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Daily Compliance News

Daily Compliance News: March 19, 2019-the filling out my bracket edition

MARCH 19, 2019 BY TOM FOX


In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

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FCPA Compliance Report

MTS Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Enforcement Action: Part I-Introduction


In a stunning resolution to one of the longest running bribery, corruption and money-laundering sagas on the international stage, the Department of Justice and Securities Exchange Commission both announced settlement of a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) enforcement action against the Russian telecom company, Mobile TeleSystems PJSC (MTS). The FCPA enforcement action came in at $850 million which makes it Number 3 in the Top 10 of all-time FCPA settlements. This podcast opens a multi-part series will examine the background facts of the case, provide a detailed review of the bribery schemes involved, the compliance failures of MTS and its actions during the investigation which contributed to the size of the penalty, the individual criminal prosecutions brought by the Department of Justice as a part of this action and the key lessons learned by the compliance practitioner. In this Part 1, I begin with a review of the background facts, the parties and players and the fine and penalty of the MTS Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action.
The enforcement action was the third involving the same individual from the same country. That individual was Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of the former President of Uzbekistan. If that name sounds familiar to compliance professionals it is because she was also involved in the receipt of bribes paid in two other Top 10 FCPA enforcement actions; VimpelCom (now VEON Ltd.) and Telia Company AB. Contemporaneously with FCPA enforcement action involving MTS, there was a criminal indictment filed against Karimova and Bekhzod Akhmedov, a former MTS executive based in Uzbekistan. Akhmedov was charged with violating the FCPA for paying bribes to or for the benefit of Karimova and Karimova was charged she with laundering the money received as bribes.
The documents which are the subject of this series are:

  1. MTS Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA);
  2. MTS Criminal Information (MTS Information);
  3. SEC Cease and Desist Order (Order);
  4. Karimova and Akhmedov Indictment (Indictment);
  5. Kolorit Dizayn Ink LLC Plea Agreement (Plea Agreement); and
  6. Kolorit Dizayn Ink Information (Kolorit Information);
  7. DOJ Press Release and
  8. SEC Press Release.

For additional reading see the blog post, “MTS FCPA Settlement and Karimova Indictment: Part I-Introduction“.

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FCPA Compliance Report

FCPA Compliance Report-Episode 422, Vera Cherepanova

In this episode I visit with Vera Cherepanova author of the book, “Compliance Program of an Organisation”. We visit about her recent article on the FCPA Blog and its implications. Some of the highlights from the podcast include:

  1. Cherepanova’s unique professional background.
  2. What led to her to pen the recent article in the FCPA Blog, “Who’s to blame? The bad apple or the barrel?”
  3. What are the differences in the ‘situation perspective’ and the ‘personality perspective’?
  4. How do group dynamics inform corporate decision making?
  5. How can a compliance program be designed to prevent nefarious group think which might lead to bribery and corruption?
  6. Why is the myth of the rogue employee just that, a myth?

Resources:
FCPA Blog post “Who’s to blame? The bad apple or the barrel?”
Studio Etica website
LinkedIn Profile

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Daily Compliance News

Daily Compliance News: March 16, 2019-the VW sued (yet again) edition

MARCH 16, 2019 BY TOM FOX


In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

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Popcorn and Compliance

Popcorn and Compliance: Captain Marvel

In this podcast series, recovering screenwriter (and Mr. Monitor) Jay Rosen and myself will indulge in passion for the movies by looking at them through the lens of compliance. Jay is a contemporary movie fan and I am more of a classic movie maven so we present a well-rounded view of the movie fandom. If you want to indulge in your love for the movies with two guys who are passionate about Hollywood and get some ideas for your compliance program, this is the podcast series for you.For this week’s offering, today we look at the Marvel-universe hero, Captain Marvel.

Some of the highlights include:

  • What is the backstory for Nick Fury and Phil Coulson?
  • How and why did internet trolls tried to sabotage the film?
  • What was the response of Rotten Tomatoes?
  • How were Eggs used to great effect?
  • The special effects and battle scenes were great.
  • Who was honored in different scenes in the movie?
  • Jay gives the movie not only a full bucket of popcorn but as second bucket as well. Tom joins with an overflow bucket of popcorn.

