Last week, the Justice Department and the SEC finally brought to a close the Sons and Daughters or Princelings investigation. Pending investigations against four other companies still remain to be resolved. For months (and even years), we have followed this investigation and its twists and turns. Several years ago, press reports revealed an interesting piece of evidence discovered during the investigation – a spreadsheet kept...

Chief compliance officers have a difficult job. That is a real profound grasp of the obvious. CCOs face an unending onslaught of tasks, risks and juggling of concerns and activities. On many respects, a CCO’s job is never done – once they accomplish a project, they have an unending list of tasks to address. CCOs are the unsung heroes of corporate governance. They get little...

A number of recent FCPA enforcement actions have cited common compliance program failures relating to internal investigations. For example, PTC settled FCPA charges with the DOJ and SEC for $28 million. According to the factual statements, PTC conducted three internal investigations focusing on alleged illegal payments to Chinese government officials and failed to uncover the illegal scheme. I would be curious to hear why these...

Jacqui Merrill, an Associate at The Volkov Law Group, joins us again for a posting on Hatch-Waxman and antitrust risks. Jacqui can be reached at [email protected]. This week, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition for writ of certiorari in a case that will give pharmaceutical companies pause when considering whether to settle patent challenges under Hatch-Waxman.  The Supreme Court’s action let stand a Third...

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...