In this special emergency weekend episode (our first) Matt Kelly and Tom Fox take a deep dive into the attempt by AG William Barr to fire the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, late on the evening of June 19. We consider its legality, what it means for both the SDNY, SEC and white-collar law enforcement going forward.
Resources
See Matt Kelly blog post on Radical Compliance, Turmoil for SEC, SDNY Leadership
Barr tries to fire US Attorney for SDNY. (NYT)
Jay Clayton nominated as new Attorney for SDNY. (CoinDesk)
Berman says will not step down. (WaPo)
Barr does not have authority to fire Berman under Court order appointing him. (Law and Crime)
In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:
- Barr tries to fire US Attorney for SDNY. (NYT)
- Jay Clayton nominated as new Attorney for SDNY. (CoinDesk)
- Berman says will not step down. (WaPo)
- Barr does not have authority to fire Berman under Court order appointing him. (Law and Crime)
Who to suspend during any FCPA investigation is always a delicate question to answer and is never easy to answer. As the VW emission-testing scandal reverberated, it brought up some very knotty questions, which have continued bedeviled many a CCO or compliance practitioner in multiple areas. De-confliction is also an issue which continues to bedevil investigators and internal investigations. Mara Senn has said “That is a very case-by-case difficult question to answer, but in general, I think it’s better to keep them around for as long as you may need them. Once they’ve been fired or otherwise disciplined, really, even if you keep them around, they’re going to be less cooperative with you and possibly, if you fire them, not cooperative at all. You can require them to be cooperative in the termination agreement, but obviously in practice, cooperation can mean a lot of different things.”
De-confliction, involves the government asking a company to halt its own investigation for the government to be the first to interview witnesses. Former DAG Lanny Breuer posed four questions which every investigator must consider in the area of de-confliction. (1) Would complying with the request be consistent with directors’ and corporate officers’ fiduciary duty of oversight? (2) How can a company make decisions without speaking with its employees? (3) How will a delay affect the company’s other regulatory obligations? and (4) How can external counsel advise a company without knowing the facts? Companies hire external counsel to conduct thorough investigations, evaluate their clients’ conduct, and provide informed legal advice. These tasks can be difficult if not impossible to accomplish where external counsel have their hands tied behind their backs.
Three key takeaways:
- The decision on whom to discipline and when are critical decisions during any investigation.
- You should take a case-by-case approach.
- The “de-confliction” question can be quite troubling during an internal investigation.
As Trump has trouble drinking a glass of water and walking (Note-not at the same time), Covid-19 cases spike, the US Supreme Court hands down a landmark decision on protections for the LGBTQ community in the workplace, self-distancing Tom and Jay are back to consider some of the top compliance articles and stories over the past week.
- Mike Volkov takes the chickens out to roost in a 3-part series on the DOJ Antitrust Division charges of price-fixing and bid-rigging conspiracy. In Corruption Crime & Compliance. Jon Rausch weighs in on Dipping Through Geometries.
- How will WFH change business? Alison Taylor opines on the World Economic Forum
- What are the three ‘R’s’ of a speak up culture? Lloydette Bai-Marrow on the FCPA Blog.
- GOP stymies data privacy/data protection legislation yet again. Dave Uberti reports in the WSJ.
- It’s your culture stupid. Jim Nortz in CCI.
- How is Covid-19 changing internal audit. Matt Kelly explores in Radical Compliance.
- Viva La France. Dylan Tokar reports in the WSK Risk and Compliance Journal.
- Making sure compliance is not marginalized during financial dislocation. A plethora of authors contribute on NYU’s Compliance and Enforcement Blog.
- The ethical upside to WFH. In the Center for Ethical Leadership
- Interested in moving to the CCO chair? Check out my latest podcast series The Compliance Lifewhere I interview one CCO type for a month on their journey to the CCO chair and beyond. In on this month’s edition I visit with Ryan Rabalais. In this Part 3, he details some of key skills of a CCO. The Compliance Life is now available on iTunes.
- On Compliance and Coronavirus this week,: Scott Price on cyber security risks going forward; Gabe Gumbs data privacy and data protection during the economic dislocation and Covid-19; David McLaughlin joins me to discuss increasing automation to enhance compliance. Compliance and Coronavirus is available on iTunes here.
- On the Compliance Podcast Network, this month topic: internal reporting and investigations; all on 31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program. This week’s offerings: Monday-The Investigative Team; Tuesday-investigative challenges; Wednesday-the witness interview; Thursday– issues in cross-border investigations; Friday– who and when to suspend. Note 31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program now has its own iTunes channel.
