Ethical culture is the flavor of the year these days. We are seeing more postings and articles about the importance of ethical culture, and even pushing the idea of measuring and monitoring culture. It was only seven years ago, 2010 to be exact, when the US Sentencing Commission added ethics to the applicable guideline defining compliance program requirements. We have definitely come very far in...
Chief compliance officers are the rising stars in the corporate governance world. However, CCOs have to avoid complacency. CCOs have a lot more to accomplish — it is almost as if the profession has put its collective foot in the door. CCOs have to be honest with themselves – it is easy to say everything is going great when some changes have been implemented....
Sometimes my references to Seinfeld episodes or Curb Your Enthusiasm vignettes do not work or can charitably be characterized as a little off. Nonetheless, I press on. In Season 4 of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Mel Brooks explained to Larry what a famous Greek actor explained to Mel Brooks about talent – “Or you got it. Or you ain’t.” (Watch here) The same applies to your board...
Compliance practitioners are opportunists. They have to look for openings in the corporate resource world to build partnerships with related functions. To put it another way, they are purveyors of compliance thinking – they inject the compliance mindset into functions that can advance the effectiveness of compliance controls. When it comes to the vendor onboarding process, compliance practitioners need to participate in the design and...
Politics and sanctions law go hand-in-hand. In a rare instance of bi-partisanship, Congress united to constrain the administration’s ability to modify the existing sanctions program against Russia. At the same time, Congress expanded the sanctions regime for Russia, Iran and North Korea. The administration was forced to sign the bill given the overwhelming vote in favor of the measure. As a result, compliance practitioners have...
One of several difficult compliance questions facing companies revolves around reporting of employee concerns. If the number of complaints coming in on a company hotline goes down over time, is corporate misconduct going down or are employees losing trust in the company’s speak up system? These are two diametrically opposite conclusions. Compliance officers have to be realistic and objective when analyzing this question. Misconduct rates...
The growth of global enforcement systems raises important policy issues and risks for enforcement authorities. In an interesting case, US v. Allen and Conti, copy here, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed criminal convictions for two LIBOR traders. The issue presented in the case is fascinating. Allen and Conti are UK citizens and were employed by Coöperatieve Centrale Raiffeisen‐Boerenleenban in the 2000s and participated...
In our perpetual quest for simplicity, sometimes we fail to understand the complexity of an issue. In the corporate world, if you ask board members and CEOs how they would define a compliance program ”failure,” I am sure most would answer that a compliance program fails when the government brings an enforcement action. In other words, when the government investigates a company and when...
The False Claims Act is the government’s weapon of choice in fighting healthcare fraud. In the beginning of the Obama Administration, Congress amended the False Claims Act and enacted a wish list from DOJ prosecutors. Healthcare companies have no choice but to negotiate settlements since they risk exclusion from federal healthcare programs, the equivalent of a death sentence for healthcare businesses. United Healthcare is...
Compliance practitioners divide their commentary and insights into two general categories – ethical culture and compliance controls. It is easy to divide compliance issues into these two categories. Ethical culture articles are a little less concrete; compliance controls are practical and focused on policies and procedures. A compliance program cannot be deemed effective, however, unless there is a combination of these two important functions. An...
