Tag: compliance

Categories
This Week in FCPA

Episode 191 – the All Hail Airbus edition


Reports are that Airbus would settle corruption allegations for nearly $4bn in England were correct. Jay and Tom are back to consider some of the top compliance articles and stories which caught our eye this week.

  1. Airbus commentary is out. Dick Cassin on the FCPA Blog, Mike Volkov on Corruption Crime and Compliance, Tom Fox on the FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog and Jonathan Armstrong on Cordery Compliance all lead the discussion.
  2. COSO warns of siloed compliance. Kristin Broughton in the WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal.
  3. Odebretch extends monitorship 9 months. Will that be enough? Mengqi Sun explores in the WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal.
  4. What about small annual changes in the TI-CPI? Matthew Stephenson goes diadic in the Global Anti-Corruption Blog.
  5. Is new DOJ Guidance a sword or shield or both? Jay continues his series in CCI.
  6. How to grow your compliance program as your company scales. Gio Gallo explains in CCI.
  7. Worried about CCO liability? Matt Kelly explores on Radical Compliance.
  8. Bernie Ebbers passes. A moment of silence for his role in compliance. Jim Zarolli in NPR.
  9. Speaker programs and big pharma. WilmerHale lawyers opine in NYU’s Compliance and Enforcement Blog.
  10. On the Compliance Podcast Network, Tom begins a one month look at the role of HR in compliance.This week saw the following offerings: Monday-introduction to the role of HR in compliance; Tuesday-the role of HR in creating an ethical culture; Wednesday-the hiring process; Thursday-the reference check. Friday-incentivizing compliance. 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.
  11. Join Tom for the webinar, The Houston Astros: Ethics, Compliance and Sign Stealing onThursday February 13, at 2 PM CST. Registration and information here.

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
This Week in FCPA

Episode 184 – the The Rise of Skywalker edition

Tom and Jay are awaiting their bookings to see the final installment in the 9-part series of the Star Wars saga. While waiting, they consider of this week’s top compliance and ethics stories which caught their collective eyes.
1.     Tim Leissner settles with the SEC. Dick Cassin. Tom takes a deep dive in the FCPA Ethics and Compliance blog.
2.     Aly McDevitt with two great articles on talks at CW Third Party Conference.
3.     Mexico getting serious about fighting corruption. Luis Dantón Martínez Corres in the FCPA Blog.
4.     Culture lessons from Coca Cola. Gary Patterson and Robert Baker in CCI.
5.     Jay looks at the expansion of the corporate integrity monitor, in CCI.
6.     Cyber enforcement and FTC expectations. Avi Gesser and Molly O’Malley Clarke in NYU’s Compliance and Enforcement blog.
7.     What is the intersection of corp oversight and disobidience? Elizabeth Pollman in the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance.
8.     How and why should you manage your corp culture? Jim DeLoach in CCI.
9.     New DOJ Cooperation Policy on Trade Sanctions and Export Control. Matt Kelly in Radical Compliance.
10.  Insurance to protect you from populism? Liam Fitzpatrick on the D&O Diary.
11.  On the Compliance Podcast Network, Tom and Jay celebrate the opening of The Rise of Skywalker with a five part podcast series on the intersection of Star Wars (IV-VIII) and compliance. In Part 1, A New Hope and Risk; in Part 2, The Empire Strikes Back and Due Diligence; in Part 3, The Return of the Jedi and Effective Training; in Part 4, The Force Awakens and Disruption in Compliance and in Part 5, The Last Jedi and BOD Role in Succession.
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.
For more information on how an independent monitor can help improve your company’s ethics and compliance program, visit our sponsor Affiliated Monitors at www.affiliatedmonitors.com.

Categories
Everything Compliance

Episode 56-the Compliance Year Under Trump, Part 2

Welcome to the only roundtable podcast in compliance. Today, we close out the year with Part 2 of a two-part series on our fan favorite year-end wrap up on the state of compliance under the Trump Administration. We have been following this topic since Trump was elected in 2016 and it one of the most anticipated podcast releases for the year. Today, we have a triple serving of Sarah Hadden, Jonathan Armstrong and Mike Volkov with a potpourri of topics. Rants and shouts outs follow the commentary for this episode.

  1.  Mike Volkov reviews the FCPA enforcement year. Volkov shouts out to the Justice Department’s FCPA trial team which secured several guilty verdicts at year’s end in individual prosecutions under the FCPA.
  2. Jonathan Armstrong discusses the year in antibribery enforcement from the UK perspective by reviewing the SFO’s successes and failures. Armstrong shouts out to Sir Rod Stewart for a compliance related project.
  3. Sarah Hadden takes a look back over her first year as CCI Publisher and highlights some of the top features, stories, news items and new voices in compliance. She shouts out to James Bone and Columbia University’s risk management survey.

 Resources:
Participate in the Columbia University risk management project headed by James Bone, here.
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
  • Sarah Hadden –Publisher at Corporate Compliance Insights. Hadden can be reached at Sarah@corporatecomplianceinsights.com

The host and producer (and sometime panelist) of Everything Compliance is Tom Fox the Compliance Evangelist. Everything Compliance is a part of the Compliance Podcast Network.

