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Everything Compliance

Episode 74, Compliance Under the Biden Administration Edition

Welcome to the only roundtable podcast in compliance. Today, we have a quartet of Jonathan Armstrong, Jonathan Marks, Matt Kelly and Mike Volkov for a deep dive into what compliance may look like under the Biden Administration. We end with a veritable mélange of rants and shouts outs.

  1. Jonathan Armstrong joins us from London to consider what the new Administration might mean for the current British PM and his Administration. He rants about the renewed UK lockdown and how idiots are still not getting the need for it.
  1. Matt Kelly considers the Biden Administration appointments at the SEC, CFPB and OCC and how their philosophies on enforcement will impact compliance. Matt rants about the second-class citizenship created when CCOs have to report to GCs.
  1. Jonathan Marks looks at FBI and other enforcement agencies renewed vigor in investigating fraud, particularly around PPP and PPE. Marks shouts out to Amanda Gorman for her stirring poetry at the Biden Inauguration.
  1. Mike Volkov considers the appointments of Merrick Garland to be Attorney General and Lisa Monaco as Biden’s Homeland Security head and how they will work to clean up the disastrous mess left by the prior Administration. Volkov shouts out the Biden Inauguration Celebration and especially the 3 former Presidents remarks.
  1. Tom Fox has a bittersweet shout out to Hank Aaron who passed away last week.

 The members of Everything Compliance are:

  • Jay Rosen– Jay is Vice President, Business Development Corporate Monitoring at Affiliated Monitors. Rosen can be reached at JRosen@affiliatedmonitors.com
  • Mike Volkov – One of the top FCPA commentators and practitioners around and the Chief Executive Officer of The Volkov Law Group, LLC. Volkov can be reached at mvolkov@volkovlawgroup.com
  • Matt Kelly – Founder and CEO of Radical Compliance. Kelly can be reached at mkelly@radicalcompliance.com
  • Jonathan Armstrong –is our UK colleague, who is an experienced data privacy/data protection lawyer with Cordery in London. Armstrong can be reached at armstrong@corderycompliance.com
  • Jonathan Marks is Partner, Firm Practice Leader – Global Forensic, Compliance & Integrity Services at Baker Tilly. Marks can be reached at marks@bakertilly.com

The host and producer (and sometime panelist) of Everything Compliance is Tom Fox the Voice of Compliance. He can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com. Everything Compliance is a part of the Compliance Podcast Network.

Categories
The Wirecard Saga

The Revolving Door


Welcome to the latest edition to the Compliance Podcast Network, The Wirecard Saga. In this series, I am joined by Mikhail Reider-Gordon, Managing Director of Institutional Ethics & Integrity at Affiliated Monitors.  In this episode, we take a deep dive into the government officials ensnared in the Wirecard scandal and how the German (and other countries) revolving door between the public and private sector lead to the corridors of corruption.
Some of the highlights include:

  • Austria Arrests Government Officials
  • Ass Aground
  • Extorting Porn Barons
  • Self-Regulation Shortcomings
  • Who Approved These Loans?!
  • Follow the Money
  • Bauer’s Autopsy
  • Less Convincing Answers for Banks
  • Deutsche Bank’s Naughty Boy
  • Chancellery’s Revolving Door
  • Housefrau Brokers Deal in PRC
  • Fritsche Multitasks in DE & AT
  • Moscow Nights with Marsalek and Sobotka
  • Brigadier Builds Contracts
Categories
EMBARGOED!

EMBARGOED! Episode 22: What Just Happened? Recapping a Chaotic Transition

Following President Biden’s inauguration, Brian and Tim look back at the chaotic final two weeks of the Trump administration to examine the flurry of trade and foreign policy actions taken on the way out the door. In Lightning Round fashion, we cover: Cuba’s re-designation as a State Sponsor of Terror, statements about China committing genocide, more actions targeting the crackdown in Hong Kong, a few final pokes in the eye to Iran, the imprisonment of Alexei Navalny and a possible new era for sanctions targeting Russia, designations impacting the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, an amended (but still ambiguous) E.O. relating to publicly traded securities of CCMCs, provocative moves relating to Taiwan and the South China Sea, and a brand new regulatory regime meant to protect the ICTS supply chain from foreign adversaries.

