Corruption, Crime & Compliance

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16 Dec, 2018

Convercent Webinar — FCPA Enforcement: What Happened in 2018? (Plus, What’s in Store For 2019)

Join Tom Fox, Katie Smith and me on December 18, 2018 at 11am Mountain Time during a dynamic webinar reviewing the top FCPA enforcement actions of the year. Sign Up HERE More importantly, what does it all mean for the compliance professional going forward? How can companies mitigate third-party risks to avoid enforcement actions like the $585 million criminal penalty given to Société Générale or the $137.4 penalty levied...

General

12 Dec, 2018

The Mindset of Employee Fraudsters (Part III of III)

Technology and computer analytics are important tools in the fight against fraud. But it is not the magic and exclusive bullet. Fraud is committed by humans and investing in the human element, while difficult to measure, is an important part of every fraud prevention strategy. The fraud triangle is an essential framework for understanding fraudster behavior. The fraud triangle is no panacea but it is...

General

11 Dec, 2018

Fraud Detection: New Technologies and Analytics (Part II of III)

The battle against fraud is evolving and technology is providing new and important tools to detect and prevent fraud. Companies are using a variety of techniques and include: continuous monitoring; email monitoring; anomaly detection; pattern recognition and artificial intelligence. Data mining and statistical analysis can be helpful in detecting fraud. By using sophisticated data mining tools, companies can search millions of transactions to spot patterns...

General

10 Dec, 2018

The Growing Problem of Corporate Fraud (Part I of III)

For the love of money is the root of all evil – 1 Timothy 6:10, King James Version, The Bible Corporate bribery requires money. How is that for something obvious. Companies face a variety of threats – one enduring threat is the risk of fraud or theft. Unfortunately, employee fraud is all too common. PWC’s 2018 Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey reported that “only...

Podcasts

9 Dec, 2018

Episode 68 — FCPA Guidance and Safe Harbors

The FCPA Guidance continues to inform compliance practitioners on compliance best practices. Issued in 2012, the FCPA Guidance provides important information concerning a number of compliance functions and risks. The FCPA Guidance includes important discussions about legal intent, due diligence, successor liability and other issues, which can be used to establish important safe harbors for an effective ethics and compliance program. In this episode, Michael...

General

6 Dec, 2018

Smart Compliance: Embracing Proactive Solutions

Over the last twenty years, we have seen a fundamental re-orientation in compliance. I would argue that as the compliance profession has expanded and taken on greater space and responsibility in the corporate governance world, a fresh perspective has developed. In my view, compliance is devoting more attention, and properly so, to the idea of “proactive” compliance. This is in contrast to “reactive” compliance. What...

General

5 Dec, 2018

The “60-60” Issue and Indoctrinating Middle Management into the Compliance Mission

Maybe I am getting slow in my old age – or just maybe I am losing a step or two. We all face that inevitable question – and perhaps, for me, it is best illustrated when I come up with yet another in my series of profound grasps of the obvious. Here is one of my favorites – I call it the 60-60 problem. If...

General

4 Dec, 2018

Enforcing Corporate Compliance Policies and Controls

The government has emphasized the dangers of a paper compliance program, meaning a compliance program that is written down but not implemented. We all have seen programs that fit this bill, and they are discouraging. They are exhilarating when written out because they are usually comprehensive and ambitious. But such positive feelings can quickly turn negative when you start to kick the tires and find...

General

3 Dec, 2018

The Purpose of a Compliance Program: To Prevent and Detect

I do not think there is much disagreement on the basic purpose of an ethics and compliance program. After all, one of the primary sources for compliance programs continues to be the United States Sentencing Guidelines which very clearly affirm that stated purpose of a corporate compliance program. To play devil’s advocate for a minute, let’s consider the following: the United States Sentencing Guidelines are...

Podcasts

2 Dec, 2018

Episode 67 — Conducting Compliance Audits

Corporate compliance departments are rapidly implementing their own internal audit function — operating their own internal compliance monitoring and audit function. No longer can compliance departments rely on internal audit to report on the compliance department’s operations. Companies have to implement internal (or external) audit procedures. In this episode, Michael Volkov discusses how to conduct a compliance audit.