Vera is a Chartered Accountant, Certified Internal Auditor, and award-winning Ethics and Compliance expert who writes and speaks about philosophy, business ethics, compliance, risk, and governance. She is the Executive Director of Boards of the Future™, a non-profit that works with corporate boards globally to advocate for stronger ethics, risk, and compliance backgrounds. She spends time between Milan and Los Angeles and serves as a Chair,...

For years, I have consistently pushed organizations and compliance professionals to embrace technology and automated solutions as a core component of an effective ethics and compliance program. That message is even more urgent today. Let me put it bluntly: if your compliance program is not automated in key areas, you do not have an effective compliance program—by definition. The compliance environment has changed dramatically. Companies...

Anik A. Shah is Director & Sr. Legal Counsel, Anti-Bribery and Anti-Corruption, at Sandisk, a global semiconductor manufacturer. Anik has more than 15 years of compliance, investigations, regulatory, and law enforcement experience. Anik started his career at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), where he investigated anti-fraud, anti-bribery, and other violations by multi-national financial institutions and technology companies and their executives. At the SEC,...

The U.S. government has issued significant new guidance clarifying how sanctions and export controls apply to certain oil-related transactions involving Cuba. In coordinated actions, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced a new “favorable licensing policy” for specific resales of Venezuelan oil to Cuba, while the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued interpretive guidance regarding the availability of license exceptions under the Export...

As 2026 unfolds, the global cyber threat landscape is rapidly evolving — driven by accelerating attacker sophistication, geopolitical pressures, and, above all, the rise of artificial intelligence as both a tool and a target. The recently released 2026 CrowdStrike Global Threat Report highlights a stark shift: adversaries are no longer only exploiting technical vulnerabilities. They are leveraging AI to supercharge attacks, compress response windows, and...

Each year, LRN’s Ethics & Compliance Program Effectiveness Report provides one of the most useful snapshots of the global compliance profession. The 2026 report—“The Next Leap: Technology, Trust, and the Transformation of Compliance”—again offers valuable insight into how corporate ethics and compliance programs are evolving amid rapid technological change, new regulatory expectations, and shifting workplace culture. Based on surveys of more than 2,500 compliance professionals and employees worldwide,...

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) recently imposed a $1 million civil penalty against Teledyne FLIR, a U.S. manufacturer of thermal imaging cameras, for multiple violations of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) involving exports to China and Hong Kong. The enforcement action highlights a recurring compliance challenge for multinational exporters: the complex application of the EAR’s de minimis rules, as...

Recent enforcement actions by the SEC have reinforced a message that boards and senior leadership have heard before—but too often underestimate in practice: financial reporting risk is a governance risk. When internal controls fail, disclosure judgments are compromised, or performance pressures override discipline, regulators do not view the breakdown as a technical accounting issue. They view it as an oversight failure. The lessons from recent...

In late 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (ADM) and three of its former executives with accounting and disclosure fraud, in what has become one of the most significant financial reporting enforcement actions of 2026. The case underscores a fundamental compliance truth: strong internal controls and transparent disclosures are not optional — they are core risk controls that protect investors, markets,...

A real estate executive reached a $3.77 million settlement with the Office of Foreign Assets Control after OFAC accused them of violating U.S. sanctions against Syria. The person — who committed the alleged violations years before the U.S. repealed a host of Syria restrictions in 2025 — provided “managerial services” in their position as a senior official and board member of four Syrian real estate...