Welcome to the Great Women in Compliance Podcast, co-hosted by Lisa Fine and Mary Shirley.
Today’s episode is a “ripped from the headlines” one, where Ellen Hunt joins GWIC talk about some of the recent events of the last couple of weeks that put a light on raising concerns, whistleblowing and retaliation. Ellen is Vice President ~ Compliance Program Operations & Chief Privacy Officer at LifePoint Health, and a leader, sponsor and advocate for everyone in the ethics and compliance space.
In this discussion, Lisa and Ellen discuss some of the recent developments in the ActiVision/Blizzard fallout from the lawsuit, and the report that came out about Governor Andrew Cuomo last week. Lisa and Ellen reflect on the reaction of the ActiVision leadership, and how we as compliance officers can best address these kinds of issues. More deeply, they reflect on how to balance all our work to build a speak up culture with the need to protect those who raise concerns. They talk specifically about the fear of retaliation.
They try to identify the problems that are in the spotlight right now and Ellen in particular provides her insight into some solutions of how we in the E&C community can do better. Our profession, and the GWIC community, is based on supporting ethical decision making, so we are so grateful to Ellen to speaking and being so candid on this difficult topic.
The Great Women in Compliance Podcast is on the Compliance Podcast Network with a selection of other Compliance related offerings to listen in to. If you are enjoying this episode, please rate it on your preferred podcast player to help other likeminded Ethics and Compliance professionals find it. You can also find the GWIC podcast on Corporate Compliance Insights where Lisa and Mary have a landing page with additional information about them and the story of the podcast. Corporate Compliance Insights is a much appreciated sponsor and supporter of GWIC, including affiliate organization CCI Press publishing the related book; “Sending the Elevator Back Down: What We’ve Learned from Great Women in Compliance” (CCI Press, 2020).
As always, we are so grateful for all of your support and if you have any feedback or suggestions for our 2021 line up or would just like to reach out and say hello, we always welcome hearing from our listeners.
We welcome any feedback you may wish to send in to gwicpod@gmail.com.
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Join the Great Women in Compliance community on LinkedIn here.
Welcome back to Career Can Do! Today Mary Ann Faremouth is talking to Vijay Pattisapu an employment attorney with his hand on the pulse of the world of work. They discuss how to navigate working from home, the return to work, and maintaining good working relationships with your colleagues and management.
Accountability, transparency, and communication are more important than ever now that people are working from home and things are more fluid. Vijay notes that by the time he sees people things have generally gone pretty far south, and so this chance to talk about preventative measures is welcome – and the best one is open communication about the reality of your own situation, especially when you’re working at home. Vijay says that getting things in writing is even better than having a discussion, and Mary Ann reminds us that if it’s not in writing it doesn’t exist!
Authenticity is a scarce and precious resource – Vijay and Mary Ann talk about the importance of being honest in your dealings with your company and with your employees – from how you’re spending your time when working at home, to how honest to be in interviews and on your resume. Honesty is always the best policy.
They wrap up their conversation with a discussion about the changes covid is making in workplaces – mandatory vaccinations, new legislation that may be providing new rights people should be aware of, and whether or not you really need to go back to the office. It’s a challenging area to navigate for both employees and the companies they work for!
Resources
Gomez Law Firm: 713-980-9012
Gomez Law Firm
Faremouth.com
Compliance into the Weeds is the only weekly podcast which takes a deep dive into a compliance related topic, literally going into the weeds to more fully explore a subject. This week Matt and Tom take a deep dive into Venn Diagrams to consider the questions of who sets corporate values. Some of the issues we consider are:
- What happens when management dictates a corp value?
- What happens when that value is disputed by employees?
- What happens when the regulators come knocking?
- How does social media play into all this?
- How can you assess your risk?
- What is the role of compliance?
Resources
Matt in Radical Compliance
In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:
- Following DOJ, SEC to close FCPA inquiry into Pactiv Evergreen. (WSJ)
- Does more money counter work-burnout? (NYT)
- Corruption targeted in Australia. (The Guardian)
- Will anti-cheating czars come to colleges? (WSJ)
The Compliance Life details the journey to and in the role of a Chief Compliance Officer. How does one come to sit in the CCO chair? What are some of the skills a CCO needs to success navigate the compliance waters in any company? What are some of the top challenges CCOs have faced and how did they meet them? These questions and many others will be explored in this new podcast series. Over four episodes each month on The Compliance Life, I visit with one current or former CCO to explore their journey to the CCO chair. This month, my guest is Kortney Nordrum, Regulatory Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Deluxe. Nordrum grew up in Red Wing MN, noted for both the ice cream truck and the shoe. She studied abroad in both college and law school which gave her an appreciation on an international experience. She has held a lifelong passion for animals and that held to a law practice involving animal rights.