- How does the Hundred Acre Wood inform compliance? Check out Tom’s 5-part blog post series on the FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog. Monday-Tigger and Sales; Tuesday-Kanga, Roo & Ombudsman; Wednesday-Eeyore and corp legal; Thursday-Piglet and Finance; Friday-Winnie the Pooh as CECO.
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.
In this special podcast, we discuss the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division’s recently announced initiative to encourage corporations to develop and implement effective antitrust compliance programs. We consider the new guidance and special considerations during the COVID pandemic and provide practical tips for developing a comprehensive program, including tips on how to handle a federal and/or state antitrust investigations.
Moderator:
Dionne Lomax — Managing Director, Antitrust and Trade Regulation (Affiliated Monitors, Inc.)
Panelists:
Peter Mucchetti — Partner (Clifford Chance)
Vic Domen — Partner (Norton Rose Fulbright)
Jesse Caplan — Managing Director, Corporate Oversight (Affiliated Monitors, Inc.).
For more information on Affiliated Monitors, check out their website here.
Amanda welcomes back Gio to finish up the last five questions in ComplianceLine’s new eBook TOP 10 QUESTIONS YOU SHOULD BE ASKING YOUR HOTLINE PROVIDER.
Check out more episodes and full episode videos at ComplianceLine.com, and don’t forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform!
Welcome to the newest addition to the Compliance Podcast Network, Compliance and Coronavirus. In this episode, I am joined by David McLaughlin, the founder of QuantaVerse. McLaughlin’s business leadership philosophy and results-oriented approach were honed over the course of both his military and corporate careers. He spent six years as a naval officer, starting in 1986 as an Ensign in the U.S. Navy and attending flight school in Pensacola, FL. A graduate of the highly regarded TOPGUN program, McLaughlin also completed a combat tour in the Persian Gulf, where he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and two Air Medals for bravery in combat. Prior to founding QuantaVerse, McLaughlin held senior executive positions with IPR International, NES Financial, and SEI. He graduated from West Virginia University and received a master’s degree from Webster University.
In this episode, we consider some of the top questions QuantaVerse is hearing its clients; some of the top challenges financial institutions are facing during the Coronavirus health Crisis; how the reporting obligations of financial institutions impacted by the Coronavirus health crisis and the types of solutions that a financial institution can bring to bear at this point in time. We conclude with a discussion of how a financial institution can automate industry best practices when conducting an investigation, through the QuantaVerse Alert Investigator for Financial Institutions.
For more information on QuantaVerse, check out their website here.
For information on the QuantaVerse Alert Investigator for Financial Institutions, click here.
Categories
Requirements for the DPO
In this episode Jonathan Armstrong and Tom Fox are back to discuss issues relating to data privacy, data protection and GDPR. Today, we consider recent decision by the Belgian Data Protection Authority which imposed a fine of €50,000 ($54,203) on an un-named organization for non-compliance with the GDPR conflict of interest requirement; in the selection of its Data Protection Officer. Some of the highlights are:
- What were the issues and interests involved in this case?
- What are the requirements for a DPO under GDPR?
- How and why was the company ‘seriously negligent’?
- What are the implications going forward?
- What is this decision’s precedential value?
- How much expertise, authority and autonomy must a DPO have going forward?
Check out the Cordery Compliance, client alert on this case, 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.
Jordan Domash is the General Manager of Relativity’s Trace product and this week’s guest. For 6 years, he has worked with Relativity in the fields of product and marketing, communications, and tactical projects. He helped build the early versions of Trace and grew it to where it is now. He joins Vince Walden to discuss how Trace works.
Communications are an important medium that adds context to structured data, as high-risk behaviors like collusion usually occur over communication vehicles. Trace is a compliance monitoring platform that proactively surveys all communications in near-real-time and allows compliance officers to configure rules that alert them of suspicious content. It monitors investment management compliance, trade, and looks out for bribery and corruption. Trace enables organizations to detect high-risk behaviors by normalizing a wide range of data and file types into a large database and quickly sifting through it with AI-empowered by human reviewers.
Trace has automated integrations with over 40 different data sources and carries out a set of small-batch processes incrementally throughout the day. Additionally, it supplies tools to manage data volumes so users can focus only on what’s relevant to them. Rather than for general monitoring, Trace is built for identifying a specific set of configured risks.
Resources
Jordan Domash on LinkedIn
Relativity.com | Trace