“It is Time” – Rafiki, The Lion King Corporate scandals continue to rack up – I am not just blowing smoke on this fact. Corporate boards are under greater scrutiny but the hardest place to bring reform is the corporate boardroom. Old institutions do not change quickly and there is an inherent resistance to change when it comes to a corporate boardroom. The old dynamic...

In the wreckage of a corporate FCPA enforcement action, a company has to answer two important questions. First, how did the conduct occur without senior executives and the Board learning or suspecting that such conduct was occurring or could occur? Second, how did the wrongdoers obtain access to the money needed to fund the bribery scheme? I know these two questions are fairly obvious, but...

Compliance always boils down to people and interpersonal relationships. No man is an island, and no one can go it alone in compliance. One essential requirement for effective compliance is the ability to engage colleagues and your audience. Many senior executives are smart people –we all understand that. But too often senor executives embrace an interpersonal style of cheerleading. It allows them to appear to...

A Chief Compliance Officer has a number of important relationships to maintain in an organization. Aside from the support of senior level executives, the CCO has to build an effective working relationship with the board and the relevant board committee responsible for ethics and compliance. From an operational standpoint, a CCO has to use the board to advance an issue when frustrated by senior management....

Today I begin a three-part series on reputational damage. The first part tries to define the term “reputational damage;” the second part focuses on managing threats to a company’s reputation; and the final posting proposes creation of a senior risk manager in a corporate leadership team. If you ask CEOs and board members about the threats to a company resulting from a DOJ enforcement action,...

Webinar: Anti-Corruption Compliance in the High-Tech Sector   Wednesday, September 9, 2015, 12 Noon EST    Sign Up Here   The Justice Department and the SEC have focused FCPA enforcement resources on high-tech companies. Several high-tech companies have settled FCPA enforcement actions, while others remain under investigation. In a recent enforcement action, an SAP former executive plead guilty to an FCPA conspiracy and is awaiting...

As everyone knows, I am an advocate for promoting and maintaining a company’s culture of ethics and compliance (not compliance and ethics). The best investment a company can make is to create and maintain a positive commitment to an ethical culture. I often repeat myself (just ask my wife and kids), but a culture of ethics is far more important than well-designed and effective policies...

I do not mean to be facetious or snarky, but I am concerned about organizations that sell or promote their ability to certify or give a seal of approval to a company as an “ethical” company.  Even more troubling (or perhaps misleading) is the certification: “world’s most ethical companies.” With the growth of ethics and compliance, you can expect that charlatans, greedy snake oil sales...

Anti-money laundering compliance is a very difficult task. The number of risks is exponential. AML compliance officers have an innovative and rich history of compliance techniques and strategies. In the end, AML compliance depends on: accurate and comprehensive risk assessments; pre-screening of customers through appropriate KYC programs; and audit and monitoring of transaction and customer activity. Despite the commitment and dedication of AML compliance professionals,...

Maurice Gilbert, head of Conselium Executive Search (here), the leading  executive search firm for compliance professionals, has written a fascinating piece on the difficulty in hiring compliance professionals.   He was gracious enough to allow me to reprint it for CCC blog readers.  Maurice maintains the highly popular blog, Corporate Compliance Insights (here), and can be reached at [email protected]. As managing partner of an executive search...