In this podcast, I am joined by AMI Managing Director Donald K. Stern. In this episode, we look at some case studies. Case studies are something every lawyer and compliance practitioner responds to because it presents real facts and events that the corporate compliance discipline can learn from and, hopefully, incorporate these lessons learned into their organizations.
Stern believes, “it does lend some support. The organization under investigation not only has the right instincts, motivations and goals but it intends to fix the problem.” He believes they do “not expect you to assess every conceivable possibility and turn over every possible rock to interview every employee that might be involved. They want you to take a more risk based focused view on where you see the problems. The best way to do that is not by looking to people internally whose livelihood depends upon getting a paycheck every other week or every month from the company, but the people who were outside the company and who have some measure of independence.”
It is about the data and the metrics you use to reach your conclusions. This is because prosecutors are becoming much more sophisticated in their understanding of what constitutes a best practices compliance program. Stern noted that in areas as diverse as the FCPA or health care fraud not just the federal government, but state governments and now increasingly local governments, are really asking the right questions. They want to know, “what makes a good compliance program and what assurances do we have that if we give you a break in this case that you’re actually going to end up at the end?” The government wants corporations to be good corporate citizens and third-party independent monitors can help provide that assurance.