Categories
FCPA Compliance Report

James Koukios on the MoFo Top 10 International Anti-Corruption Developments for September 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 September 2020.
Some of the highlights include:

  1. Brazil developments. Car wash to be extended?
  2. SEC Amends Rules Governing Whistleblower Awards. Why were they amended?
  3. Why has it become so important/powerful?
  4. Any chance new Administration or Congress would fix Supreme Court decisions in Kokesh and Digital Realty Trust?
  5. Sargent Marine FCPA enforcement action-a rare criminal prosecution against a company. Why are such cases so rare?
  6. The discount: what was the basis; what is the process for seeking such a discount? What types of evidence is required?
  7. Oil Trader Charged with Bribing Ecuadorian Officials. 

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

Categories
Daily Compliance News

December 21, 2020-the Exiles edition


In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

  • Wasted work, wasted time, wasted space. (WSJ)
  • Can we save the country from monopolization? (WaPo)
  • Of exiles and anti-trust. (NYT)
  • 5 retail marketing trends COs need to consider. (AdAge)
Categories
Sunday Book Review

December 20, 2020, the John le Carré edition


In today’s edition of Sunday Book Review:

  • The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
  • Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy
  • The Little Drummer Girl
  • A Prefect Spy
Categories
Daily Compliance News

December 19, 2020-the Trojan Horse edition

In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

  • The Trojan Horse attacks start against the AML whistleblower law. (WSJ)
  • GOP tries to rein in Fed before Biden becomes President. (NYT)
  • Oil companies and (even worse) reputational damage. (HoustonChronicle)
  • Google AI Team Demands Ousted Black Researcher Be Rehired And Promoted. (NPR)
Categories
This Week in FCPA

Episode 233– the Vaccine is Here edition


As Joe Biden is formally elected President by the Electoral College and the Covid-19 vaccine arrives in spite of blunders by the Trump Administration; Tom and Jay are back to look at some of the top compliance articles and stories which caught their eye this week.

  1. The Good, the Bad and the Missing. Dick Cassin with his three top stories in 2020 on the FCPA Blog.
  2. Are you ready for the EU Whistleblower Directive? Cédric Dubar considers in the FCPA Blog.
  3. Using data analytics for the BOD and still satisfying the regulators. 6 CCOs opine in Compliance Week (sub req’d)
  4. What are 7 principles of ethical leadership? Yonason Goldson in CCI.
  5. Leadership failures around sexual harassment at Ft. Hood. Matt Kelly on Radical Compliance. Tom and Matt take gut-wrenching deep dive on Compliance into the Weeds, with special guest Diane St. Ives, who relates her experiences from 40 years ago.
  6. The SEC and SARs. Thomas Gorman on SEC Enforcement
  7. Congress approves new AML law. Jack Hagel in the WSJ Risk & Compliance Journal.
  8. Ephemeral messaging. Debevoise and Plimpton Data Blog.
  9. A new month is here and a new guest on The Compliance Life. Kim Yapchai, Chief Counsel – Environmental, Social & Governance at Tenneco Inc. In this week’s third episode, Kim moves into the CCO chair. Check out the episode here. Check out the full series here.
  10. My podcast with Mikhail Reider-Gordon on Wirecard was so popular we spun it out into its own series, The Wirecard Saga. Check out the latest episode, Who Watches the Watchers.
  11. On 31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program, we consider Training and Communications. Monday, Communication through persuasion; Tuesday– Multiplying the influence of compliance; Wednesday– Communicating Across Cultural Boundaries; Thursday– Asking questions to boost your compliance program; Friday– Twitter and 360-degrees of communication. Note 31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program now has its own iTunes channel.
  12. Interested in podcasting? Find out the top trends with this replay of Tom and Megan Dougherty of One Stone Creative in their webinar on the State of Podcasting 2020. Listen to the full webinar here. Want some pointers on designing and starting a podcast, check out this great new report from Megan Dougherty, co-founder of my producing team at One Stone Creative, The State of Business Podcasts, 2020.