The Compliance takeaways:

  1. Understand where you come from, know your business inside and out.
  2. Nick Fury recognized a new risk-do you have a trip system for new risks in your organization? Do you have a seat at that table?
  3. How and why did Nick Fury lose his eye? How do you assess known strategies for unknown risks?
  4. Get out of the corporate office and into the field to meet your employees.
  5. Take action, when needed to change the balance.
  6. As a CCO you may have to take a stand.
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This Week in FCPA

This Week in FCPA-Episode 146 – Ides of March (formerly St. Patty’s Day) edition

On this Ides of March tAs the St. Patrick’s Day weekend is upon, and we are all Irish at least for a day, Tom and Jay are joined by our favorite Irishman (and the Coolest Guy in Compliance), Matt Kelly to take a look at some of this week’s top compliance and ethics stories which caught their collective eyes this week.

  1. Massive corruption scandal rocks college admissions across the country. Dana Goldstein and Jack Healy in the NYT. Douglas Belkin and Jennifer Levitz in the WSJ. Nick Anderson in the Washington Post.
  2. FARA, FARA, FARA. Katie Brenner in the NYT. Dan Packel in Law.com.
  3. Former KPMG national practice leader convicted in PCAOB scandal. Michael Rapaport reports in the Wall Street Journal.
  4. Will the US finally clamp down on shell companies? Matthew Stephenson is cautiously optimistic in the Global Anti-Corruption Blog. General David Petraeus and Sheldon Whitehouse explain why it’s a national security issue in an Op-Ed piece in the Washington Post.
  5. Head coaches behaving badly as LSU head basketball coach suspended indefinitely in NCAA recruiting scandal. Ross Dellenger reports in Sports Illustrated.
  6. DOJ quietly modifies Corporate FCPA Enforcement Policy. Clare Hudson and Adam Dobrik report in GIR. (sub req’d) DOJ policy of self-disclosure making headway. Mingqi Sun in the WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal.
  7. Did Oracle violate the FCPA? (Tech Central)
  8. 1MDB scandal back in the news as former Goldman Sachs banker Timothy Leissner and Roger Ng banned from banking industry for life. David Simpson reports in Law360. (sub req’d) Also-did Jho Low contribute to Trump campaign? Tom Wright and Bradley Hope in the Wall Street Journal.
  9. How can you engage a BOD on cyber risks? Deloitte’s Khalid Kark, Tonie Leatherberry and Debbie McCormack in the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance.
  10. Tom continues with fan fav podcast series this week, the Adventures in Compliance this week.Check out the following: Part 1-The Red Circle; Part 2-The Abbey Grange; Part 3– The Priory School; Part 4-The Six Napoleons; and Part 5-The Empty House. The podcast is available on multiple sites: the FCPA Compliance Report, iTunes, JDSupra, Panoply and YouTube. The Compliance Podcast Network is now also on Spotify. It is now on Corporate Compliance Insights.
  11. In a special guest segment, Matt Kelly reports on the highlights from Ethisphere’s Global Business Ethics Summit, which was held this past week in New York.
  12. Check out the latest edition of Popcorn and Compliance where Tom and Jay look at Captain Marvel. It posts Saturday, March 16 on the Compliance Podcast Network.

Tom Fox is the Compliance Evangelist and can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com. Jay Rosen is       Mr. Monitor and can be reached at jrosen@affiliatedmonitors.com.
For more information on how an independent monitor can help improve your company’s ethics and compliance program, visit our sponsor Affiliated Monitors at www.affiliatedmonitors.com.

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Adventures in Compliance

Adventures in Compliance – Episode V, The Empty House

Today, I consider imagination in your compliance program.

