People disagreeing on all just about everything, yeah Makes you stop and all wonder why Why only yesterday I saw somebody on the street Who just couldn’t help but cry Oh, this ol’ river keeps on rollin’, though No matter what gets in the way and which way the wind does blow And as long as it does I’ll just sit here And watch the...
Corporate boards are under intense scrutiny – shareholder organizations are challenging boards in an attempt to improve board performance. Government prosecutors are focusing more on board responsibility for corporate misconduct. Most of what is written about corporate board performance is so general and intended not to “offend” corporate boards. Unfortunately, in the face of significant challenges in the marketplace, corporate boards are clinging to their...
Just remember, it’s not a lie . . . if you believe it. – George Costanza We all have our favorite episodes and scenes from the Seinfeld series. As we grow older, we like to reference them more and more – maybe because it reminds us of your “youth” (looking back, my 30s were certainly younger than my 50s). Jerry is on his way to...
Humans are good at avoidance and can even reach a state of blatant disregard. The corruption news coming out of Brazil is so far-reaching that it is almost numbing. Last year we all ventilated about the GSK China scandal. This year Brazil is the new focus. Petrobas has been a constant in this reporting deluge. Tom Fox pointed out yesterday (here) that bribery has been...
The bulk of company internal investigations are devoted to human resource and code of conduct violations. Of course, there are always potential legal violations but these are far smaller in number but could have disastrous consequences depending on the nature of the violations. A company’s Code of Conduct is its cultural foundation. A CEO should know it backwards and forwards, and be able to refer...
Everyone knows the mantra – yes, we need tone at the top, but we also need tone in the middle and tone at the bottom. Every aspect of this statement, however, requires more work than everyone thinks. Tone at the top is not established by having the CEO create a video message, write a letter and/or communicate the company’s commitment to ethics and compliance. It...
The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made. – Groucho Marx Sometimes compliance practitioners miss the forest from the trees. They can get lost in the details of their compliance programs, focusing on less significant details and ignoring more important tasks. The FCPA Guidance, issued by the Justice Department and the SEC in November 2012,...
The compliance profession continues to rise in importance. Companies are paying more attention to corporate culture and devoting resources to enhance existing compliance operations. This approach is reinforced with each week as new enforcement actions are announced. Just like every other success story, the rise of compliance brings out dangerous “innovations,” which are promoted as the magic solution to compliance technology needs. Compliance professionals have...
Sometimes compliance realities outpace enforcement and regulatory requirements. When it comes to FinCEN’s proposal to implement a beneficial ownership rule for financial institutions (see Here), global financial institutions do not need to worry about the outcome of the FinCEN regulations. Global financial institutions already have to know their (your) customer because of compliance obligations with sanctions and anti-corruption laws. In the anti-corruption context, a financial...
I often complain about compliance messaging. Compliance officers have to be careful to avoid becoming viewed as “nattering nabobs of negativism,” as former Vice President Spiro Agnew famously stated about the liberal media. Instead, compliance officers have to unite under the umbrella of positivism, and rely on a two-prong message — promote and protect. An effective ethics and compliance program promotes the positive aspects of...
