Tagged: ethical culture

25 Mar, 2024

LRN 2024 Program Effectiveness Report Underscores Importance of Values, Adaptation and Accountability

LRN continues to set the standard for ethics and compliance program research. Volkov Law is a supporter of, and advocate for, LRN’s research because it has consistently confirmed what we all know and believe — ethical companies perform better in the marketplace over the long run. It is an intuitive fact that employees respond better to values-based leadership than a rules-based environment and culture. Volkov...

General

19 Mar, 2024

Gunvor’s Bribery Schemes — Third-Parties, Shell Companies and Evasion of Controls (Part II of III)

Gunvor’s bribery scheme is not very surprising nor ingenious. After all, a number of energy trading companies have been prosecuted for bribery over the years, including Glencore, Vitol, Freepoint. Numerous individuals have been prosecuted, convicted and some have cooperated. The global energy trading market presents numerous risk factors — large and valuable energy products (oil, gas etc.) are controlled by foreign-owned companies. All of these...

General

11 Oct, 2023

Pain in the App: Messaging Apps Lead to Large SEC Enforcement Actions

On September 29, 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged several firms with recordkeeping failures. These recordkeeping failures relate to pervasive and longstanding off-channel communications. Generally, all of these actions relate to the widespread use of various messaging apps that ultimately violate SEC requirements and circumvent internal corporate controls. These are the latest enforcement actions in a string of similar penalties by the SEC...

General

26 Sep, 2023

LRN’s 2023 PEI Report: Values and Corporate Culture

LRN’s annual Program Effectiveness Report is chock full of important findings. Frankly, LRN’s PEI Report is a “board worthy” report (as Donna Boehme used to say — every board member should read it). LRN’s Report notes that its large data set contains the survey results from 1,860 ethics and compliance professionals from organizations around the world. As explained by LRN, the compliance industry continues to...

General

19 Sep, 2023

A Compliance Reminder: Focus on Your Culture

We all agree on the importance of corporate culture. Everyone gets it – corporate leaders mouth the words but rarely understand the nuances, and the need to attend to a company’s culture. Compliance professionals want to devote more time to corporate culture but often are overburdened with less important tasks. It is easy for compliance professionals to get lost in the details, theory, and technology...

Podcasts

13 Aug, 2023

Episode 285 — The Importance of a Consequence Management System

The Department of Justice has laid down a marker – companies would be smart to understand the significant change in ethics and compliance program expectation. Companies that ignore this new landscape are gambling with their financial security and their reputational value. Every company that has suffered through a DOJ investigation knows how damaging and draining such an experience can be. The purpose of an ethics...

General

23 May, 2023

Koninklijke Philips Pays SEC $62 Million to Resolve FCPA Violations in China

After a long-running investigation, Koninklijke Philips (“Philips), a Dutch company, resolved FCPA violations in China by agreeing to pay the SEC $62 million. Philips is a global manufacturer of medical equipment. Philips agreed to pay $15 million in civil penalties and more than $47 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest. According to Philips, DOJ has declined to prosecute charges in the current case. Philips’ recent...

General

18 May, 2023

Five Practical Steps to Elevate Your Sanctions Compliance Program (Part III of III)

Even with the current focus on sanctions compliance, many companies have done little to assess and enhance their existing sanctions compliance program. Instead, a number of companies have stitched together a basic sanctions compliance program that centers on a screening tool and little beyond that. Such a limited program provides just a false comfort of compliance. Many companies are not even conducting the mandated basic...

General

16 May, 2023

Corporate Crime and National Security – The Confluence of Prosecution and Foreign Policy (Part I of III)

To restate the obvious – DOJ has prioritized prosecution of national security crimes. For the business world, every company touches the international economy. Even a domestic company might sell products or services outside the United States, or such companies depend on foreign products or services in their supply chain. It is rare indeed to find a company that is not dependent on one way or...

General

10 May, 2023

A Five Step Program for Every Company to Address the New Enforcement Threats

Companies have to demand a new focus from their CEOs, senior executives and legal compliance team in response to the new DOJ and regulatory initiatives. These steps are not just suggestions nor items that can be prioritized based on resources. Instead, these are essential and basic requirements that will inevitably result in significant benefits across the company. Step 1: Define, Embed and Monitor Corporate Culture...