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

December 18, 2020-Credit Suisse Charged edition


In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

  • Robinhood Financial pays $65MM to settle with SEC. (NYT)
  • Sacklers deny any responsibility. (NYT)
  • If the Russians can crash the gov who is safe? (WaPo)
  • Credit Suisse change in money-laundering scheme. (FT)
Categories
Life with GDPR

Reduction to GDPR Fines by EU Courts


In this episode Jonathan Armstrong and Tom Fox are back to discuss issues relating to data privacy, data protection and GDPR. Today, we consider EU courts reducing fines and penalties assessed by data protection regulators. The case reminds us that, as we said before, data protection authorities are likely to face challenges to high fines in the courts. In some respects, the fine mechanism in GDPR is based on the system in use in competition law cases where the success rate in appeals has been high. Some of the highlights are:

  1. Background to several cases.
  2. What did the court say?
  3. What did the regulators say?
  4. What are the lessons learned for the data protection/data privacy compliance specialist?
  5. What steps can your organization take?

Resources
Check out the Cordery Compliance, client alert on this topic, click here. For more information on Cordery Compliance, go their website here. Also check out the GDPR Navigator, one of the top resources for GDPR Compliance by clicking here.

Categories
Everything Compliance

Episode 71 – the Year End Review Edition


Welcome to the only roundtable podcast in compliance. Today, we have the full quintet of Jonathan Armstrong, Jay Rosen, Jonathan Marks, Matt Kelly and Mike Volkov for a deep dive into plethora of topics in this special year end review edition. We end with a veritable mélange of rants and shouts outs.

  1. Jonathan Armstrong joins us from London to detail some of the most instructive GDPR cases decided in 2020. Armstrong shouts out to Father Christmas and reminds every one of the Covid-19 danger he faces this year and asked you leave out some hand sanitizer instead of cookies.
  1. Jay Rosen asks, ‘where have all the monitors gone’? Jay rants about how the phrase “take off your mask” has become a tool of sexual harassment.
  1. Matt Kelly considers three key events from 2020 and what they all mean for the compliance professional. The Pandemic, discrimination and social justice, and the election. Matt rants about the GOP members who refuse to accept the results of the election and Electoral College.
  1. Mike Volkov looks at FCPA enforcement in 2020 in general and the Goldman Sachs enforcement action specifically. Volkov shouts out to the 48 states Attorney Generals and the FTC for filing suit against Facebook and rants about former Goldman exec Gary Cohen not agreeing to the 1MDB clawback.
  1. Jonathan Marks looks at the increase of books and records enforcement action under the FCPA Accounting Provisions which can be the basis of a SEC violation where there the actions are neither foreign nor corrupt. In a very Philadelphia shout out/rant (at the same time), Marks delineates the Eagles benching of Carson Wentz.
  1. Tom Fox gives a bittersweet shout out David Prowse who recently died. Prowse was the first actor to play Darth Vader albeit voiced by James Earl Jones. 

The members of the 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
Daily Compliance News

December 17, 2020-Luckin Coffee not Lucky edition


In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

  • Google sued by states for anti-competitive behavior. (NYT)
  • Holmes wants Theranos documents hidden. (WSJ)
  • Tyson’s fires plant mgr’s who bought on which employees would contract Covid-19. (WSJ)
  • Luckin Coffee pays $180MM for accounting fraud. (WSJ)
Categories
The Affiliated Monitors Expert Podcast

Considerations When Hiring a Monitor


In this podcast, I am joined in this podcast series by Jay Rosen, the Vice President of Business Development and Monitoring Specialist at Affiliated Monitors, Inc. Today, we look at considerations when hiring a monitor.
Some of the highlights from this podcast include:

  1. Considering the type and style of the monitor in your selection process.
  2. What is the expertise of the monitor, not simply in the subject matter but concluding monitorships?
  3. Balancing the interests of the regulator, the company and other stakeholders.
  4. Making sure that the monitor is bringing value to the company.
  5. Why a Monitor must be independent and conflict-free.

I hope you will join us tomorrow for Part 5, where we discuss the issue of costs when retaining a monitor.
For additional reading see Jay Rosen’s article What Issues Should a Company Consider When Hiring a Corporate Monitor? on Corporate Compliance Insights.
For more information on Affiliated Monitors, Inc. visit their website here.