Author: admin

Categories
31 Days to More Effective Compliance Programs

Innovation in Compliance Leadership


Given the paucity of leadership coming out of Washington during this crisis, I thought it would be a ripe time to consider some innovations in compliance leadership. While many compliance departments may have begun more as a command and control function, set up by lawyers to comply with anti-bribery laws such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), this type of leadership model is now becoming outmoded in today’s world. It is not that employees are interested in the ‘why’ they should do business ethically and in compliance with such laws but it is more that power is shifting inside corporations. As the compliance profession matures, it will become more a component of a company’s business function. This means less of a lawyer’s top down mentality of do it because I said to do it, to more collaboration.
Three key takeaways:

  1. The lawyer-driven command and control method for compliance is outmoded and outdated.
  2. Innovation in compliance leadership is recognizing the bi-lateral nature of power and communications in an organization.
  3. A feedback loop can be used in the leadership function as well.

For more information on our sponsor, Affiliated Monitors Inc. check out their website, by clicking here.

Categories
Daily Compliance News

March 30, 2020-the Tone Deaf edition


In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

  • How will coronavirus impact insurance premiums? (NYT)
  • When your ads become tone deaf. (WSJ)
  • Boeing as case study in keeping Wall Street happy while destroying your company. (Washington Post)
  • Trump wants no oversight. (Washington Post)
Categories
FCPA Compliance Report

James Koukios on the MoFo Top 10 International Anti-Corruption Developments for January 2020


In the Episode, I visit with James Koukios, partner at Morrison & Foerster, Editor-in-Chief of the firm’s Top 10 International Anti-Corruption Developments. We visit about the firm’s Top 10 International Anti-Corruption Developments for January 2020. Some of the highlights include:

  1. Airbus-in this massive and sprawling case, Koukios details what are the 3 key takeaways you would advise a company on from the matter.
  2. The French PNF involvement and what it might mean from French anti-corruption enforcement going forward.
  3. SFO Wins First Conviction for Withholding Documents Requested in Bribery Investigation.
  4. Isabel dos Santos, Sonangol and Angola-what does it mean and what should companies do now?

 Resources
To a copy of the Top 10 International Anti-Corruption Developments for January 2020 Newsletter click here.

Categories
Sunday Book Review

March 29, 2020, the Back to Business edition


In today’s edition of Sunday Book Review:

Categories
Daily Compliance News

March 28, 2020-the Will Lloyd’s Pay Out edition


In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

  • Dutch bank loses 10% of value on one trader. (FT)
  • SEC gives more time to filers. (WSJ)
  • BP to draft shareholder resolution on climate change. (WSJ)
  • Will Lloyd’s pay out? (FT)
Categories
The Ethics Movement

The Compliance Podcast Network Welcomes The Ethics Movement-Episode 1, Trust in the Age of Coronavirus


The Compliance Podcast Network welcomes The Ethics Movement podcast, co-hosted by Tom Fox, the Compliance evangelist and the Voice of Compliance and Philip Winterburn, Chief Strategy Officer at Convercent. In Season One of this podcast series we will focus on coronavirus and how it’s going to impact the world of ethics and compliance. That impact continues to unfold daily, with the long-term implications shrouded in fog. One podcast season may not even last long enough to see where we end up—but it gives us some time to map out the possibilities.
Trust: what is it, how do you build it, how does it flow downward and upward? What does it say to your workforce when you don’t trust them? While companies deal with the fallout of coronavirus and COVID-19, these questions have become more pertinent than ever.
The Ethics Movement is a Convercent Podcast.

