Corporate board diversity continues to increase slowly – and I mean slowly.  For United States companies, corporate boards are far behind their foreign counterparts.  California has imposed a minimal requirement that every public company must reserve at least one board seat for a female director.  Norway, Spain, France and Iceland have legal requirements that women comprise at least 40 percent of boards at public companies. ...

It is perhaps fitting that we are coming up on the one-year anniversary of the Business Roundtable’s Restatement of Corporate Purposes, which was signed by 181 corporate leaders and widely-praised for its expansion of corporate ethics and values. But I am sorry to say that not much has really changed. Some of this lack of action could be excused by the COVID-19 crisis and the...

Change before you have to – Jack Welch The key to change . . . is to let go of fear – Rosanne Cash Corporations are slow to change. Unless forced by government prosecutors or regulators, companies inherently resist change, even when such changes can make a business more profitable.  Corporate behavior often reflects individual human perceptions and conduct.  Individuals are slow to change unless...

The European Union Whistleblower Protection Directive imposes a broad set of requirements – to Member States and EU companies.  At the heart of the EU’s concern is to ensure that no employee (or business partner) should risk their job as a result of exposing corporate wrongdoing. Three-Tier Reporting System The EU Directive establishes a three-tiered reporting system.  Tier-1 applies to corporate internal reporting systems; Tier-2...

Global companies face a number of challenges and a myriad of regulatory obligations. In December 2019, the EU adopted a directive  to promote and protect persons who report violations of law.  The EU Whistleblower Directive was adopted in response to a series of scandals that were reported by whistleblowers, including the Panama Papers and the Cambridge Analytica scandal.  An EU-sponsored study in 2017 reported that...

World Acceptance Corporation (“WAC”), a US-based consumer loan company, agreed to pay the SEC $21.7 million for FCPA violations in Mexico.  WAC’s cited violations covered the full gamut of FCPA violations, including bribery payments to government officials in Mexico, failure to keep accurate books and records and inadequate internal accounting controls. WAC engaged in an illegal scheme over a seven year period, from December 2010...

Companies do not operate in a vacuum.  Political and social forces have a dramatic impact on individuals who in turn constitute a company’s workforce.  We are witnessing significant political forces demanding justice for historical and engrained racism, sexism, injustice and discrimination.  A significant majority of Americans have embraced the Black Life’s Matter movement and with that have demonstrated an increased demand for social justice. This...

Bausch Health agreed to pay the SEC $45 million to settle Valeant Pharmaceuticals (former name) accounting fraud schemes.  Three former executives, former CEO Michael Pearson, CFO Howard Schiller and Controller Tanya Carro also settled with SEC.  Pearson agreed to pay a civil penalty of $250,000 and repaid Bausch $450,000 in compensation; Schiller agreed to pay a civil penalty of $100,000 and repaid Bausch $110,000 in...

It is hard to argue that Apple and Amazon do not have the resources to implement state-of-the-art OFAC compliance programs. After all, the two largest companies in the world should stand as beacons of compliance with the full support of senior management, robust compliance departments, and sophisticated automated systems to support their compliance efforts.  Apple Even the mighty can fall – Apple agreed to pay...

In the last two years, OFAC has brought four enforcement actions that focus on an organization’s “screening errors.” These include: American Express; (2) Cobham Metalics; (3) Apple; and (4) Amazon. In today’s posting, I will review American Express and Cobham Metalics. American Express On April 30, 2020, OFAC issued a Finding of Violation (with no penalty) against American Express Travel Services for violations of  the...