Day: January 3, 2020

Episode 186 – the Ghosn the Ghost edition

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Post date January 3, 2020
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The first week of the New Year brings James Bond into the world of corporate governance and compliance. Jay wonders if the Patriots run is at an end. The lads then turn to consider some of this abbreviated week’s top compliance and ethics stories which caught their collective eyes.

Carlos Ghson flees captivity in Japan. WSJ on the escape. NYT on who will buy the movie rights. (Early candidate to write the screenplay-Jay Rosen?)
What were some of the top compliance failures for 2019? Jaclyn Jaeger weighs in on Compliance Week. (Sub Req’d)
Who were some of the compliance winners from 2019? Kyle Brassur opines in Compliance Week. (Sub Req’d)
Does compliance have a dark side? Jeff Kaplan considers in the Conflict of Interest
What is the combination of monitoring and compliance. Jay explores in CCI.
What is the danger of fraudulent access requests under the CCPA? Davis Polk in the NYU Compliance and Enforcement blog.
What is the difference in public company governance and JV governance? James Bamford, Tracy Branding and Lois D’Costa in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Goverance.
Corruption returning to South America? Ernesto Londoño and Letícia Casado report in the NYT.
Exxon overturns OFAC fine for doing business with sanctioned individual. Dylan Tokar in the WSJ Risk and Complaince Journal.
On the Compliance Podcast Network, Tom premiers 31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program. Day 1 detailed what 2019 brought to compliance ; Day 2 tackles measurement of risk; Day 3 deals with leadership’s conduct at the top; Day 4 discusses moving tone down in an organization; Day 5 considers the Board of Directors and operationalizing compliance.

Tom Fox is the Compliance Evangelist and can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com. Jay Rosen is Mr. Monitor and can be reached at jrosen@affiliatedmonitors.com.
For more information on how an independent monitor can help improve your company’s ethics and compliance program, visit our sponsor Affiliated Monitors at www.affiliatedmonitors.com.

31 Days to More Effective Compliance Programs

Day 3 | Leadership’s conduct at the top

Post author By admin
Post date January 3, 2020
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Obviously, in every compliance program, the ethical tone of a company and accountability all starts at the top and most specifically senior management. The Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs – Guidance Document (2019 Guidance) stated, “The company’s top leaders – the board of directors and executives – set the tone for the rest of the company. Prosecutors should examine the extent to which senior management have clearly articulated the company’s ethical standards, conveyed and disseminated them in clear and unambiguous terms, and demonstrated rigorous adherence by example. Prosecutors should also examine how middle management, in turn, have reinforced those standards and encouraged employees to abide by them.” To assist companies in understanding this requirement the 2019 Guidance sets out the following inquiries.

Conduct at the Top – How have senior leaders, through their words and actions, encouraged or discouraged compliance, including the type of misconduct involved in the investigation? What concrete actions have they taken to demonstrate leadership in the company’s compliance and remediation efforts? How have they modelled proper behavior to subordinates? Have managers tolerated greater compliance risks in pursuit of new business or greater revenues? Have managers encouraged employees to act unethically to achieve a business objective, or impeded compliance personnel from effectively implementing their duties?
This requirement is more than simply the ubiquitous “tone-at-the-top,” as it focuses on the conduct of senior management. The DOJ wants to see a company’s senior leadership actually doing compliance. The DOJ asks if company leadership has, through their words and concrete actions, brought the right message of doing business ethically and in compliance to the organization. How does senior management model its behavior on a company’s values and finally, how is such conduct monitored in an organization?
Three key takeaways:

Senior management must actually do compliance; walk-the-walk, not simply talk-the-talk.
Use your CEO to talk about current events and how those ethical failures are lessons to be learned for your organization.
CEO as Compliance Ambassador.