first in our 2024 Year in Preview series examining important trends in white collar law and investigations in the coming year. We will be posting further installments in the series throughout the next several...more
The U.S. Supreme Court began its new term this week and is taking cases government enforcement practitioners will want to follow. Specifically, the Court will address issues concerning: the interplay between SEC...more
No Longer Just a Matter of Paying the Fine and Moving On. Corporate settlement agreements used to be straightforward—pay the penalty and move on. Now, these resolutions rival complex business transactions, including...more
Can a new Department of Justice enforcement approach make clawback policies covering criminal activities a best practice? The DOJ is implementing a new policy under which prosecutors will make clawback policies for...more
Compliance understanding of business processes is a critical part of understanding internal controls and a company’s risk profile. Compliance officers are adept in identifying and assessing risks. In doing so, a compliance...more
The first step is to convert your company’s compliance risks into internal control objectives. The internal control objectives are then given to each business unit with instructions to develop controls, which meet the...more
Corporations are slow to change. Unless forced by government prosecutors or regulators, companies inherently resist change, even when such changes can make a business more profitable. ...more
The initial FCPA Guidance included valuable compliance program guidance keyed to the heading, “Hallmarks of an Effective Compliance Program.” Issued in 2012, the outline of an effective compliance program was an important...more
Compliance management has moved from being a nice to have, to an absolute need to have. For many organizations, it is part of business-as-usual (BAU). The scale and scope of compliance frameworks across the world have grown,...more
What are some best practices regarding an internal reporting system? The 2012 FCPA Guidance stated, “An effective compliance program should include a mechanism for an organization’s employees and others to report suspected or...more
I have long articulated that companies that have robust compliance programs are more efficient, better run and more profitable organizations. ...more
Chief financial officers are powerful players in the corporate governance landscape. CFOs play a critical role in the management and oversight of the company’s internal accounting controls. Sarbanes-Oxley lifted the...more
When it comes to a poster-child for corrupt organizations, there is very little competition that can eclipse Petrobas, the Brazilian state-owned oil and gas company. ...more
Whistleblowers who expose breaches of European Union law will be afforded greater protection from retaliation by companies and public authorities under a draft law proposed by the European Commission in April 2018. The draft...more
Sarbanes-Oxley revolutionized the auditing profession. Section 404 imposed stringent requirements for disclosure of the state of a company’s internal controls and financial reporting. The company’s independent auditor is...more
Over several blog posts, I have explored in detail the new Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) Accounting Standards Update No. 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606), which set forth a new Revenue...more
The compliance profession is enjoying its moment of triumph. Chief compliance officers are earning substantial salaries and rewarded with high-level positions in the C-Suite and significant influence. CCOs are the hot...more
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...more
Our political discourse these days has been focused on three key words – obstruction of justice. Whatever your politics may be, these words and the law surrounding obstruction of justice are important to understand....more
In our last post, we detailed how Sanford Wadler, the former general counsel of Bio-Rad Laboratories, won a $14.5 million verdict against Bio-Rad. Before Wadler could get to a jury, however, he had to surmount a...more
As we look across the corporate governance landscape and focus on the spikes of corporate scandals, I started to wonder if there was any pattern or trend to the nature of corporate scandals....more