Subscribe! * Apple Podcasts * Spotify *  Amazon Music  * Google Podcasts * Stitcher
Questions? Contact us at podcasts@milchev.com.
EMBARGOED! is not intended and cannot be relied on as legal advice; the content only reflects the thoughts and opinions of its hosts.
Timestamps:
0:10 Introduction and Roadmap
5:57 Lightning Round-Style Recap
8:47 Cuba Designated a State Sponsor of Terror
14:43 Pronouncement that China is Committing Genocide
21:03 Latest from Hong Kong
26:20 Final Pokes in the Eye to Iran
32:38 Russia after Navalny’s Arrest
39:58 Designating Houthis as an FTO/SDGT?
46:53 Amended CCMC EO
56:25 Taiwan and the South China Sea
1:03:30 Interim Final ICTS Rule
1:10:28  Final Thoughts
***Stay sanctions free.***

Categories
31 Days to More Effective Compliance Programs

Day 27 | Operationalizing compliance through payroll


One of the areas articulated in the 2020 Update was around payments and payroll. For the both the compliance professional and the corporate payroll function, there is a significant role to play in the operationalization of a corporate compliance program. The 2020 Update was replete with references to payment and its critical nature to any best practices compliance program.  This includes references to payments to foreign officials, payments to third parties and hiding bribes in payments to distributors. The 2020 Update begins with an admonition to stop wasting time on low hanging fruit when there are much higher risks in your business operations.
The role of payroll in compliance is not often considered in operationalizing your compliance program, yet the monies to fund bribes must come from somewhere. Unfortunately, one of those places is out of payroll. All CCOs need to sit down with his or her head of payroll, have them explain the role of payroll, then review the internal controls in place to see how they facilitate the goals of compliance. From that review, you can then determine how to use payroll to help to operationalize your compliance program.
The DOJ has now provided its clearest statement on how it expects a company to actually do compliance going forward. Long gone are the days where the DOJ simply considered the inputs of a written program as sufficient to protect companies from compliance violations. Yet the mandate to operationalize a corporate compliance program drives home the concept that compliance is a business process, which should be administered by the appropriate business unit with the requisite SME. When it comes to following the money, payroll is the most well-suited corporate discipline to provide this first level of oversight and controls.
Three key takeaways:

  1. Payroll can be a key prevent and detect control.
  2. The 2020 Update specified the tying of the corporate compliance function to the corporate payroll function.
  3. Offshore payments remain a key indicator for a red flag.
Categories
Innovation in Compliance

Integrity Matters: Assessing the Corporate Compliance Climate in 2021- Part 3: Anti-Bribery and Anti-Corruption Enforcement in 2021


Welcome to this special podcast series, Integrity Matters: Assessing the Corporate Compliance Climate in 2021, sponsored by K2 Integrity. This week I visit with Bob Brenner, Co-Managing Partner and Chief Legal Officer; Snežana Gebauer, Executive Managing Director and head of U.S. Investigations and Risk Advisory, Americas. Over the week, we will consider various regulatory and enforcement issues with the incoming Biden Administration. Topics include assessing the regulatory landscape resulting from the pandemic, what companies can expect from new administration priorities, anti-bribery/anti-corruption issues and enforcement in 2021. In this Part 3, I am joined by Snežana Gebauer who discusses what companies can expect as priorities from new administration around anti-bribery and anti-corruption.
Join us tomorrow as we examine global trends impacting risk and compliance in 2021.
For more information go to the K2 Integrity website.

