My question appears to be fairly obvious, right? This is not a question or a quiz of every chief compliance officer. Rather, this is a question for everyone but the CCO and compliance and legal staff. Think about it. Does your board, your CEO, your senior executives know and understand your compliance policies? If asked by someone, can they provide meaningful guidance or even get...
It is important to remember that companies are required to implement an ethics and compliance program. Ethics should not ever be a segregated issue carved off from a compliance program. They walk hand-in-hand, and reinforce each other at every step of the mission. This is an important point and easily ignored. Compliance professionals often appoint a Chief Ethics Officer, separate from a Chief Compliance Officer,...
We all tend to gloss over a critical requirement for an effective ethics and compliance program – tone-at-the-top. I hate to be dogmatic about the issue but, as Mel Brooks said in the Curb Your Enthusiasm (Season 4, Episode 1), “You either got it or you ain’t.” The same is true for the board, CEO and senior executive commitment to ethics and compliance. Every Chief...
Now that the dust has settled on this turbulent campaign season, everyone is in the prediction game, especially when it comes to FCPA enforcement. It is easy to make predictions of significant change. It is easy to take campaign rhetoric and assume that such rhetoric will result in quick and immediate change. As a veteran of transfers of power (being an old D.C. lawyer), I...
I was honored to participate in a webinar yesterday with Farzad Barkhordari, President of Workplace Answers, in a webinar on how to tailore your training to your company’s risk profile. YTou can watch teh recording HERE. When building a compliance program, you need to focus on your organization’s specific risks. To do that effectively, you’ll need a method for identifying your relevant risks, as well...
I am honored to participate in a new compliance podcast, started by Tom Fox, the Compliance Guru, and including myself, Matt Kelly, Jonathan Armstrong and Jay Rosen. We recorded our first episode at the SCCE;s annual meeting in Chicago. With Tom’s leadership, we have decided to begin a regular series. Here is a link to our first episode — HERE. Thanks to Tom, Jay, Matt...
I hate to be the harbinger of bad news; that is against my nature; I am naturally an optimistic person. As I always say, there are solutions to every problem. Many companies have responded to third party risks and built effective risk management programs. It is perhaps one of the most significant changes in the compliance landscape – third parties create significant risks and companies...
Everyone likes to cite and talk about the list of horrible scandals. Whether it is Enron, WorldCom, Siemens, GM, VW, Wells Fargo, we pick through the details, cite failures and use it as a springboard to a discussion of higher ideals and performance. Call it a reminder of worst-case scenarios. The rise in the chief compliance officer is based on the need for corporations to...
In a speech last week, Criminal Division Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell touted the success of the FCPA Pilot Program. Her speech is available here. AAG Caldwell outlined the success of the FCPA enforcement program, listing many of the most significant enforcement actions, including the recent Och-Ziff and Embraer resolutions. Since 2009, the Justice Department has resolved criminal cases with approximately 65 companies, resulting in...
Lauren Connell, Managing Associate at The Volkov Law Group, joins us again for a posting on ISO 37001. Lauren can be reached at [email protected]. Ten years ago the standard anticorruption policy was nearly exclusively FCPA-focused. DOJ and SEC enforcement actions were the primary, if not the only, concern for corporate executives and board members. The UK Bribery Act of 2010 forced a shift and now...
