Day: May 25, 2023

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Hidden Traffic Podcast

Compliance Resources and News with Gwen Hassan

It’s an indictment of this modern era that exploitation remains alarmingly prevalent. Indeed, the journey towards human trafficking and forced labor prevention is laden with complexities. In this episode of Hidden Traffic, host Gwen Hassan discusses current events and valuable resources to propel the fight against human trafficking. She emphasizes the interplay between corporate compliance, survivor advocacy, and global cooperation in the quest to eradicate human trafficking and forced labor from global supply chains.

Follow Money Fight Slavery is a not-for-profit consortium specializing in human trafficking prevention. During their third annual summit, the group unveiled valuable materials, including survivor-led sessions and a keynote address by a survivor turned advocate. These first-hand narratives are key in combating trafficking, Gwen points out..

 

Unseen UK has launched a petition to urge the UK government to fill the vacant Independent Antislavery Commissioner role. Gwen is concerned about the year-long vacancy in this crucial role, and urges listeners to sign the petition. Strong leadership is crucial in the prevention of human trafficking.

 

The Mekong Club is an organization that has partnered with CNN to raise awareness about human trafficking among students worldwide. This effort is encapsulated in the ‘Sweatshop Challenge’, an immersive educational experience providing students with a simulated understanding of forced labor conditions. Gwen lauds this creative approach: “Could you do a similar type of sweatshop challenge for your supply chain workers? For people that are out there in your corporate purchasing departments who are buying from foreign suppliers so they have a real personal understanding of what human trafficking does and how injurious it is…?”

 

The recently published white paper by the Mekong Club about modern slavery risks in shipping takes a deep dive into the often-overlooked logistics portion of supply chains, highlighting its susceptibility to human trafficking. 

 

Gwen elaborates on a recent US congressional hearing on the implementation of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and its implications on the US supply chain. It hints towards an expansion of the act, potentially encompassing electric vehicle components and eliminating the inspection exemption for shipments worth less than $800. She warns listeners, “If your supply chain touches electric vehicle production or for that matter, batteries or battery production, this could be an early warning signal that there may be additional enforcement focus coming for your supply chain.”

 

Resources:

Follow Money Fight Slavery

Unseen UK

The Mekong Club | Modern Slavery in Shipping Supply Chains

Categories
From Last to First

From Last to First: The John Aceti Story – Episode 5: Transforming Education

What is the measure of a man? What is a life well lived? I have often thought about those questions, and with John Aceti’s help, I had the opportunity to explore them through John’s amazing life. Spry and vibrant at 93, I met John after he had published his 7th book in 92. As I got to know him and his life story, I wanted him to share his amazing and inspiring journey beginning in Niagara Falls in the 1930s to his current life in the Hill Country of Texas. Overcoming a humiliating incident at age 8, John was the first in his family to go to college, served in the Air Force, became a teacher and the principal, and retired from his first career. In his second career, he and his wife traveled internationally and ended up in Kerrville, Texas, where John began another career as an author. Join me on this fascinating journey From Last to First with John Aceti.

Join host Tom Fox in this exciting podcast episode as he chats with guest John Aceti, a former principal with a wealth of educational experience. John talks about the challenges he faced as a principal in Oley, New York, and how he managed to improve the education system in the school despite the need for more structure and continuity. He also discusses his experience evaluating teachers and walking the halls of schools, sharing his belief that most teachers do a great job, but some shouldn’t be teaching. John also highlights the importance of good teaching and classroom management and his involvement in an international program to Argentina organized through the Rotary Club.

Don’t miss this episode, where John shares his insights on the joys and struggles of being an educator. Tune in to From Last to First-The John Aceti Story, hosted by Tom Fox!

 Key Highlights:

  • John’s Experience as a Principal at North Hill School
  • Revamping Education in Outdated School Districts
  • Challenges with Open School Concept
  • Unprofessional Conduct and Evaluation of a Handicapped Child
  • Reflections on Teaching and international program

Notable Quotes:

“They were about 20 or 30 years behind. Very lackadaisical about education. There was no continuity, no structure.”

I had to come up with programs that would entice them.  I came up with a few programs that included local and international programs that I brought into that school to excite the teachers.”

“She taught several things, language, compared to Japanese and English. She taught art. She taught music. She taught dressage, dressing, different kinds of clothes, and she would go to different classrooms.”

“Our job is to educate kids, not torture them.”

 Resources

John Aceti’s author’s page on Amazon

Categories
Compliance and AI

Compliance and AI – Vinay Kumar on the Business Uses for AI in Regulated Industries

In this episode, Tom Fox interviews Vinay Kumar, the founder, and CEO of Arya.ai. Vinay discusses the importance of regulations in AI to prevent unethical use in business, including the potential dangers of superintelligence. Vinay emphasizes the need for responsible and ethical use of AI while discussing how Arya.ai simplifies the deployment of responsible and safe AI in the banking, finance, and insurance industries. Vinay also explains how a verticalized AI cloud with observability layers can provide value to the industry by ensuring transparency, auditability, monitoring, and safety of model output to protect customer and company interests.