Categories
31 Days to More Effective Compliance Programs

Innovation in Investigative Due Diligence


Candice Tal is the founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Infortal Worldwide, and one of the top experts around on due diligence. In an interview, I asked Tal about the use of AI in investigative due diligence and specifically how AI has led innovation in investigative due diligence. Tal believes that AI will be a “game changer” in compliance. Massive data sets require some type of AI to sort through and analyze the information. This is particularly important for internal controls and accounting books and records provisions to identify massive fraud. This is yet another area which is still developing. Tal stated, “I’ll frame that by saying at least in the next few years, there will still be a need for the traditional investigative approach that the boots on the ground, one where an investigator goes out and physically checks on facilities. Artificial intelligence is going to have limited ability to do that.” While drones may become part of an investigators tool kit, Tal believes that AI will be used “in a similar way to most data aggregators today. They find about 80% of the information. Yet there will always be the remaining 20% which they cannot find and you will need human intervention on the investigative side.”
Looking down the road to the veiled land of the future, Tal sees continued innovation facilitating investigative due diligence. While AI is more than simply on the horizon, she said it “is a tried and tested methodology that has existed for many years, in terms of how you look for and locate shell companies.” It is also true about finding information about people who are trying to deliberately hide information. The bottom line is some of these investigative techniques involve old-fashioned shoe leather or simply hard diligent investigative work and “that’s not new”. Yet AI and other technological tools can make investigations more efficient and more cost effective, while giving better results. At the end of the day, AI can be used to sharpen and hone the due diligence process.
Three key takeaways:

  1. AI can help change the face of due diligence.
  2. AI will facilitate data aggregation in due diligence investigations.
  3. Always remember the human element.
Categories
This Week in FCPA

Episode 198 – the Grandparents are at Risk edition


As the GOP calls for Grandparents to first sacrifice themselves for the stock market and then be sacrificed to push up the economy, self-distancing Tom and hunter-gatherer Jay are back to consider some of the top compliance articles and stories which caught their eye this week.

  1. Mike Volvok says ethical business decisions are even more important now. In Corruption Crime and Compliance.
  2. Matt Kelly has a trilogy of articles on coronavirus. What are missing; A Tale from Frank; and 8 Objectives to Manage Pandemic Risks.
  3. Testing Compliance. A new approach by Brandon Garrett and Gregory Mitchell. Download the paper here.
  4. Coronavirus could make ESG more important. Kristin Broughton and Maitane Sardon in the WSJ Risk & Compliance Journal.
  5. Allen Overy poaches Jonathan Lopez and Billy Jacobson from Orrick. Inex Kagubare in GIR.
  6. What is time and attendance fraud in the time of coronavirus? Sara Kropf explains on Grand Jury Target.
  7. Mike Volkov talks about sanctions compliance in the era of Trump and the int’l financial war. In Navex Global’s Risk and Compliance Matters.
  8. More WOW moments in compliance. Geert Vermeulen in Risk & Compliance Platform Europe.
  9. Looking at incentives and compliance. Jeff Walker and Rebecca Kaplan in CCI.
  10. The Affiliated Monitors Expert Podcast joins the Compliance Podcast Network.
  11. Tom premiers a new podcast series, Compliance and Coronavirus.
  12. On the Compliance Podcast Network, Tom opens a new month by looking at the role of innovation in compliance on 31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program. This week saw the following offerings: Monday-Using innovation to break through silos; Tuesday-Originating a compliance ecosystem; Wednesday-Moving Data Science the last mile; Thursday-the Regional Compliance Committee; Friday-Innovation in investigative due diligence. Note 31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program now has its own iTunes channel. If you want to binge out and listen to only these episodes, click here. This month’s sponsor is Affiliated Monitors, Inc.

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.

Categories
Daily Compliance News

March 27, 2020-the America First edition


In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

  • Spy on your subordinate, lost your bonus. (WSJ)
  • Boeing’s financial crisis was of its own making. (WashingtonPost)
  • State of Texas issues quarantine mandates for domestic travelers. (com)
  • America now first in number of coronavirus cases. (WSJ)
Categories
31 Days to More Effective Compliance Programs

The Regional Compliance Committee


Innovation can come in various forms for an organization. Innovation can appear in a structural form. You can move compliance more deeply into your organization with new or different structures. One I have seen have success is a Compliance Committee more closely tied to the geographic market in the field or the Regional Compliance Committee. All of this works to adds a dimension not often seen or even discussed in the compliance profession. The accountability and oversight down to the regional level and the compliance monitoring, reviewing, assessing and recommending that is deemed to be necessary will provide additional endorsements up through the organization that it is actually doing compliance. In compliance, it is execution where the rubber meets the road. A Regional Compliance Committee can provide your compliance program a unique structure to perform these functions.
 Three key takeaways:

  1. Innovation can occur in structural changes to your compliance function.
  2. A Regional Compliance Committee puts compliance closer to the ground in geographic regions outside the U.S.
  3. A Regional Compliance Committee facilitates execution of your compliance program.