The Adventure of the Empty House may well be one of the most famous in the entire Holmes oeuvre. It was the first story in over ten years, although Doyle set the tale only three years after the meeting of Holmes and Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls. Returned from touring the world, Watson and Holmes have an emotional reunion (at least for Watson) and then begin to tackle a locked room murder. This leads to Holmes being in jeopardy and putting a mannequin in his window to draw an attempted assassination attempt by Colonel Sebastian Moran, a henchman of Dr. Moriarty. Moran uses an air rifle which makes the murder and attempted murder all the more sinister.

  1. Every DPA and NPA mandates, “The Company will conduct periodic reviews and testing of its anti-corruption compliance code, policies, and procedures designed to evaluate and improve their effectiveness in preventing and detecting violations of anti-corruption laws and the Company’s anti-corruption code, policies, and procedures, taking into account relevant developments in the field and evolving international and industry standards.”[Emphasis supplied]. This means that the DOJ expects imagination in your compliance program to keep up with evolving international and industry standards.
  2. This means you should begin with a strategy for your compliance program. This means creating a compliance program that will create value for customers, i.e., employees, third parties and customers; show how the company will capture that compliance value going forward and finally which types of compliance imagination to pursue.
  3. A good strategy will promote alignment among diverse groups in a company, help to clarify objectives and priorities and guide your focus on those objectives. It can also be modified as necessary and with sufficient feedback.
  4. there must not only be sufficient resources allocated but management must also incentivize the business units to proceed with implementing the imaginations.
  5. You must recognize that your compliance program will have to be innovative. Start with a strategy, that has senior management buy-in and support, then move to implement. Finally use data in a feedback loop to fine tune your imaginations. That is the bottom line for imagination in compliance.
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Daily Compliance News

Daily Compliance News: March 15, 2019-the all-NYT edition

MARCH 15, 2019 BY TOM FOX


In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

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Daily Compliance News

Daily Compliance News: March 14, 2019-the ethics premium edition

MARCH 14, 2019 BY TOM FOX


In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

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Adventures in Compliance

Adventures in Compliance –Episode IV: The Six Napoleons

In this episode, I consider the theme of mentoring in compliance.
In the story The Adventure of the Six Napoleons, Inspector Lestrade says to Holmes, “Well,” said Lestrade, “I’ve seen you handle a good many cases, Mr. Holmes, but I don’t know that I ever knew a more workmanlike one than that. We’re not jealous of you at Scotland Yard. No sir, we are very proud of you, and if you come down to-morrow, there’s not a man […] who wouldn’t be glad to shake your hand.” This comment provides insights into how Holmes is viewed by other law enforcement officers; Holmes is a sort of living legend and the other officers respect his skills.
The matter involved the theft of jewelry as Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard brings Holmes a seemingly trivial problem about a man who shatters plaster busts of Napoleon. One was shattered in Morse Hudson’s shop, and two others, sold by Hudson to a Dr. Barnicot, were smashed after the doctor’s house and branch office had been burgled. Nothing else was taken in any of the break-ins. It turns out that the thief had stolen several pieces of jewelry and then hid them in the Napoleonic busts. The thief, having been released from prison on an unrelated offense, was tracking down the busts in which he had placed the jewels for hiding, breaking them open and reclaiming his purloined property.
What are some of the ways that you might mentor a younger or less senior compliance professional? I think there are several ways suggested by Conan Doyle as epitomized by the statement by Lestrade and his relationship with Holmes and Watson.
1. Passion- CCOs and seasoned compliance professionals tend to be passionate about compliance even if (like myself) they have a legal background and came to compliance from a corporate legal department. You should work to transmit that passion to others you are mentoring.
2. Developing Networks-Introduce your mentees to others in your organization, so that they can be exposed to different leadership styles and see how such leadership styles work in various areas and with different constituencies.
3. Develop Purpose-This can be aided through reflection, introspection and ability to change as a leader. Moreover, rather than influencing others through individual speeches or stories, the everyday connections between a compliance professional’s sense of purpose and the compliance vision can work to form an indelible impression about the importance of compliance to an organization.
4. Next Generation of Compliance-it is equally important that you communicate that to your mentee as it is certainly important that each generation of compliance leaders be fit for the future and be committed to continuous improvement going forward.