Tagged: Securities and Exchange Commission

Webinar: Anti-Corruption Compliance in the High-Tech Sector

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...

DOJ’s Warning to High-Tech Companies: SAP Official Pleads Guilty To FCPA Violation

When DOJ acts, they like to make a splash. While the FCPA Paparazzi have been lamenting the “slow down” in FCPA enforcement actions and the increase in case closings, DOJ still makes its mark when it acts, and I expect more DOJ actions in the last quarter of 2015. DOJ’s latest salvo was the criminal plea of a former SAP official, a US citizen, for...

SEC Promotes Value of Cooperating Witnesses

Change does not occur overnight. The SEC, as much as any other government agency, has touted its hiring of former prosecutors and use of aggressive investigation tactics. I always took those statements with a grain of salt – after all, the SEC is enforcing civil laws and regulations. A prosecutor can only do so much in the civil enforcement arena. In a recent Wall Street...

Supreme Court Called Upon to Review the Newman Case and Address Insider Trading Liability

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...

5 Signs Your Anti-Corruption Compliance Program is Suffering from “Tunnel Vision”

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...

Private Equity’s Corruption Risk Underbelly — Portfolio Companies

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...

AML Risks and Compliance for Non-Financial Institutions

Consider yourself lucky if you work at a company that does not fall within the Title 31 of the US Code definition of a “financial institution.” I am being somewhat dramatic but it is important for every company to have an anti-money laundering compliance program. My suggestion is not designed to promote business or even “scare” companies into addressing this issue – it makes sense...

The Dangerous “Cult” of CEO Rock Stars

Everyone needs a hero, someone they can look up to and admire, and project feelings of positive personality. The world’s history is replete with “great” leaders who instilled in people a feeling of connection, commitment and admiration. History also tells us that the “leadership dynamic” can also be used for negative purposes. We all have our list of horrible and evil “leaders” who led countries...

Washington Politics and Compliance

Consider this posting a warning to everyone in the corporate governance field. I am not known for being a chicken little and screaming “the sky is falling, the sky is falling.” I tend to be a realist when it comes to politics and corporate governance. So with this caveat in mind, here is my warning for the future. With the rise of the Chief Compliance...