Export restrictions; sanctions on 3 PRC companies – missile proliferation activities.
Categories
Day: January 28, 2022
The final episode in The Enron Trial series is here. In part 5, Tom Fox and Loren Steffy take a look at Enron’s legacy, fifteen years after the trial.
Why Should the Trial Be Remembered?
“What the trial really brought home for everyone was the human toll that these kinds of corporate malfeasance cases can have,” explains Loren. When companies try to do whatever is necessary to keep their stock prices up at all costs, a lot of long-term harm comes out of it, “Enron wasn’t only an accounting failure… above all else, it was a human failure.”
Enron’s Innovations
Looking back on Enron’s successes, you begin to wonder, ‘What if?’ Loren highlights how unfortunately it panned out for the corporation, stating that, “They really were out in front of a lot of these trends. Unfortunately they shot themselves in the foot with their accounting.”
Fifteen Years Later – What Has Changed?
There’s a lot that can be learned from the fall of Enron; corporate responsibility is viewed differently, now. It’s no longer only about shareholder value, but also an improved focus on corporate governance. “We’ve realised that our corporations have greater responsibilities in that they have responsibilities to their employees, and they have responsibilities to their communities,” Loren tells Tom.
RESOURCES
Loren Steffy | LinkedIn | Twitter
Jean Bruggeman is Executive Director at Freedom Network USA, an organization with over a decade of leadership in supporting providers of direct services to survivors of human trafficking in the United States. She is a highly effective leader with 20 years of management experience in the non-profit legal and social services sector. She discusses the shortcomings of the immigration system and how it affects human trafficking, and what human trafficking looks like in the US.
In the case of domestic violence against an immigrant spouse, the traditional system is biased towards the abuser if they are a US citizen. They are essentially “handed another weapon in their arsenal to abuse and exploit their spouse,” as they can use their partner’s immigration status as a tool of power over them. There is now a law under the Violence Against Women Act that allows immigrant women to apply for their own visas, therefore taking the control away from their spouses.
Human trafficking is not about a few bad apples, Jean shares. Freedom Network is pulling out all the stops to get at the systemic issues of policy choices and immigrations systems that don’t protect or empower workers, and the racist, misogynistic history in US laws that put people at risk of being victimized.
Resources
Jean Bruggeman on LinkedIn
Lidia Kurganova is a 2L at Washington and Lee, and a staff writer on Law Review. She plans to work at Weil, Gotshal and Manges this summer in their New York office, and hopes to specialize in either corporate or technology, or an intersection of the two. In this episode of Classroom Insiders, Lidia discusses how Justice Powell gradually loosened the SEC’s hold on insider trading regulation.
Insider trading was regulated by states up until the 1960’s, when President Kennedy appointed Chairman William Cary of Columbia Law, who wanted the SEC to have broad regulatory powers. Chairman Cary provided a new federal basis for broad enforcement powers of insider trading, which was then adopted by the Second Circuit in the Texas Gulf Sulphur case and birthed the disclose-or-abstain rule. This decision would stand for the next decade as the preeminent insider trading rule, until Chiarella and Justice Powell.
Justice Powell chipped away at the SEC’s regulatory overreach case by case, starting with Chiarella v. SEC where he introduced the fiduciary relationship element to the disclose-or-abstain rule, and then Dirks v. SEC where he is credited for adding a personal benefit element to the tipper-tippee rule. The majority opinion written by Justice Powell established a personal benefit test, which requires courts to determine whether an insider tipper personally benefits indirectly or directly from disclosure. Three examples of personal benefits are: pecuniary gain, reputation gain, and a presumption of benefit due to close friend or family member relationship.
Resources
Karen Woody on LinkedIn
How long does it take to win a NFL playoff game? Patrick Mahomes says 13 seconds. After perhaps the most thrilling NFL playoff game ever, Tom and Jay are back look at some of the week’s top compliance and ethics stories this week in the 13 Seconds edition.
Stories
1. TI-CPI 2022 Report out. Results not good. TI-CPI Press Release. Rick Messick says make it useful in GAB. Jaclyn Jaeger is disheartened in Compliance Week (sub req’d).
2. Compliance officer burnout? Dick Cassin explores in the FCPA Blog.
3. Emphasizing the ‘G’ in ESG. David Simon in LinkedIn.
4. Investor demand driving ESG risk and compliance initiatives? Valerie Charles and Tracy Groves in CCI.
5. Human Rights Due Diligence. James Reardon and Tomas Navarro look at Switzerland’s new law in FCPA Blog. Tom considers your corporate Human Rights strategy in a 2-part blog series in the FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog.
6. Monaco Speech and Compliance in 2022. Stephanie Yonekura and Rupinder Garcha in CCI.
7. DOJ announces shift in antitrust policy. DOJ Press Release. Matt Kelly in Radical Compliance.
8. ESG and M&A in 2022. Wachtel lawyers in Harvard Law School forum on Corporate Governance.
9. FTC compliance risk re: cyber and privacy. Debevoise lawyers in Compliance and Enforcement.
10. Cultural and ESG to-do list for 2022 for CCO. Mike Volkov in Corruption Crime and Compliance.
Podcasts and More
11. In January on The Compliance Life, I visited with Valerie Charles, partner at StoneTurn. Val has one of the most interesting journeys in compliance. In Part 1, she discussed her academic background and early professional career. In Part 2, she discussed her move to ComTech. In Part 3, Valerie moved into the consulting world. In the concluding Part 4, Valerie looks down the road for what’s ahead.
12. The Everything Compliance gang took a deep dive into the Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard in a special episode. Check out the Shout Outs and Rants. Finally the gang had a special tribute to Meatloaf here.
13. CCI releases new e-book from Tom “FCPA 2021 Year in Review”. Available free from CCI.
14. Trial of the Century-the Enron Trial. This week, Tom premiered a 5-part podcast series on the Enron Trial with Loren Steffy, who covered the trial for the Houston Chronicle. In Part 1, run up to the trial. In Part 2, the trial begins. In Part 3, the star witnesses and key testimony. In Part 4, the Verdict comes in. In Part 5, what did it all mean. It is be available on the Compliance Podcast Network, Megaphone, iTunes, Spotify and all other top podcast platforms.
15. Check out 31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program returns, which runs for the month of January, from January 1 to January 31. Available on the Compliance Podcast Network, Megaphone, iTunes, and all other top podcast platforms.
Tom Fox is the Voice of Compliance and can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com. Jay Rosen is Mr. Monitor and can be reached at jrosen@affiliatedmonitors.com.
