Global companies face ever-increasing risks with sanctions screening and compliance.  The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (“OFAC”) has aggressively enforced complex sanctions regulations against global companies, including banks, manufacturing, oil service and technology companies.  In this aggressive enforcement era, companies have to implement robust screening and compliance controls to identify sanctioned entities and individuals among their business partners and customers. In this...

Wednesday, November 29, 2017 12 noon EST Sign Up Here Global antitrust enforcement programs create significant risks for global companies. In the United States, criminal antitrust risks are significant for companies and individual officers and managers. Global companies can suffer fines, reputational damage and related collateral litigation. Compounding these risks is the mature international antitrust enforcement programs that increase financial and reputational risks. Global antitrust...

Lauren Connell, Managing Associate at The Volkov Law Group, rejoins us for a posting about ISO 37001 certification for your third parties.  Lauren can be reached at [email protected]. A lot of the focus on ISO 37001 so far has been on its value for companies considering certification as evidence of the quality of their own compliance program. With the SEC and DOJ both providing ample...

I like to repeat myself – attorneys are valuable for only two reasons: (1) attorney-client privilege; and (2) advice of counsel defense. I know I am not supposed to denigrate my profession but these are two important reasons, especially the attorney-client privilege. In the context of corporate internal investigations, the attorney-client privilege is an essential tool when conducting internal investigations involving serious issues. I am...

In this era of aggressive enforcement, global companies have to integrate beneficial ownership requirements when conducting due diligence of business associates and when engaging customers. For most businesses, beneficial ownership is critical in two main legal contexts: sanctions compliance and FCPA risk. Both of these areas present significant risks to any US company conducting business overseas, regardless of what industry. Of course financial institutions face...

In a watershed week for FCPA enforcement, the US Department of Justice announced FCPA criminal charges against seven individuals.  Specifically, the Justice Department announced four guilty pleas and one indictment as follow on prosecutions to the January 2017 Rolls Royce FCPA enforcement action, and two guilty pleas in a yet to be announced enforcement action against SBM Offshore. The Justice Department’s unprecedented week underscored that...

Wednesday, November 29, 2017 12 noon EST Sign Up Here Global antitrust enforcement programs create significant risks for global companies. In the United States, criminal antitrust risks are significant for companies and individual officers and managers. Global companies can suffer fines, reputational damage and related collateral litigation. Compounding these risks is the mature international antitrust enforcement programs that increase financial and reputational risks. Global antitrust...

My final posting on this week’s ethics series is a call to action for all compliance professionals. Every compliance officer should insist on and embrace a title – “Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer.” Some larger organizations have a separate ethics officer, and I am not suggesting to merge the positions. Every company should have a chief ethics officer, either as a separate function or as...

The challenge for corporations is to build practical approaches to business ethics and its specific corporate values. Business ethics as a field is all well and good but we need to start sharing specific and practical strategies to infuse our day-to-day conduct and advance our corporate performance. In doing so, I am not so limited nor naïve to suggest that the only measure is corporate...

Here is another profound grasp of the obvious – all companies need to make a profit. However, as companies begin to focus on long-term performance rather than short-term quarterly objectives, innovative leaders believe that profitability can be achieved without sacrificing social, environmental and moral considerations. To the contrary, the long-term success of a business may only thrive when it reflects the needs of its stakeholders...