Categories
New Syria Sanctions
The Kitchen reviews the Treasury Department’s sanctions on the Syrian prisons system, armed groups, terrorist fundraisers and financial facilitators. The EU adopts a framework for Lebanon sanctions of asset freezes and travel bans against those undermining the rule of law in that country.
Scenario: After an ongoing investigation closes on a typical day in a CCO’s life, you wonder if there is anything else to do. After reading Tom Fox’s The Compliance Handbook – 2nd Edition, you learn that a root cause analysis is now one of the hallmarks of an effective compliance program.
What steps do you take, and how do you perform a root cause analysis (RCA)?
Key points discussed in the episode:
✔️ Investigations are often the trigger for a root cause analysis, but they’re not the same thing. In an investigation, you’re trying to prove or disprove an allegation. If you uncover wrongdoing, it is crucial to continue to seek the root of the problem.
✔️ Root cause analysis lets us figure out and find the source of the problem instead of only looking at the symptoms. Think of it like going to the doctor if you’re sick. You tell the doctor all of your symptoms, they ask questions and run tests and then, hopefully, find the source of why you’re sick, and then attack that. The same principle applies to compliance.
✔️ When looking at the root cause, look for circumstances that contribute to the compliance issue – and ask these questions!
- What led to this issue?
- What conditions allowed this to happen?
- What needs to happen to keep this from happening again?
✔️ Find the problem and fix the problem. Remediate and document your changes per the DOJ Guidance.
- We’re constantly growing and building our compliance programs, but addressing the root cause includes developing a measure of success – how will we know if the remediations we put into place worked? How will we measure progress?
- Use the results of your RCA to remediate any issues you’ve found.
- Carry the RCA findings forward in any related risk assessments – monitor that your remediations are working/and adjust if they aren’t
- Update programs and processes to reflect the remediations – and don’t forget to TRAIN on anything new (including the context for the changes – tell employees WHY they should care, not that they should “just care.”
- Once fully remediated (if possible), document the remediation and how that connects to improved processes moving forward.
✔️ Root cause analysis is fundamental. Since we know the DOJ wants compliance programs to be proactive instead of reactive, root cause analysis is one of the ways we can do that. If we know people are doing things they shouldn’t do – we need to know why? Is it a problem with our hiring? A lack of controls? Not enough training? Or do we have a culture issue? We need to look under the proverbial rug to find out why things are happening, not just how they happened.
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Welcome to SURVIVE AND THRIVE, the newest addition to the Compliance Podcast Network. This is a podcast where we unpack compliance, crisis disasters and walk you through all the red flags which appear, and give you some lessons learned going forward. This show is hosted by Compliance Evangelist Thomas Fox and Kortney Nordrum, Regulatory Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer, Deluxe Corporation.
Do you have a podcast (or do you want to)? Join the only network dedicated to compliance, risk management, and business ethics, the Compliance Podcast Network. For more information, contact Tom Fox at tfox@tfoxlaw.com.
To celebrate the 200th Episode of Innovation in Compliance, Tom Fox is joined by Dan Skolnick, the VP of Product Strategy for Financial Crimes at Lexis Nexis Risk Solutions to talk about fighting financial crime and terrorist financing with cutting-edge technologies. Dan got into the industry after a hot tip at a family party led him to Fircosoft, which was on its way to becoming an industry leader in financial crime prevention technology.
Ahead of the Curve
Financial Crimes experts are much further ahead than other kinds of misconduct investigations professionals, so Tom asks about the evolution of Dan’s professional roles over his career. Dan says that when he started working in the industry, he was Sanction Screening for OFEC – but within a year of starting in the industry, the US Patriot Act was implemented which caused a huge shift in the type of work being done. The job has gone from looking for a very specific type of information to looking for risk across your customer base. Financial Crimes experts are much further ahead than other kinds of misconduct investigations professionals and have the tools, resources, and brainpower to prevent financial misconduct.
Deputizing the Talent
The government has, in effect, deputized financial services firms to help them with the terrorism financing problem that was being addressed with the Patriot Act. Because of the sheer quantity of data being collected and analyzed, financial services businesses had the information and know-how to be helpful to law enforcement and in foreign policy, developing a crime-fighting and enforcement culture. Today, you would be hard-pressed to find a bank without an executive who has that kind of enforcement or policy background.
Decision Memory and Reapplication.
Dan explains that a consequence of the emphasis on detection and prevention of terrorist financing is that you really have to prevent transactions rather than identify what happened in the past. In most cases, you need a human to intervene when you have a potential match – but there are more bad actors, more jurisdictions providing lists of bad actors, and more transactions happening on a daily basis than ever before – a technological solution is required.
The Patriot Act and Public Companies
Tom asks about the anti-money-laundering law that was passed this year which was the largest update to the Patriot Act since it was initially implemented. The new administration has made it clear that they are going to continue to fight financial crimes and terrorist financing. Dan agrees, and goes on to talk about how anti-money-laundering regulation is one of the few truly bi-partisan issues out there! Everyone expects more screening, more insights, and more reports, regardless of who is in charge.