Categories
Great Women in Compliance

Frances McLeod, Women Leaders in Forensic, Risk and Compliance


Welcome to the Great Women in Compliance Podcast, co-hosted by Lisa Fine and Mary Shirley.
While there are a lot of women in the field of Ethics and Compliance, there are fewer women who are in forensic risk analysis.  Today, Lisa speaks with one of the pioneers in this area, Frances McLeod.  Frances is an owner and Founding Partner of Forensic Risk Alliance (FRA) and head of its US offices.  She has worked in many areas – data privacy and GDPR, as a monitor in many different matters for the SEC and DOJ and has focused a lot on sanctions as of late.
Frances shares her experiences in growing FRA and her commitment to diversity in the field, as well as supporting and empowering women in their careers.  She also talks about her experiences in very different monitorships – from being “the data lady” in the City of Ferguson matter, to her recent involvement in the IAV monitorships.
We also discuss what compliance officers should be thinking about as Artificial Intelligence grows in importance for all of us.
You can subscribe to the Great Women in Compliance podcast on any podcast player by searching for it and we welcome new subscribers to our podcast which is hosted on the Compliance Podcast Network.
Lisa and Mary have extended the Great Women in Compliance brand to the booking “Sending the Elevator Back Down: What We’ve Learned from Great Women in Compliance”  (CCI Press, 2020) which can be found on Amazon and features valuable wisdom and advice from Great Women in Compliance across the world.
If you’ve already read the booked and liked it, will you help out other women to make the decision to leverage off the tips and advice given by rating the book and giving it a glowing review on Amazon?
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.
Join the Great Women in Compliance community on LinkedIn here.

Categories
Compliance Into the Weeds

WFH, RTW or Something Else

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. Today we consider what will be the implications of our working environments post-pandemic. Will we be permanently working from home, returning to the office, a mix of both or something else?

Some of the issues we consider are:

  • What are the compliance implications of a distributed workforce?
  • How to maintain culture?
  • Is WFH communications too much like social media?
  • What about cyber-bullying from co-workers?

Resources
Matt’s blog post in Radical Compliance: Thoughts on Return to Work

Categories
Daily Compliance News

January 27, 2021, the Pay Cut edition

 
In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

  • Goldman CEO takes $10MM pay cut over 1MDB. (WSJ)
  • CBS suspends two execs over racist and sexist actions. (NYT)
  • HSBC throws lot in with Chinese government. (BBC)
  • Investment funds creating monopolies? (NPR)
Categories
The Compliance Life

Gwen Hassan on Her Passion on Fighting Human Trafficking


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 Gwen Hassan, Managing Counsel and Director of Compliance at CNH Industrial.
In this fourth and final episode, Gwen talks about one of her great passions—the fight against human trafficking. Gwen has led the compliance field in education on this international scourge and sees the corporate compliance function as having the key role in every corporation to fight this global problem.

Categories
31 Days to More Effective Compliance Programs

Day 26 | Compliance function in an organization


The role of the compliance professional and the compliance function in a corporation has steadily grown in stature and prestige over the years. When it came to the corporate compliance function, 2020 FCPA Resource Guide, under the Hallmarks of an Effective Compliance Program, simply noted the government would “consider whether the company devoted adequate staffing and resources to the compliance program given the size, structure, and risk profile of the business.”
This Hallmark was significantly expanded in both the FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy and 2020 Update. In the FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy, the DOJ listed the following as factors relating to a corporate compliance function, that it would consider as indicia of an effective compliance and ethics program: 1) the resources the company has dedicated to compliance; 2) the quality and experience of the personnel involved in compliance, such that they can understand and identify the transactions and activities that pose a potential risk; 3) the authority and independence of the compliance function and the availability of compliance expertise to the board; 4) the compensation and promotion of the personnel involved in compliance, in view of their role, responsibilities, performance, and other appropriate factors; and 5) the reporting structure of any compliance personnel employed or contracted by the company.
The 2020 Update and FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy both demonstrate the continued evolution in the thinking of the DOJ around the corporate compliance function. Their articulated inquiries can only strengthen a corporate compliance function specifically; and the compliance profession more generally. The more the DOJ talks about the independence of the compliance function, coupled with resources being made available and authority concomitant with the corporate compliance function, the more corporations will see it is directly in their interest to provide the resources, authority and gravitas to compliance position in their organizations.
Three key takeaways:

  1. How is compliance treated in the budget process?
  2. Has your compliance function had any decisions over-ridden by senior management?
  3. Beware outsourcing of compliance as any such contractor must have access to company documents and personnel.