Chief compliance officers are often responsible for managing a company’s conflicts of interest policy. A company can suffer serious legal and reputational harm if it fails to identify and mitigate conflicts of interest. The nature and scope of conflicts of interest vary across the organization, especially at senior management and board levels. Given the number and complexity of conflicts, CCOs have to devote adequate attention...
The government has stated that a well-designed compliance program includes “appropriately tailored training and communications.” Compliance policies cannot work unless effectively communicated throughout a company. Communications and training programs ensure that directors, officers and employees are aware of and follow compliance policies and procedures. Indeed, the Justice Department’s recent Evaluation of Compliance Program Guidance noted that integration of a company’s policies and procedures should include periodic training...
In July 2019, the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division issued its Guidance for Evaluation of Compliance Programs. Based on this comprehensive document, companies need to review and enhance their antitrust compliance programs to address risks of anti-competitive cartel activity, including price-fixing, bid-rigging, territorial and customer allocations. In this Episode, Mike Volkov reviews the elements of an antitrust compliance programs and provides practical advice for implementing an...
In a record setting FCPA enforcement day, the SEC settled three separate FCPA enforcement actions on Friday, September 27, 2019. The three cases involved: Quad/Graphics, a Wisconsin company; Barclays Bank, a global bank, and Westport Energy, a clean energy company, and its former CEO, Nancy Gougarty. Each of the cases involved interesting enforcement facts and situations. in this Episode, Michael Volkov reviews each case and...
In a significant development, the Business Roundtable issued a restatement of general corporate purpose. The restatement embraces a number of important social trends and awareness of ethical culture and broader principles. While the statement is laudatory, the proof will be in tangible actions taken to implement the broad and important purposes. In this Episode, Michael Volkov examines the Business Roundtable Restatement and reflects on the...
Capital One suffered a serious data breach as a result of the actions of one individual who downloaded nearly 30 GB of 100 million Capital One Financial Corporation credit applications from an Amazon cloud data server. The Capital One data breach underscores the risk of cyber breaches caused by a single bad actor who gained unauthorized access through Amazon’s could data server. This unfortunate data breach demonstrates...
From Vaudeville to the Silver Screen to the Small Screen, the Marx Brothers made an impact wherever people found them. Tom Fox and Mike Volkov have wedded their love of the Marx Brothers with their passion for compliance and bring them into the boardroom to help explain and explore the sometimes chaotic world of governance, risk-management, ethics and compliance. In this episode they discuss the...
In this episode, Michael Volkov provides an update on FCPA issues, including: (1) Juniper Networks’ FCPA settlement with the SEC for $11.7 million for conduct in Russia and China: (2) Deutsche Bank’s FCPA settlement with the SEC for $16 million for hiring of relatives of foreign officials in China and Russia; and (3) the Second Circuit Court of Appeals decision affirming the conviction and sentence...
On January 1, 2020, companies will be facing a compliance requirement established by the California Consumer Privacy Act. In practice, California’s CCPA will create a new “national” standard. The CCPA is designed to give consumers more information and control over their personal information. Specifically, businesses will be required to be more transparent in their handling of personal information and to provide robust disclosures to consumers about how...
Listen to Episode 105 HERE. Bill Hauserman and Ted Datta from Bureau van Dijk, a Moody’s Analytics Company, join us for an interesting discussion on third-party risk management, issues surrounding beneficial ownership, trends in the industry and the importance of validating ownership and data quality. Bill and Ted explain their interesting perspective on third-party risk challenges, regulator expectations and a fascinating view from the global...
