Day: September 15, 2020

Categories
31 Days to More Effective Compliance Programs

Internal controls for gifts, travel and entertainment


It is reasonable to expect that internal controls over gifts, travel and entertainment be designed to ensure that they satisfy the criteria as defined in company policies. These are narrow, including a definition of the dollar limit, which must not be exceeded for gifts to be permissible, coupled with some subjective criteria such as the legality of the gifts for the recipient and whether the practice is customary within the country where the gift is delivered. The question I focus on is how to enforce the policies so that employees are not free to disregard them at will?The key analysis is whether there are controls in place to enforce the policies and whether those controls are documented. There are four issues to evaluate:

  1. Is the correct level of person approving the payment/reimbursement for the gift?
  2. Are there specific controls, including signoffs, to demonstrate that the gift had a proper business purpose?
  3. Are the controls regarding gifts sufficiently preventative, rather than relying on detect controls?
  4. If controls are not followed, is that failure detected by other internal controls or the compliance protocols?

Internal controls around gifts can be used in a variety of ways in your best practices compliance program. They can certainly be used to detect an issue and perhaps even prevent an issue from becoming a full-blown FCPA violation, however, by using some of the techniques suggested you can move your compliance program to a proscriptive phase where you not only stop an issue from becoming a violation but through identification, you can move towards remediation as a part of your ongoing compliance efforts. The bottom line is good internal controls make for good business processes; if you can move your compliance program’s internal controls forward, you can help make them a part of your financial controls and thereby have a better run company. 
Three key takeaways:

  1. Gifts, travel and entertainment compliance internal controls are low hanging fruit, pick them.
  2. Compliance internal controls can be both detect and prevent controls.
  3. Good compliance internal controls are good for business.
Categories
EMBARGOED!

EMBARGOED! Episode 14: All Lightning, No China

On this episode of EMBARGOED!, Brian and Tim keep their promise to stay China free (for this week, at least) and change things up to bring you an entire Lightning Round-style episode. With the whole world at our disposal (other than China), we cover the following topics in lightning fashion: the latest U.S. advisory on North Korea, the first U.S. sanctions imposed on the ICC, OFAC’s MOU with the State of Delaware, two recent OFAC enforcement actions against an individual and a financial institution, respectively, the latest on Nord Stream 2 and Venezuela, and, finally, a wild card segment featuring our first foray into sanctions trivia.

Like what you hear? Please subscribe! * Apple Podcasts * Spotify *  Amazon Music  * Google Podcasts * Stitcher
Questions? Contact us at podcasts@milchev.com.
EMBARGOED! is not intended and cannot be relied on as legal advice; the content only reflects the thoughts and opinions of its hosts.
EMBARGOED! is intelligent talk about sanctions, export controls, and all things international trade for trade nerds and normal human beings alike, hosted by Miller & Chevalier Members Brian Fleming and Tim O’Toole. Each episode will feature deep thoughts and hot takes about the latest headline-grabbing developments in this area of the law, as well as some below-the-radar items to keep an eye on. Subscribe for new bi-weekly episodes so you don’t miss out!
Timestamps:
0:10 Introduction and Roadmap
A Full Episode of Lightning Round!
4:49 North Korea Advisory
9:27 International Criminal Court Sanctions
17:13 OFAC Memorandum of Understanding with Delaware
21:18 OFAC Settlement (Individual)
25:26 OFAC Settlement (Russia/Ukraine/Deutsche Bank Trust Co. Americas)
30:00 Nord Stream 2
36:44 Latest Venezuela Sanctions
41:20 Wild Card!
51:55 Final Thoughts
***Stay sanctions free.***

Categories
The Ethics Movement

Converge20- Alyson Van Hooser – Employee Engagement: Are You Prepared for a Gen Z Workforce?


CONVERGE is in its 5th year of bringing together the world’s leading companies for 2 days of dynamic speakers, thought-provoking breakout sessions, and opportunities to connect with like-minded professionals. This year the conference has gone virtual. You will leave the conference with new resources and best practices allowing you to continue the hard work of driving ethics to the center of your business. In today’s episode I visit with Alyson Van Hooser, Partner at Van Hooser Associates. We visit about her panel at Converge20 on Employee Engagement: Are You Prepared for a Gen Z Workforce? 
Alyson is one of the most dynamic speakers around. She coaches business leaders on how to lead Gen Z’ers and coaches Gen Z’ers on what it takes to succeed in business. You will walk away from her presentation on concrete action steps to take going forward. For more registration and information on Converge20, click here.

Categories
The Compliance Life

DeAnna Nwankwo on CCO Skills


The Compliance Life details the journey to and in the role of a Chief Compliance Officer. How does one come to sit in the CCO chair? What are some of the skills a CCO needs to success navigate the compliance waters in any company? What are some of the top challenges CCOs have faced and how did they meet them? These questions and many others will be explored in this new podcast series. Over four episodes each month on The Compliance Life, I visit with one current or former CCO to explore their journey to the CCO chair. This month, my guest is DeAnna Nwankwo who served as Corporate Compliance Officer for Core Laboratories from 2003 May 2020. In that capacity, she led Core Laboratories ethics and compliance activities.
In this second episode, we take up the some of the skills, tasks and roles that Deanna had as a CCO. She believes one of the key things that any CCO can and should do, one of which is engage in and preach integrity. It is important to understand conflict management as a every CCO will be called upon to manage conflicts. While you must be detail oriented and have good problem-solving skills, a CCO must be comfortable navigating the grey zone.