The same is true of public companies – different industries that deal with a high volume of transactions are interested in these tools, and that has been a major push for Dan and his colleagues since being acquired by Accuity and Lexis Nexis.
Resources:
Accuity.com
Risk.lexisnexis.com
This podcast was sponsored by Lexis Nexis Risk Solutions and RegTech Pulse. RegTech Pulse examines the latest industry and technology trends that help organizations fight financial crime and streamline payments, so money and goods can move safely and securely around the world. Industry experts across the world join the conversation to share their insights and discuss best practices. RegTech Pulse is brought to you by Accuity, a LexisNexis Risk Solutions company, which helps power compliant and assured client transactions to build an interconnected and trusted financial ecosystem.
Have you ever wanted to start a podcast? Email Tfox@Tfoxlaw.com to tell your story and join the Compliance Podcast Network
Preparing Private Funds for the Marketing Rule
In this episode, our team of private funds experts, John Gentile, Eugenie Warner and Adam DiPaolo, discuss how private funds will be affected by the new Marketing Rule and how they can start preparing for implementation now.
About Our Guest Speakers:
John Gentile is responsible for overseeing various types of broker-dealer and investment adviser consulting engagements, including conducting SEC/FINRA internal control reviews, anti-money laundering testing, written supervisory policy and procedures testing, and other consultation services. John is a frequent speaker at industry conferences on various compliance topics, including “Effective Supervision,” “Large Firm Testing,” FINRA Supervisory Control Rules” and “Anti Money Laundering Requirements for Broker Dealers under the PATRIOT Act.” In 1987 John joined the SEC as a Securities Compliance Examiner, becoming a Branch Chief in 1991. He became Assistant Regional Director in 1993, supervising a team of 20 broker-dealer managers and examiners. He also planned and conducted financial, operational, and sales practice examinations of the largest broker dealers and was among those responsible for a review of hedge funds’ impact on broker dealer internal controls. Before joining the SEC, John was a Financial Damage Analyst with PaineWebber Inc. Most recently from 2000-2007 John was an Executive Consultant, Broker-Dealer Services, at National Regulatory Services. John has an MBA from Fordham University and a BS in Finance from Central Connecticut State University. From 1995 to 2002, John was also a member of the Securities Industry Continuing Education East Coast Content Committee.
Eugenie Warner is a Senior Consultant at CSS, bringing her legal background to the Compliance Services arena. She was previously a business litigator, including as an associate at K&L Gates LLP and Loeb and Loeb LLP. Eugenie focused on consumer protection defense, primarily against federal and state regulatory agencies in administrative, state, and federal tribunals. Additionally, she managed cases and litigated in the fields of intellectual property, employment, civil contempt, unfair business practices, and deceptive advertising. Eugenie earned a B.A. in Diplomacy and World Affairs from Occidental College in Los Angeles; and a J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law, where she was on the Connecticut Law Review; clerked for the United States District Court, District of Connecticut; clerked for Connecticut’s Office of the Attorney General, Antitrust Department; worked in the Criminal Clinic, Appellate Division; and studied at the University of Dublin Trinity College School of Law, for which she received UCONN’s Elihu Burritt academic success award. Currently, Eugenie’s compliance work includes, for example: annual reviews, risk assessments, mock SEC exams, and other tailored analyses; detailed registration and reporting guidance; assistance to CCOs and other C-suite executives, to enhance their respective compliance programs and risk management; and other tailored services.
Adam DiPaolo CISA, CRISC is a Section 13 Reporting Manager, Senior Consultant and Associate General Counsel at CSS. Adam designs practical solutions to manage regulatory challenges faced by hedge funds, private equity funds, funds of funds, and other investment advisers. In addition to providing compliance services such as annual compliance program reviews, risk assessments and acquisition due diligence, Adam established Section 13 reporting capabilities and EDGAR filing agent services for CSS’s Compliance Services division. He drafts and maintains corporate filings ranging from Forms ADV and PF to Forms 13F and 13H. Adam also provides cybersecurity risk management services to CSS clients – ranging from network vulnerability scanning to onsite cybersecurity risk assessments to assistance in implementing the NIST cybersecurity framework. He is a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA®), and Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC™). Adam practiced corporate law prior to joining CSS and has an extensive background in both the public and private sectors. Adam served as Assistant General Counsel at Capgemini – one of the world’s largest providers of Consulting, Technology and Outsourcing services. As in-house counsel to a global consulting business, he implemented pragmatic strategies to resolve complex legal and regulatory issues. Adam earned his B.A. from Pitzer College, his J.D. degree from UC Berkeley – Boalt Hall School of Law, and his LL.M. in Taxation from New York University School of Law. He is a member of the New York State Bar.