Talk is cheap, especially when it comes to ethics and compliance programs. Words are easy but action and commitment are even harder. The compliance industry needs to put more meat on the bones of compliance. It is not enough to rely on subjective standards for determining whether an ethics and compliance program is effective. Compliance professionals need to design meaningful measurements and standards for ethics...
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,...
The Supreme Court is very likely to enter into the fray over the Second Circuit’s controversial Newman decision concerning insider-trading liability. The government has filed a petition for certiorari, and the stakes are high. Insider trading liability for unauthorized disclosures to tip recipients (‘tipees”) flows from the common sense notion that an insider cannot engage, directly or indirectly, in insider trading by personally benefitting from...
We all know the importance of the sentencing guidelines and the impact the revisions, especially the 2010 amendments, have had on corporate governance and compliance. The history behind the sentencing guidelines tracks the rise of the compliance profession. The time is now for the Sentencing Commission to launch a further review of the guidelines to reflect the rapid changes in the compliance profession. The Sentencing...
Many companies, depending on the industry, have implemented anti-corruption compliance programs. Some of the programs meet the standard for an “effective” anti-corruption compliance program. There is a vast difference between getting a program implemented on paper and an “effective” anti-corruption compliance program. After all, when you boil it down, anti-corruption compliance is not as difficult a task as everyone thinks. Some programs are immature, some...
The recent Louis Berger International FCPA settlement highlighted once again the serious consequences from systemic bribery violations, the ease with which bribery schemes can be carried out, and the risks facing all global companies, especially those involved in high-risk industries like construction projects. Berger agreed to pay $17 million to settle the case and agreed to a three-year corporate monitor. Interestingly, at the same time...
I am neither bitter nor cynical but I do wish there was less immaturity in political thinking – Franklin D. Roosevelt. Maybe I am turning cynical in my old age. Maybe I just do not believe that government agencies make decisions for the right reason without sticking a finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing. I really do not know...
FCPA enforcement will likely take a turn into the private equity industry. I know this is a regular claim by FCPA practitioners but we already can see the beginning of the trend. The “princeling” investigations are ongoing and the industry is fighting back, claiming that internships awarded to family members of foreign officials were not given with corrupt intent or were not of any value...
I am pleased to announce the release of my new e-book — The Art of the Internal Investigation — by Corporate Compliance Insights. To download a free copy, please visit here. Conducting an internal investigation in today’s risky enforcement environment requires numerous — if not continuous — judgement calls. Stakes are high, and answers are never black-and-white. In this free eBook, Michael Volkov wields his...
AML compliance reminds me of a classic Three Stooges scene from A Plumbing We Will Go (view episode here) – Curly, as one of the plumbers, continues to add pipes to a leaking bathtub, only to be surprised when the water continues to come out of the end of the pipe, and so on — you will get the picture. We all know about the...
