I would rather have my ignorance than another man’s knowledge, because I have so much more of it. – Mark Twain One should never underestimate the power of inertia.  Corporate directors and senior managers sometimes cling to inertia in the hope that potential problems will disappear or fade into the sunset.  Differences in corporate responses often reflect corporate governance strategies and practices.  Foreign companies, which...

The Justice Department is planning to issue its long-awaited FCPA Guidance before October 10, 2012.  I am sure that DOJ’s Guidance will provide plenty of issues for analysis.  While it is certainly a welcome action, I am sure the critics will continue their carping.  FCPA critics will not be happy until the FCPA is eviscerated.  Meanwhile, the Justice Department has continued to settle cases and...

We all remember the childhood game of Twenty Questions – the object of the game was to guess the person, place or object which the other person had in mind.  In keeping with that spirit, I thought I would put together Twenty Questions with a similar objective – to try and capture the state of mind of the company employee who is seeking approval for...

The Justice Department has been criticized for its reliance on Deferred Prosecution Agreements and Non-Prosecution Agreements.  The FCPA Professor has lead the charge on this concern.  The Justice Department relies on DPAs and NPAs to avoid the so-called corporate death penalty, a reference to the Arthur Andersen case in 2003, which resulted in the demise of Arthur Andersen and the loss of thousands of jobs....

Sometimes compliance issues are easy – or as I like to say, sometimes I have a profound grasp of the obvious.  This posting is another in the continuing series of obvious points. Corporate governance and compliance have become cottage industries.  In many cases, the issues are not so difficult to address.  In fact, in some cases, common sense is all that is needed.  Yogi Berra...

Just to make every compliance officer’s job a little bit more difficult, companies need to adopt and implement an insider trading compliance policy.  The Justice Department and the SEC have made headlines through its high-profile insider trading criminal prosecutions.  Underneath the radar screen, the Justice Department has been pursuing a large criminal investigation focusing on “expert networks,” in which consultants have been used, along with...

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Here is another guest post from Patrick Kellermann from Leclair Ryan.  His bio is here.  We looked earlier this week at Google’s proposed $22.5 million data privacy settlement.  See post here.   As Hurricane Isaac pummeled our shores, and the Republicans held their convention in Tampa, yet another headline on data privacy appeared — when it rains, it pours. District Court Judge Susan Illston granted Consumer Watchdog’s...

Colombia is a beautiful country and the people are amazing.  It is the land of economic opportunity.  The Free Trade Agreement, which was finally ratified by Congress, last year, became effective on May 15, 2012.  The United States has quadrupled exports to Colombia in the last four years, totaling $14 billion each year.  That number is expected to sky-rocket because of  the Free Trade Agreement...