Categories
The Affiliated Monitors Expert Podcast

The Marriage of Independent Monitors and C&E Programs

Today,  I visit with Vin DiCianni, CEO and founder of Affiliated Monitors, Inc. In this episode I visit with DiCianni on the marriage of independent monitors and compliance and ethics programs. DiCianni said that the evolution away from strict regulatory compliance to a more ethics-based compliance has been one of the most significant advancements in independent monitors over the history of AMI. Early on AMI had independent monitorships in the health care industry around such issues as billing and coding. From there, AMI began to address other issues such as codes of conduct and conflicts of interest. So AMI was well suited to move into a more direct ethics-based compliance independent monitorship as the first decade progressed.
DiCianni said that over the life of AMI there have been two Memos released by the Department of Justice (DOJ) which have directly impacted the selection of independent monitors and their application. The first was the Morford Memo, released in 2008. In this Memo, the selection criteria for independent monitors was first laid out, including the need for subject matter expertise and independence and integrity of the monitor.
The second was the Benczkowski Memo, released in 2018, which discusses limiting the use of monitors to certain situations where they might be warranted. However, it does give a company the incentive to go out and evaluate their own ethics and compliance programs, compelling them to strengthen those programs so that if they are ever confronted with an investigation or a self-disclosure to the DOJ, the company can demonstrate it has a strong compliance and ethics program and perhaps get special consideration.

Categories
Daily Compliance News

September 15, 2020-the VW Monitorship edition


In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

  • Monitor says VW has kept promises. (NYT)
  • Corbat pushed out? (WSJ)
  • Rio Tinto faces tough sailing. (FT)
  • A new corporate culture? (FT)
Categories
Innovation in Compliance

Exiger on the Evolution in Supplier Compliance in COVID – Spotlight on Corporations with Aaron Narva and George ‘Ren’ McEachern

Welcome to a special five-part podcast series on topics of Third-Party Risk Management to Supply Chain Risk Management: Exiger on the Evolution in Supplier Compliance in COVID. Exiger was founded to fight financial crime, fraud and terrorist financing by introducing technology-enabled solutions to the market’s biggest supply chain, risk, investigation, litigation, and compliance challenges. A global authority on risk and compliance, Exiger serves the world’s largest banks, Fortune 1000 companies and government agencies and regulators. This special five-part podcast series is sponsored by Exiger. Over the next five episodes, we will put a spotlight on Financial Institutions with Tara Loftus and Samar Pratt; focus on corporations with Aaron Narva and George ‘Ren’ McEachern; consider Federal Government and Supply Chains with Carrie Wibben and Vishnu Anantatmula; review the pillars of good compliance with Brandon Daniels and Carrie Wibben; and end with a review of third-party risk management solutions with Erika Peters and Skyler Chi.

In this Part 2, we put a spotlight on corporations and their challenges in managing third parties and with Supply Chain risk management. In this exploration I am joined by George ‘Ren’ McEachern, a Managing Director based in Exiger’s Silver Spring (DC Metro) office where he focuses on leading anti-bribery investigations and assisting multinational corporations and financial institutions with regulatory risk management. Also joining me in this episode is Aaron Narva, Head of Corporate Markets, based in Exiger’s New York office. He leads the development and delivery of Exiger’s purpose-built AI-powered solutions for anti-bribery and corruption compliance. While at Exiger, Aaron has conducted in-depth testing and review of complex financial institution compliance and anti-money laundering (AML) programs both in the US and abroad. His experience includes detailed assessment of transactions, customer due diligence, and policies and procedures. He also helped to design and develop Exiger Diligence, the investigative due diligence arm of Exiger.

Join us tomorrow where we consider areas some of the challenges the Federal Government has on Supply Chain risk management.
For more information on Exiger, click here.
For more information on George ‘Ren’ McEachern, click here.
For more information on Aaron Narva, click here.

Categories
The Ethics Experts

TEE Vendor Pain Points Bonus Episode 007: Matthew Meyers


On this special bonus episode of The Ethics Experts, we speak with Matthew Meyers about change-makers, Learning and Development challenges, and creating a learning culture.

Check out more episodes, and don’t forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform!

Categories
Innovation in Compliance

Helping Solve the Data Problem with David McLaughlin


David McLaughlin, founder and CEO of QuantaVerse, joins Tom Fox on this week’s show to discuss his company’s new risk management tool, Country Code Derivation. He explains that this capability was actually a part of their platform for some time, but they saw the need to offer it as a separate tool. “We found that there is a really specific and unique need for understanding the country code of transacting parties,” he says.

Identifying Risky Transactions
Tom and David discuss how Country Code Derivation assists organizations, including financial institutions, to identify potentially risky transactions. David explains that this tool is a “multimodal, layered approach of sifting through different capabilities to accurately identify where somebody’s jurisdiction is.” Determining the jurisdiction of a transaction is a core part of understanding risk, David points out. The advantages of using technology versus a manual process are obvious: technology is more accurate and efficient, can validate malformed data, and saves time and money. Tom asks if regular organizations can use this tool. David responds that it’s valuable for an organization that needs to determine the location of a party, be it vendors or customers. 
Compliance Officers Can Use It Too
Tom comments that Country Code Derivation can give compliance professionals access to data they may not have had access to before. David agrees. “It can provide compliance professionals with data that they need,” he says. “It can do it in a way that validates the accuracy of it. It can update it in a way that is automatic and systematic and regular.” Both men conclude that this tool is more important today – in the time of coronavirus – than it ever was. Many organizations have a data backlog because of the pandemic; Country Code Derivation helps to eliminate that backlog in quick time. 
Resources
QuantaVerse.net
QuantaVerse on LinkedIn
David McLaughlin on LinkedIn