It is amazing how professionals try and complicate tasks. The latest fad – “Enterprise Risk Management.” Corporations now have “Risk Officers.” Making ideas more complex does not mean more effective results. Overlapping corporate structures with multiple committees assigned to specific tasks are a compliance nightmare. It is really just a new form of window dressing. To be effective, a compliance program does not need...
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If China is really number 78 in the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index rankings, I cannot even imagine the corruption conditions in the countries ranked 79 to 178. Russia stands at 154 out of 178. It should not surprise anyone that China and Russia are perceived as highly corrupt business environments. As former communist states, the underground or “black” market was a fact of life...
The steady drumbeat of compliance continues – comply, comply and comply. The refrain goes even deeper – document, document, document. But can you imagine when the “rational” decision maker decides to continue engaging in bribery, or turning a blind eye to continuing bribery. Let’s examine a possible scenario. “Assume” (in the economists favorite refrain) that a company sells a product in a highly competitive market...
Much has been written about the Laura Stevens case. You will remember that she was in-house counsel for Glaxo Smith Kline and indicted for obstruction of justice and false statements for submitting an incomplete response to an FDA inquiry letter concerning off-label marketing tactics. The federal judge in Maryland granted a Rule 29 Motion for Judgment of Acquittal and rebuked the prosecutors for bringing the...
The increase in FCPA enforcement has lead to the growth in the legal cottage industry surrounding compliance and enforcement. More and more companies are advertising their due diligence services, their intelligence gathering services, and their overall ability to help companies comply with the law. Lawyers are guilty of this mass marketing hysteria. Webinars are offered every week; boot camps and other meetings are scheduled every quarter...
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Join Michael Volkov, Andrew Hulsh and Richard Rosenfeld Mayer Brown LLP Partners — November 8, 2011 at 12:30 pm In this era of aggressive enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and anti-corruption laws, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have now turned their attention to private equity and hedge funds. The implications of this new initiative are far-reaching...
Internal auditors are the compliance super heroes. But they are also the villains. Perhaps that is why they are frequently isolated or labeled as schizophrenics in any organization. The government wants to focus its investigations on internal auditors and hold them accountable as the gatekeepers, the people in a company that are supposed to detect bribery. Underlying the books and records provision of the FCPA...
Canada is an interesting country – not just to visit — but in anti-corruption enforcement. Canada is dead last in the G7 when it comes to anti-corruption enforcement. Transparency International has consistently criticized Canada’s anti-corruption enforcement program as woeful. Last year, the OECD cited Canada for its poor enforcement record. For companies subject to Canadian anti-corruption law, the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act (CFPOA),...