Don’t miss this informative podcast that will enlighten you on the proper use of AI in business and the importance of regulations.

Key Highlights:

  • ML observability and founding Arya.ai
  • From Stem Research to BFSI: Pivoting AI Development
  • AI solutions for the insurance industry
  • Importance of ML observability layer
  • Challenges of Health Claims Automation
  • Ethical Concerns in AI Usage for Business

 Key Quote:

“We thought we were solving a fundamental problem, which is simplifying the information interaction problem, and that can only happen when I spend my time more effectively on the topic rather than solving these on-ground tasks.”

Resources

Vinay Kumar on LinkedIn

Arya.ai

Tom Fox

Instagram

Facebook

YouTube

Twitter

Categories
Everything Compliance

Everything Compliance – Episode 115 – The Insider Trading (Or Not) Edition

Welcome to the only roundtable podcast in compliance as we celebrate our second century of shows. Everything Compliance has been honored by W3 as the top podcast talk show. In this episode, we have the quartet of Karen Woody, Jonathan Marks, Matt Kelly, and from across the pond, Jonathan Armstrong. We consider a veritable potpourri of issues, including the sentence given to Joe Sullivan, insider trading, the COSO Fraud Risk Management Framework, and a new report on whistleblower best practices. We conclude with our fan-fav Shout Outs and Rants section.

1. Matt Kelly looks at the joint IIA/ACFE report on Building a Best-in-Class Whistleblower Hotline. He shouts out to Newton Minow, the first government official to say television was a ‘vast wasteland.’

2. Jonathan Marks discusses his work on the COSO Framework for Fraud Risk Management. He shouts out to BlueBell Ice Cream for creating the new flavor, Dr. Pepper Float.

3. Tom Fox shouts out to Mike Shannon, who played with the St. Louis Cardinals for over 10 years, went to 3 World Series, and then had a 60-year career as an announcer with the team. He is also the only MLB player whom Tom got an autograph from.

4. Karen Woody looks at recent insider trading cases involving the crypto world and asks if crypto is not a security, who can it be insider trading. Karen shouts out to the Netflix show ‘Jury Duty.’

5. Jonathan Armstrong considers the sentence handed down to former Uber executive Joe Sullivan, wonders about the Judge’s admonition of no more leniency, and asks what it means for GDPR enforcement. He shouts out to all those workers who got London ready for the coronation.

The members of Everything Compliance are:

•       Jay Rosen– Jay is Vice President, Business Development Corporate Monitoring at Affiliated Monitors. Rosen can be reached at JRosen@affiliatedmonitors.com

•       Karen Woody – One of the top academic experts on the SEC. Woody can be reached at kwoody@wlu.edu

•       Matt Kelly – Founder and CEO of Radical Compliance. Kelly can be reached at mkelly@radicalcompliance.com

•       Jonathan Armstrong –is our UK colleague, who is an experienced data privacy/data protection lawyer with Cordery in London. Armstrong can be reached at jonathan.armstrong@corderycompliance.com

•       Jonathan Marks is Partner, Firm Practice Leader – Global Forensic, Compliance & Integrity Services at Baker Tilly. Marks can be reached at jonathan.marks@bakertilly.com

The host and producer, ranter (and sometime panelist) of Everything Compliance is Tom Fox, the Voice of Compliance. He can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com. Everything Compliance is a part of the Compliance Podcast Network.

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31 Days to More Effective Compliance Programs

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program in Training and Communications – Measuring Compliance Training Effectiveness

Since at least 2017, the DOJ has emphasized the need to determine compliance training effectiveness. In the 2020 Update, it stated under the section entitled “Form/Content/Effectiveness of Training” the following questions, How has the company measured the effectiveness of the training? Have employees been tested on what they have learned? How has the company addressed employees who fail all or a portion of the testing? Has the company evaluated how much the training impacts employee behavior or operations?

The DOJ enshrined the importance of determining the effectiveness of your compliance program in its 2020 Evaluation. The 2020 Evaluation demonstrates that the DOJ wants to see evidence of the effectiveness of your compliance program. This is something that many CCOs and compliance professionals still need help to determine. Both the simple guidelines suggested herein, the more robust assessment, and the results provide you with a start to fulfill the precepts set out in the 2020 Evaluation, but you will eventually need to demonstrate the effectiveness of your compliance training in the future.

Three key takeaways:

  1. You must demonstrate that you have measured the effectiveness of your compliance training.
  2. The DOJ is moving into requiring a demonstration of the effectiveness of compliance training.
  3. You should be moving towards a model of demonstrating compliance training ROI to validate the full operationalization of your compliance training.