Corruption, Crime & Compliance

Featured Articles:

12 Apr, 2016

New and Important Compliance Standards in DOJ’s Recent FCPA Guidance (Part II of II)

The importance of DOJ’s hiring of Hui Chen as Compliance Counsel was recently confirmed by DOJ’s release of new compliance remediation standards for FCPA compliance programs. DOJ has, once again, raised the bar on FCPA compliance programs. Compliance practitioners have a real and significant voice on behalf of the compliance function inside the Justice Department. In adopting a new pilot program for FCPA enforcement and...

General

10 Apr, 2016

DOJ’s New FCPA Enforcement Plan and Guidance (Part I of II)

The Justice Department finally released its long-awaited new FCPA enforcement plan. It took DOJ a little while to come up with this and in the end, like most initiatives, there is a mixed bag for global companies, FCPA practitioners, DOJ prosecutors and law enforcement. Today’s posting analyzes the initiative on prosecution issues, and tomorrow’s post will review the compliance component of the new guidance. DOJ’s...

General

6 Apr, 2016

Doing Business in China Should Be “Scary”

Lauren Connell, Managing Associate at The Volkov Law Group, joins us again for another posting on corruption risks in China. Her profile is here and she can be reached at [email protected]. A little fear is healthy. It will keep you vigilant and aware. At this point if corporate compliance departments are not a little fearful of doing business in China then their managers and employees...

General

6 Apr, 2016

Checking In on “The Year of Third-Party Due Diligence”

Hui Chen, the Department of Justice’s Compliance Counsel, recently stated that 2015 was the year of due diligence and third-party compliance. A recent survey conducted by Kroll and Ethisphere provided a status check on how the due diligence compliance effort is going. Many companies have heard the message about the importance of due diligence compliance and instituted due diligence systems, hopefully using automated programs. Companies...

General

5 Apr, 2016

Parent Company and Subsidiary Liability for FCPA Violations: Fighting the Disinformation Campaign

Akin to politics (to a smaller degree), there is a fair amount of disinformation, some call it bloviating, put out by the FCPA Paparazzi. Some of this disinformation is motivated by immature attempts to “market” legal services; other sources of disinformation carry a readily apparent bias, one way or the other, and usually are supported by self-citations to one’s own “scholarship” to prove their points....

General

3 Apr, 2016

The Demise of Valeant Pharmaceuticals: A Case Study in Rotten Culture and Business Ethics

Showing my age again, Woody Allen’s Take the Money and Run included a hilarious scene when Woody’s parents wearing Groucho Marx glasses talk about their criminal son (Woody/Virgil Starkwell), his dad exclaimed “He’s rotten, he is a gangster.” See clip here. Well, the story of Valeant Pharmaceuticals is a familiar one of corporate greed and misconduct, based on a “rotten” tone at the top and...

General

1 Apr, 2016

Your Company’s Compliance Program is Finished – April Fools

Happy April Fool’s Day! Could you ever imagine coming to work one day and realizing that you have “finished” your ethics and compliance program? There is nothing left to do. You can go home. Ohhhh, if only it was so. We all know the truth – a compliance program is never finished, never completed and there is always something to do. This gets us back...

General

31 Mar, 2016

Honest Assessment of the CCO-CEO Relationship

One very accurate indicator of a compliance program is the relationship between the CEO and the Chief Compliance Officer. If a CCO is repeatedly making excuses for a CEO who does not devote enough time to compliance, you can rest assured that the compliance program is nowhere near effective. Let’s start with the basics. Almost 60 percent of CCOs now report directly to the CEO....

General

29 Mar, 2016

The Myth of the Rogue Employee

Humans by nature seek to avoid uncomfortable feelings, events and situations. When a company suffers misconduct, the same principle holds true. Corporate actors, defense lawyers and board members will always minimize the bad actors and the harm they caused. In response to a bribery scheme confined to a country, the company will immediately seek refuge in the myth of the rogue employee. By definition, the...

General

28 Mar, 2016

Novartis Coughs Up $25 Million to SEC for China FCPA Violations

Last week, the SEC announced another FCPA settlement involving the pharmaceutical industry for bribery in China. The SEC’s settlement filing represents yet another example of the pharmaceutical industry run amok in China, relying on targeted gifts, meals, entertainment and travel expenditures designed to increase sales of Novartis products in China. Novartis had to cough up $25 million. The Novartis enforcement action, however, provides an important...