Global companies need to actively work to prevent fraud and corruption. Fraud and corruption go hand-in-hand. To commit bribery, bad actors have to gain access to money for unauthorized (illegal) purposes. A failure to prevent fraud and corruption can have significant legal, financial and reputational consequences. Luckily, companies are devoting additional resources to assess fraud and bribery risks with specific focus on internal financial and...

As we celebrate Ethics and Compliance Week in 2017, I wanted to offer my own assessment of where the compliance profession stands and the challenges facing the profession for the future. I am an eternal optimist – I will never fall to the dark side of cynicism and pessimism. Over the last ten years, the compliance profession has made great strides as a profession and...

The Volkov Law Group continues to offer innovative legal services focused on ethics and compliance programs, enforcement defense, and internal investigations. See Firm website here. The Volkov Law Group team includes talented professionals: Lauren Connell, Managing Associate; Jacqui Martin (formerly Merrill), Senior Associate; Susan Simpson, Associate; Matt Stankiewicz, Associate; and Vincent Ruiz, Counsel. See Firm profiles here. The Volkov Law Group believes that every company...

Volkov Law TV continues to offer high-quality webinars on relevant ethics and compliance topics.  Over the last several months we have added a number of new webinars.  Subscribe and check them out.  Monthly access to a webinar is $8; monthly access to the full library is $29; and yearly access to all of the webinars is $299.  Click Here to Sign Up Now. Watch the webinars when...

Human resources and compliance professionals share many common objectives and interests. They need to coordinate and operationalize their joint interests in a variety of ways. One area that demands more focus is the hiring of ethical employees. The ISO 37001 Anti-Bribery Management System includes important requirements for the hiring (or transfer) of employees to functions that involve bribery risks. So much attention has been paid...

Over the last year, we have seen the Justice Department and SEC’s international coordination efforts bear fruit. DOJ has expended time and efforts to train prosecutors and law enforcement on anti-corruption investigations and prosecutions strategy. These programs inevitably foster cooperation and coordination through personal and professional relationships. In particular, DOJ and the FBI have established working relationships with colleagues in the United Kingdom, France, Germany,...

I always enjoyed the assumption underlying economic models – assuming people are rational actors, then . . . Sometime people do not act rationally, and sometimes people react out of fear or make unrealistic assumptions. The compliance profession faces many challenges including unrealistic or unfounded assumptions. In many cases, compliance professionals have to reassure their constituencies about the specific implications of a compliance function, initiative...

A company that commits bribery has to undergo a soul-searching examination of its operations, from top to bottom. Bribery violations come in all shapes and forms – systemic violations like Siemens, Daimler and other enforcement actions from the past; country (or regional) specific violations that involve a group of employees sometime limited to a specific function (e.g. Johnson Controls); and small group enforcement actions, sometimes...

The Justice Department has touted its efforts to bring greater transparency to FCPA enforcement. There is no question that in the last five years the Justice Department has moved the needle – the FCPA Guidance issued in 2012; the release of the April 5, 2016 Pilot Program; the Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs issued in February 2017; the release of letters confirming declinations awarded to...