Day: January 20, 2021

Categories
The Wirecard Saga

The Family Tree


Welcome to the latest edition to the Compliance Podcast Network, The Wirecard Saga. In this series, I am joined by Mikhail Reider-Gordon, Managing Director of Institutional Ethics & Integrity at Affiliated Monitors.  In this episode, we take a deep dive into the government officials ensnared in the Wirecard scandal, Wirecard nexus to the MNC scandal and more dodgy deals. All this and much more in the Family Tree edition.
Some of the highlights include:

  • Short Sellers Strike Again
  • Wirecard Nexus to MNC Scandal
  • BR Shetty’s Empire Falls
  • Finablr Enables Dirty Deals
  • Muddy Waters Alleges EY Too Cozy
  • India & UAE Wirecard Execs Like Unimoni
  • Knoechelmann and Partners Share Everything
  • DPO, Acona, Wirecard and Apis Co-Mingle
  • DPO Goes Shopping
  • Network International Buys Into the Action
  • More Dodgy Deals In India
  • All Roads Lead to Singapore
Categories
Fraud Eats Strategy

The Inherent Challenge of Thwarting Trade-Based Money Laundering

In this episode, we discuss trade-based money laundering. According to the intergovernmental money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), there are three primary methods that transnational criminal and terrorist organizations utilize to launder the proceeds of illicit activity and use illicit proceeds to finance terrorist operations. 1. Through the use of the financial system; 2. Physical movement of hard currency by use of couriers and smuggling techniques and; 3. Through the physical movement of commercial and consumer goods in international trade.

Join us each week as we take a deep dive into the various forms of fraud across the world and discuss crime families, penny stock boiler rooms, international money launderers, narco-traffickers, oligarchs, dictators, warlords, kleptocrats and more.

Scott Moritz is a leading authority on white-collar crime, anti-corruption, and in the evaluation, design, remediation, implementation, and administration of corporate compliance programs, codes of conduct. He is also considered an authority in the establishment, training, and oversight of the investigative protocols carried out by financial intelligence, corporate security, and internal audit units.
 

Categories
31 Days to More Effective Compliance Programs

Day 20 | Responding to investigative findings


There is nothing like an internal whistleblower report about a compliance violation, the finding of such an issue, or (even worse) a subpoena from the DOJ or notice letter from the SEC to trigger the Board of Directors and senior management attention to the compliance function and the company’s compliance program. Such an event can trigger much gnashing of teeth and expressions of outrage followed immediately by proclamations “We are an ethical company.” However, it may well be the time for a very serious reality check.
 You may find yourself in the position that you will have to have some very frank discussions about what to expect in terms of costs and time outlays. While much of these discussions will focus on the investigative process and those costs, these discussions will allow you to initiate the talk about remediation going forward and begin to explain why money must be budgeted for the remediation process.
One of the things rarely considered is how the investigation triggers the remediation process and what the relationship is between the two. When issues arise warranting an investigation that would rise to the Board of Directors level and potentially require disclosure to the government, there is usually a flurry of attention and activity. Everyone wants to know what is going on. In an interview with Russ Berland, CCO at Aventiv Technologies, he noted, “for that short moment in time, you have everyone’s full attention.” Yet it can still be “a tricky place, because you get your fifteen minutes to really get everyone’s full attention, and from then on, you’re fighting with everybody else for their attention, like the normal things in business life.”
Three key takeaways:

  1. A serious FCPA allegation gets the attention of the Board and senior management. Use this time to move the compliance program forward.
  2. Be aware of how your investigation can impact and even inform your remediation efforts.
  3. Be prepared to deal with the dreaded “where else” question.
Categories
The Affiliated Monitors Expert Podcast

How to Assess Your Culture


In this episode, I am joined by Jay Rosen, VP of Business Development for Affiliated Monitors, Inc.. Corporate culture exists in the space between what an organization professes and what it does. today, we examine any key aspect of corporate culture, including why it matters, what influences culture, the CCOs role in culture, assessing corporate culture and how to use that information to improve culture. We consider how to assess your corporate culture.
 Highlights include:

  • Who should perform the assessment of corporate culture?
  • An in-house resource may be seen as more ongoing monitoring than culture assessment.
  • Conversely an independent outside expert may be able to garner more fulsome information of the true state of your corporate culture.
  • Tools to assess the culture of an organization include employee surveys, conversations, visits to field operations.
  • What are the differences, if any, which must be considered when assessing a global company?
  • Why do you need to “fine-tune” a cultural survey to get a good understanding of the company’s culture and obtain meaningful metrics?
  • The bottom line is you should take the temperature of your employees internally by doing regular monitoring of your company to understand its culture and what needs to be done.

For more information on Affiliated Monitors, Inc. check out their website here.
For more information see Jay’s blog post How does a company assess its culture? on Corporate Compliance Insights.

Categories
Great Women in Compliance

Blowing the Whistle, the Advocate-Mary Inman


Welcome to the Great Women in Compliance Podcast, co-hosted by Lisa Fine and Mary Shirley.
When we think about lawyers in the Compliance context, a number come to mind.  Those who represent us in the event of government action taking place, those who help us with investigations, those who help us objectively evaluate our Compliance program, those who give us advice on a point of law when we need it, those who are appointed to us as monitors and so on.  One area that doesn’t get a lot of attention is the role of the lawyer as whistleblower representative.  This Great Women in Compliance Podcast sheds some light on this advocate role by way of our interview with Mary Inman who heads up the International Whistleblower Practice at Constantine Cannon.
In her legal practice, Inman represented the high profile Theranos whistleblower Tyler Schulz, among others.  We draw on this fascinating experience to bring you Part 1 of a two-part series on whistleblowing starting with Inman’s perspective as an advocate for whistleblowers and ending with the view from the other side of the fence as the whistleblower with Erika Cheung, another of the Theranos whistleblowers.
Inman, who is the epitome of effervescence, does some level setting for us by explaining the role of a whistleblower lawyer and why a whistleblower might want one.  She gives her view on whether there are any differences between male and female whistleblowers based on her extensive experience and as someone who has spent her entire career in private practice, shares a tip on avoiding burnout.
You can subscribe to the Great Women in Compliance podcast on any podcast player by searching for it and we welcome new subscribers to our podcast which is hosted on the Compliance Podcast Network.
Lisa and Mary have extended the Great Women in Compliance brand to the booking “Sending the Elevator Back Down: What We’ve Learned from Great Women in Compliance”  (CCI Press, 2020) which can be found on Amazonand features valuable wisdom and advice from Great Women in Compliance across the world.
If you’ve already read the booked and liked it, will you help out other women to make the decision to leverage off the tips and advice given by rating the book and giving it a glowing review on Amazon?
As always we’re so grateful for all of your support and if you have any feedback or suggestions for our 2021 line up, or would just like to reach out and say hello, we always welcome hearing from our listeners.
Join the Great Women in Compliance community on LinkedIn here.

Categories
Compliance Into the Weeds

FinCEN Enforcement Action involving Capital One

Compliance into the Weeds is the only weekly podcast which takes a deep dive into a compliance related topic, literally going into the weeds to more fully explore a subject. Today we consider the Capital One resolution of the FinCEN enforcement action. We look at the compliance program; red flags missed, and how the bank was faulted as its compliance program was found to be not effective.
Resources:
See Matt’s blog post Capital One Whacked on AML Failures
See Tom’s blog post the Capital One FinCEN Enforcement

Categories
Daily Compliance News

January 20, 2021, the Inauguration edition


In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

  • From WFH to RTW. (WSJ)
  • Upsurge in CFO resignations in 2020. (WSJ)
  • AD buyers now under scrutiny. (WSJ)
  • Tech execs want to unblock talent. (WSJ)