12 O’Clock High, an award-winning podcast on business leadership, brings together stories from history, the arts, sports and movies, research, and current events to consider leadership lessons. In this episode, Tom is joined by Alec Burlakoff, who shares his compelling journey from a successful career in the pharmaceutical industry to a cautionary tale of white-collar crime.
Alec recounts his background in coaching and social work before transitioning to the pharmaceutical field, where his rapid climb to senior vice president halted due to off-label drug promotion and bribery charges. He discusses the ethical pitfalls he encountered, the consequences of his actions, and his subsequent indictment, pleading guilty, and serving a federal prison sentence. Alec emphasizes the importance of compliance departments in preventing ethical lapses and the necessity for sales and compliance to work in synergy. He also sheds light on the mindset of white-collar professionals, the dangers of working in the gray, and how organizations can cultivate a culture of accountability and integrity. Throughout the conversation, Alec’s transformation offers invaluable lessons for compliance professionals and corporate leaders on fostering ethical practices in heavily regulated industries.
Key highlights:
Alec’s Background and Career Transition
The Downfall: Off-Label Promotion and Indictment
Shifting Mindsets: Understanding White Collar Crime
What happens when two top compliance commentators get together? They talk compliance, of course. Join Tom Fox and Kristy Grant-Hart in 2 Gurus Talk Compliance as they discuss the latest compliance issues in this week’s episode! Today, Tom and Kristy look back at some of their favorite stories from 2024.
Stories this week include:
Boeing DPA and Monitor
Deere FCPA Enforcement Action
TD Bank AML enforcement action
McKinsey-Opioid and FCPA resolutions
Elon Musk’s pay package and corporate governance
Musings from the bottom of the world
DOJ has received 200 tips since launching the whistleblower program (LEGALDIVE)
Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX
NYC Mayor Eric Adams, his corruption charges, and a possible Trump Pardon
Welcome to Season 2 of Classroom Insiders, a podcast with Professor Karen Woody and her Insider Trading Seminar students from Washington and Lee University. They explore the arc and evolution of insider trading over the last century. Each episode will feature a discussion between Karen Woody and students about insider trading and regulation. Find out what the future lawyers of the university think about past and current legislation and learn more about this fascinating area of law.
In this episode of Classroom Insider Season 2, Professor Woody is joined by students Iyla and Mia to delve into the intricacies of insider trading law through the lens of the Panuwat case. The conversation focuses on Panuwat, a former executive at Medivation who utilized non-public information about Medivation’s acquisition by Pfizer to trade in Insight’s stocks, resulting in significant profits. This case is pivotal as it marks a notable expansion of insider trading law under the SEC’s ‘shadow trading’ concept, where the misappropriation theory and the collateral market connection were brought to a new light. The discussion covers the challenges and implications of this expansion, comparing it to previous cases like SEC v. Obis and highlighting the evolving nature of insider trading regulations through litigation rather than legislation. They also touch upon the potential future impacts of the ruling on corporate compliance and insider trading laws, making this episode essential listening for anyone in the compliance field.
Key highlights:
Panuwat Case Details and SEC Allegations
SEC’s Redefinition of Materiality
Historical Context: SEC v. OBIS
Debating the Fairness of the Panuwat Case
Potential Implications and Future of Insider Trading Law
Welcome to the Daily Compliance News. Each day, Tom Fox, the Voice of Compliance, brings you compliance-related stories to start your day. Sit back, enjoy a cup of morning coffee, and listen in to the Daily Compliance News—all from the Compliance Podcast Network. Each day, we consider four stories from the business world: compliance, ethics, risk management, leadership, or general interest for the compliance professional.
DRC accuses Apple Sub of using conflict minerals. (BBC)
Ed. Note: Jim McGrath was a great friend and a trusted colleague who passed away in 2014. As a tribute to McGrath and for Christmas this year, I submit for your enjoyment the post below, which originally appeared on McGrath’s Internal Investigations Blog on December 24, 2012.
The allegations being investigated surround gifts given by individual businessmen to the family of an Israeli government official a number of years ago. These businessmen—Mr. Balthasar, Mr. Gaspar, and Mr. Melchior—supposedly provided a family in the royal line of King David with significant gifts, including gold, frankincense, and myrrh, in return for favorable consideration of an as-yet undetermined project in the Middle East.
The three men are believed to be third-party intermediaries for many Christian church organizations within the United States, and if verified, any jurisdictional nexus would seem to be predicated on this fact.
Whether any family member who received the gifts was or is a “government official”—as that term has come to be expansively defined by the DOJ—is unverified but likely. While Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index does not reference them in its yearly rosters, a large volume of other source material seemingly establishes one or more of them as related to the ruling family in Israel.
Regardless of the strength of the government’s case in these regards, there is still the hurdle presented by the age of the alleged violations. They are reported to have occurred approximately 2,012 years ago. The DOJ could be expected to assert that the clock did not begin to run until the government recently became aware of Balthazar’s, Gaspar’s, and Melchior’s conduct. However, there appears to be a strong argument that voluntary self-disclosure was made some time ago, thus commencing the statutory period’s running – and expiration –.
I hope you and your family have a wonderful Holiday Season and Merry Christmas.
Based in the US, Theodora Lau, or Theo, as she’s known, is Hong Kong-born and bred and the founder of Unconventional Ventures. Her firm’s mission is to develop and grow an ecosystem of financial institutions, corporations, startups, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and accelerators to improve banking and meet the often-unmet needs of consumers, including older adults and women. Theo’s mission is to connect founders with funders, specifically underrepresented entrepreneurs.
