Compliance and ethical culture mandates have experienced a significant transformation.  From the early days of compliance, organizations pigeon-holed compliance into a role akin to “law enforcement.” I will always recall meeting with a client years ago and when the CCO walked into the room, a senior executive exclaimed, “Uh, oh, the sheriff is in town.” That was not a good sign. Compliance by fear is...

Chief compliance officers have a difficult job (to say the least).  If everything goes well, they are hailed as heroes.  If a major problem occurs, everyone looks to the CCO to find out why the problem occurred.  In the latter situation, the implicit message to CCOs is “why didn’t you prevent this problem, I thought you were supposed to prevent this.”  This reflects a fundamental...

Choose to be optimistic. It feels better.” – Dalai Lama Forgive me for my optimism.  It is the only way to live a meaningful life.  Or as some would say – being a pessimist is too much of a burden.  We begin a New Year — and I am optimistic. To turn the corner here on relevance, ethics and compliance professionals, are by definition, optimists. Give...

We have heard it over and over, again and again – third-parties pose significant risks of bribery for all global businesses.  Almost every FCPA enforcement action includes some form of third-party misconduct.  The current picture from the Stanford FCPA Resource confirms the story. A cottage industry of automated platforms, data analytics, due diligence and monitoring strategies have grown around third-party bribery risk.  Companies have designed...

Chief compliance officers are always hungry for benchmarking data, for comparisons and insights around how their respective compliance programs stack up against other companies, especially in the same industry.  Compliance professionals, as a general rule, are collaborative and willing to share information with each other.  CCOs are an optimistic lot and enjoy sharing best practices, ideas and insights in order to further the ethics and...

Perhaps I am little bit behind.  That would be nothing new – but we are getting to the point where we no longer need to spell out ESG.  Everyone knows what it means – directors, officers, employees, investors, shareholders and other stakeholders can spell it out.  ESG is firmly implanted in the corporate governance landscape.  Prosecutors and regulatory agencies are quickly adding ESG to their...

Boeing’s long and tragic scandal surrounding its 737 MAX safety concerns and FAA disclosure violations has come to an end.  DOJ announced a settlement early this year, on January 7, 2021, which included a three-year deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) in exchange for total payments of $2.5 billion, consisting of: a $243.6 million criminal penalty, $1.77 billion in compensation to its airline customers, and $500 million to establish...

The Ethics and Compliance Initiative is a terrific organization that provides important ethics and compliance insights and leadership.  Starting in 1994, ECI has conducted a longitudinal, cross-section study of workplace conduct.  ECI recently issued its sixteenth GBES results, which provide important benchmarks on the state of ethics and compliance programs in business.  ECI focuses on the connection between an organization’s ethical culture and workplace behaviors. ...

Boeing’s settlement with DOJ raises more questions than answers.  While I understand that a criminal case against Boeing requires DOJ to identify one or more individuals who have committed a crime that can be fairly attributed to the Boeing corporation.  The doctrine of respondeat superior is the mechanism by which this legal attribution occurs. Boeing has been praised for its remediation efforts and its end...

Bear with me for a second, but remember Presidential Candidate Romney’s statement in 2011 that “Corporations are people.” Starting with that premise, my so-called “Person” of the Year award for 2020 goes to, drumroll . . . Goldman Sachs, for its defining ethical and compliance lapses, leading to the largest ever FCPA Settlement.  With tongue in cheek, the story of 2020 has to be the...