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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

The SEC announced last week a $5 million FCPA settlement with Vantage Drilling International (“Vantage”), a Texas-based offshore drilling company.  The violations involved Vantage’s predecessor company, Vantage Drilling Company (“VDC”), for transactions with its former outside director, largest shareholder and only supplier of drilling assets, and for failure to implement appropriate controls for its third-party marketing agents. The Justice Department closed its related investigation. The...