My colleague Tom Fox is a fountain of wisdom on ethics and compliance issues.  If you know Tom and hear him speak, you know he has seen a lot of corporate compliance situations – good and bad.  With this perspective, it is always worth it to listen to Tom and heed his advice. Tom and I share a common perspective (or so I would like...

On September 26, 2013, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council published proposed rules to implement new human trafficking compliance requirements on government contractors and subcontractors.  President Obama signed an Executive Order almost a year ago to eliminate human trafficking by government contractors and subcontractors.  Similar requirements were imposed on Defense Department contractors several months later when Congress enacted, and the President signed, the Defense Reauthorization...

The recent announcement of SEC whistleblower awards is an important reminder on the need for companies to devote time and attention to proactive whistleblower policies and practices.  Every organization adopts the vanilla-language of responding to whistleblowers and prohibiting retaliation against whistleblowers. It takes guts for companies to move beyond these standard pronouncements and embrace proactive strategies for dealing with whistleblowers.  Interestingly, recent studies continue to...

Anti-Kickback and Stark Law Update: Enforcement and Compliance Issues November 6, 2013 12 Noon – 1 PM EST  Register: Here The Department of Justice and HHS-OIG continue their aggressive enforcement program using Anti-Kickback and Stark Law violations to target pharmaceutical and medical device companies, hospitals, physicians and other healthcare providers. Companies need to adopt proactive compliance strategies to minimize risk, identify issues, and protect their...

Creating a Culture of Ethics and Compliance November 5, 2013 12 Noon – 1 PM EST Register: Here An effective compliance program requires a culture of ethics and compliance, including “tone-at-the-top.” A company’s culture is not easy to measure. Nonetheless, there are practical steps which can be implemented to collect and assess information about a company’s culture, including surveys, focus groups, and other procedures. Join...

Chief Compliance Officers have plenty of issues to focus on when it comes to anti-corruption compliance.  If you rank the risks, facilitation payments are not at the top of the list, especially if you have sales staff and third-party agents who regularly interact with foreign officials for business.  Even gifts, meals, entertainment and travel eclipses facilitation payments on the compliance radar screen. Part of the...

After the Department of Justice announced its declination of the Morgan Stanley case, the FCPA Paparazzi littered the Internet with recommendations of steps to take modeled on Morgan Stanley’s compliance program.  Companies embraced these principles and emulated Morgan Stanley’s compliance program.  Everyone wanted to have a “Morgan Stanley” compliance program. I do not mean to burst the FCPA Paparazzi’s balloons but the facts of Morgan...

Forgive me for this column in advance but I had to chuckle a little bit when I read that JP Morgan was creating global compliance SWAT teams who, on a moment’s notice, would travel around the globe to respond to compliance emergencies.  I know I have written on behalf of Chief Compliance Officers and the important role they play in every company, but I was...

Compliance cynics have sometimes commented that when a company gets into trouble because of misconduct by the Board of Directors or C-Suite officials that the company’s response is to increase training of mid and lower level managers and employees. It is a cynical comment but there is some truth underlying the suggestion.  Compliance programs are designed, implemented and monitored under the supervision of the Board...

The advent of the Internet is not all positive – criminals like to use the Internet and they are very good at doing so.  The same might be said for Bitcoin, the new raging virtual currency. Bitcoin is on the government’s radar screen from both a regulatory and an enforcement perspective.  Eventually, Bitcoin will be regulated.  In the meantime, however, the trade press is definitely...