The SEC has a real perception problem. They cannot win in court. Whether this is fair or not, the SEC needs to move beyond this fear of losing since it only undermines the integrity of its enforcement program. As a former prosecutor, I can assure you that prosecutors, just like trial lawyers, will lose a case. There is no shame in that since you cannot...

Chief Compliance Officers need the support of their Board of Directors. The relationship between the CCO and the head of the Audit/Compliance Committee sends an important message to senior management and the entire company on the importance of ethics and compliance. CCO reporting to the Audit/Compliance Committee has to be structured carefully to promote ethics and compliance. Here are my five best practices that should...

The Internet is littered with FCPA Mid-Year Assessments and reports on enforcement activity and so-called trends and developments. Talk about making mountains out of molehills. Some of the reports are excellent; others are rehashes filled with “analysis” that are intended to promote FCPA fear marketing. Most importantly, the reports suggest that the numbers reflect intentional increases or decreases in enforcement of the FCPA. That is...

Jon Umarov, an Associate at The Volkov Law Group, returns for another post on Russia and the pharmaceutical industry.  Jon’s profile is here.  He can be reached at [email protected]. The Russian government has targeted the pharmaceutical industry for growth and development, adopting a program Pharma 2020 Strategy. This program aims to improve the competitiveness of the Russian pharmaceutical industry and localize production resources of international...

Lauren Connell, Managing Associate at The Volkov Law Group, joins us again for a post on corporate culture and employee surveys.  Her profile can be viewed here.  She can be reached at [email protected]. It is always amazing to me how reluctant people are to ask direct questions. Interviewers freeze up when they have to ask the big question – “Did you steal the money?” Boyfriends...

Chief Compliance Officers are on their way to achieving their dream. All of the trends are looking up – compliance influence is up, and budgets and resources are growing. CCOs want to be part of the C-Suite. According to the last PWC Compliance Survey, only 29 percent of CCOs have made it into the C-Suite but that will increase. Only 27 percent of CCOs continue...

In this era of aggressive FCPA enforcement, there are critics who have suggested that the Department of Justice should concentrate its prosecutions on individuals rather than imposing ever-increasing criminal fines on corporations. These critics claim that individual criminal prosecutions are the most effective means to deter criminal conduct. The Justice Department’s prosecution of Marubeni Corporation, a Japanese company, for two separate FCPA bribery schemes provides...

Companies that ignore the need for an ethics and compliance program deserve whatever they get. There, I said it. Chalk up another profound grasp of the obvious. The latest PWC Survey on the State of Compliance (here) noted two significant results: Size of Company Percentage with No CCO/Head of Compliance Less than $1 billion 42 percent > $1 and <$5 billion 37 percent >$5 and...

Board members are in the hot seat, or to put it another way – they are in a hot kitchen. The question is whether they can stand the heat of the hot kitchen. Plaintiff’s lawyers are out in full force these days, ready to sue any company board when a major catastrophe hits. In the aftermath of the massive data breach suffered by Target, plaintiff’s...

Every organization depends on persons who are in a unique position to identify potential problems before they occur. Companies depend on gatekeepers to disrupt and prevent potential misconduct. Internal and external auditors, compliance officers, in-house and outside legal counsel, senior executives and even board members can play this role. In almost every case resulting in an enforcement action a gatekeeper fails to act to disrupt...