She regularly mentors and advises startups in financial services and healthcare/caregiving as part of her work. She is also an advisor to B21 Ventures, which focuses on entrepreneurs disrupting finance and health through artificial intelligence.
Theo has been referred to by the American Banker as one of the “Most Influential Women in FinTech” and is one of few global experts providing authoritative insights on both the US vis a vis Asia.
Besides being a best-selling author, Theo is an accomplished technologist and is much sought after for her unique insights on the success of super apps in Asia, the evolution of AI, and the disparity in digital adoption between regions. She is also a public speaker, writer, and advisor who seeks to spark innovation in the public and private sectors to benefit forgotten demographics and create a more inclusive society.
Theo regularly discusses AI, gender equity, FinTech, inclusion, and longevity. She is a guest contributor for various top industry events, publications, and podcasts, including Fintech Futures, the American Banker, BBC, the Journal of Digital Banking, Harvard Business Review, Nikkei Asia, MIT Tech Review, Money20/20, Finovate, RISE, FinTech Week Hong Kong, Breaking Banks, Irish Tech News, and the Forbes Technology Council.
She is the co-author of “Beyond Good: How Technology is Leading a Purpose-Driven Business Revolution” and co-author of “The Metaverse Economy” (both books are now available in paperback editions). Theo is also the host of One Vision, a podcast on innovation and fintech, and runs a weekly LinkedIn newsletter called FinTech Prose on emerging technologies (such as voice-activated/enabled software and AI), inclusion, longevity, fintech, innovation, and using technology for good. Her monthly column on Fintech Futures explores the intersection of FinTech and humanity.
She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in New York and a Master of Science in project management from George Washington University in Washington, DC.
In this episode of Regulatory Ramblings, Theo provides listeners with an in-depth look at the evolving fintech landscape and its regulatory challenges. A common thread in her discussion with our host, Ajay Shamdasani, is the seeming chasm in digital adoption between Asia and the US.
Theo talks about growing up in Hong Kong, eventually heading to the States for education, and her impressions two-plus decades later as having been fortunate enough to have a catbird seat at the beginning of the modern age of digital finance.
Having seen FinTech evolve throughout her career, she also recounts the field’s greatest successes in terms of benefits to the financial system and society overall. Theo comments on why the US is so far behind places like Japan and China in terms of digital payment options, noting that in China, the development of the ecosystem is primarily driven by large, big tech juggernauts like WeChat and Tencent. Similarly, in Japan, which she emphasizes has been “pretty cash heavy until recent times,” the nation’s conglomerates are pushing the move towards digital payments. She stresses, however, that while Asia has a rich FinTech ecosystem, it is at different levels of development because the region is not a monolith.
Theo also shares her thoughts on how long it will be before the US fully embraces digital banking, as many Americans still seem content to write cheques.
It is in sharp contrast to Hong Kong, where the South China Morning Post reported in mid-December 2024 that, based on figures from the Hong Kong Association of Banks, the use of cheques in the Special Administrative Region has fallen and is expected to continue to decline at an annual rate of between 10-20%. The number of cheque payments in the city dropped by 27% to 4.33 million this November, compared with 5.9 million in November 2021, while the value fell by 22% to HK$468.54 billion per month over the same period.
Other markets, such as the UK, Australia, and Singapore, are also trying to reduce the use of cheques.
Yet, as Theo remarks, the number of regulators in the US might at least partly explain its sluggishness in rolling out more digital payment options.
Reflecting on the post-Covid world, she points out that worldwide, financial regulators and central banks have been proactive, despite geopolitical issues, to create linkages for seamless cross-border transactions and transfers—as seen by Project Nexus, the Bank of International Settlements Innovation Hub, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore building towards a unified system for fast payments across Southeast Asia, with a planned extension into South Asia.
What used to be siloed and driven by private organizations has led regulators to see the value of interconnectivity now.
The challenge is how FinTech can benefit financial inclusion. There is a widespread perception that tech creators sometimes promise more than they can deliver, especially in terms of bettering the lives of the poor, elderly, illiterate, uneducated, or uninformed.
The problem is not confined to developing nations: 4.2% of US households, or 5.6 million households, are classified as unbanked, with a further 14.2%, or 19 million households, deemed underbanked. The question is, therefore, one of fairer access to the financial apparatus.
The discussion concludes with Theo stating that it is not technology that poses the most significant challenge. Instead, she says, it is the adoption of tech by local regulators or enterprises and the regulations that enable them. She also remarks on generative AI and machine learning in financial services and whether they can facilitate digital inclusion in the Asia-Pacific and the West while acknowledging the related liability issues and that regulators are perhaps not as tech-savvy as they need to be.
Looking ahead, Theo notes that a key challenge is that many startups and tech firms generally focus their marketing and sales on younger users—despite more wealth held by older people—because of a perception of a lack of digital competency amongst the latter by entrepreneurs.
She says another roadblock to tech adoption is by financial institutions themselves, as many banks and MNC CEOs are more focused on the bottom line and fear that large, transformational projects will cost millions and hurt their remuneration.
Regulatory Ramblings podcasts is brought to you by The University of Hong Kong – Reg/Tech Lab, HKU-SCF Fintech Academy, Asia Global Institute, and HKU-edX Professional Certificate in Fintech, with support from the HKU Faculty of Law.
