When looking through the wreckage of a major corporate compliance disaster, it is relatively easy to spot the important events when business needs (or money) are consciously elevated over compliance concerns or even reputational risks. It is easy to spot the circumstance, and with perfect hindsight announce to everyone (assuming someone is listening) that you would not have followed that course of action. In the...
The anti-corruption field has the benefit of many great leaders, bloggers, academics, researchers, NGOs and other contributors who are committed to the battle against corruption. Many people dedicate themselves with little to no compensation but selflessly work to advance the global battle against corruption. I recently met Pavlo Bespalov, one of the editors of a blog, Compliance Periscope, (Here), at the recent SCCE meeting in...
Wednesday, October 26, 2016 10:00 AM PT / 1:00 PM ET Register HERE Join Randy Stephens, Vice President, Advisory Services, NAVEX Global, and me for this free webinar to discuss NAVEX Global’s 2016 Third Party Risk Management Benchmark Report. Register to hear information on: Common challenges other organizations face when addressing third party risk Which screening and monitoring methods are most powerful How to measure...
Compliance and enforcement headlines have focused on the Wells Fargo scandal. And for good reason. On September 8, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Comptroller of the Currency and the Los Angeles County Attorney announced the regulatory settlement against Wells Fargo. The enforcement action included a detailed discussion of the facts. What was interesting in the public announcement was that the Justice Department had...
If you review the last ten years of FCPA enforcement, the unmistakable pattern is rising expectations with regard to corporate compliance programs, particularly with regard to third party due diligence and risk management. Over the course of numerous enforcement actions, DOJ and the SEC have reached the point now where they are questioning not just the conduct of due diligence but the quality of due...
The Wells Fargo scandal represents a textbook case of compliance and culture failures. Recently, the scandal and Wells Fargo’s defensive crisis management strategy resulted in CEO Stumpf’s resignation. Stumpf’s demise was inevitable. He will go down in history as the only CEO of a major bank forced to resign in the aftermath of a public scandal. It is important to review what happened at Wells...
I was honored to participate with Ted Datta and Bill Hauserman from Bureau Van Dijk concerning unraveling corporate structures. Beneficial ownership is a critical issue that companies have to address in their due diligence and compliance programs. Watch the webinar here — register first and then get access to the webinar, slides and contact information.
There are a number of important lessons from the Och-Ziff enforcement action, some of which are related to the private equity and hedge fund industry and some of which apply across all businesses. SEC regulations require public companies to design and implement a system of internal controls. As FCPA enforcement has increased, companies have to question how to design and implement an effective system of...
The Och-Ziff settlement has now set the stage for the Justice Department and the SEC to focus its enforcement eye on the private equity and hedge fund industry. The Och-Ziff action was initiated in response to the SEC’s industry inquiry launched in 2011. The SEC issued inquiry letters to approximately 10 separate private equity/hedge funds, and investment banks. The results of these inquiries are unknown...
The Och-Ziff enforcement action is replete with examples of failures in due diligence and transaction monitoring compliance. Och-Ziff’s bribery schemes were elaborate and intricate and involved complex transactions, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), designed to funnel large bribery payments. In the DRC, Och-Ziff executed the scheme primarily through two senior employees and an Israeli partner (DRC Partner), who were committed to...