Categories
This Week in FCPA

Episode 181-the Fishy Letters edition

SEC Chair Jay Clayton is reduced to having a PR firm create fake investor comments to support a SEC rule change. The Astros cheating scandal gets worse. As Tom worries MLB might take away his replica World Series Championship Trophy and Jay consoles him about when a team cheats and wins, they turn to some other of this week’s top compliance and ethics stories which caught their collective eyes.

  1. Using the same defense as Hoskins, Boustani admits bribery and corruption in Mozambique Tuna Boat case. Will it work out any better for him? Steward Bishop and Frank Runyeon in Law360. (Sub Req’d)
  2. SEC whistleblower tips go down for the first time. Kristen Broughton in the WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal. Kevin LaCroix sees it otherwise, on the D&O Diary.
  3. Jay Clayton gins up fake written comments to support regulation change. Zachary Mider and Ben Elgin report in Bloomberg.
  4. Former Keppel Offshore lawyer sentenced to time served. Dick Cassin reports in the FCPA Blog.
  5. Why punishing the bribe takers is equally important as punishing the bribe payors? Matthew Stephenson explains it all in the Global Anti-Corruption Blog.  
  6. Does an aggressive position in a Wells submission hurt a company in a SEC enforcement action? Lawyers from Simpson Thatcher explore in NYU’s Compliance and Enforcement Blog.
  7. What is ‘enforcement fatigue’ and how did Alstom overcome it? Dylan Tokar reports in the WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal.
  8. of Treasury bringing more sanctions cases against shipping companies. Kristin Broughton reports in the WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal.
  9. What will risk and compliance look like in 2020? David Banks considers in Navex Global’s Ethics & Compliance Matters blog.
  10. How does M&A benefit from an independent assessment? Jay continues his series on CCI.
  11. What are the implications of Gen Z on the front lines of compliance? Gaurov Kapoor explores in CCI.
  12. Recent FCPA enforcement actions shows the SEC will use FCPA Accounting Provisions to hold a company liable for ineffective AML controls. Clay Porter in the National Law Review.
  13. Navex’s Loren Johnson joins the podcast to talk about Navex Global’s 2020 Benchmarking Survey.You can participate in Navex Global’s annual survey by clicking here.

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.
For more information on how an independent monitor can help improve your company’s ethics and compliance program, visit our sponsor Affiliated Monitors at www.affiliatedmonitors.com.

Categories
Everything Compliance

The Not Headed to Doral edition

Welcome to the only roundtable podcast in compliance. Today, we have a quintet of Jay Rosen, Matt Kelly, Sarah Hadden, Jonathan Armstrong and Mike Volkov with a potpourri of topics and commentary on current events from the compliance perspective. Rants and shouts outs follow the commentary for this episode, with one public service announcement from across the pond.

  1. Mike Volkov takes a deep dive into the debate on whether a Chief Compliance Officer should report to the GC or not. Volkov shouts out to Harvard Law Professor Matthew Stephenson for his great blog site Global Anti-Corruption Blog and specifically his recent blog post, If You Don’t Think Conflicts of Interest Matter, Consider the Kurds.
  2. Jay Rosen discusses the role ethics and compliance in the Mergers and Acquisition process. Rosen shouts out General James Mattis’ and his remarks at the Alfred Smith Dinner where accepted Trump’s claim he was the ‘most-overrated general’ by noting Trump had said 3-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep was the ‘most-overrated actress.’
  3. Sarah Hadden takes things a different direction by reading the eBook Trump and Compliance which was published in late 2016 and was based on the Everything Compliance gang’s predictions of how compliance would fare under the Trump Administration. Hadden shouts out to a new section of CCI which will focus on those persons early in their compliance careers. It is certainly a welcome addition to the compliance discussion.
  4.  Matt Kelly provides breaking news by discussing the SEC proposed changes to its Whistleblower Program. Kelly shouts out to Boston Celtic Enes Kantor for calling out the NBA on its hypocrisy on China.
  5. Jonathan Armstrong discusses the growing tide of US-style class actions coming to the UK and EU around the issue of data breaches under GDPR. Armstrong provides a public service announcement around the perils of using Apple Pay and the failure to Document Document Document.
  6. Tom Fox rants about the surreal news conference given by Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney where he (1) admitted the President violated US law in requiring a quid pro quo from Ukraine for the Congressionally mandated US aid package, claiming it was ‘just politics’ and (2) admitted the President violated the Emoluments Clause of the US Constitution by announcing the President had ordered the 2020 G-7 Summit to be held at Trump properties.

Resources:
From Jonathan Armstrong, on the always great Cordery Compliance site:
UK Data Protection Regulator Announces Intention to Fine BA after Data Breach
Life with GDPR – Episode 22 – Morrisons And Vicarious Liability
Client Alert: Doors open for data protection class action as appeal court allows Google claim to proceed?
 From Matt Kelly, the coolest guy in Compliance, on Radical Compliance:
SEC Tees up Whistleblower Reforms
 From Mike Volkov’s remarks, two articles from Compliance Week (sub req’d)
Point: Why CCOs should report to GC by Jeff Kaplan
Counterpoint: CCO, GC independence is critical by Matt Stankiewicz
From Sarah Hadden, the eBook published by CCI:
Trump and Compliance-the Conversation is Just Getting Started
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
  • Sarah Hadden –Publisher at Corporate Compliance Insights. Hadden can be reached at Sarah@corporatecomplianceinsights.com

The host and producer (and sometime panelist) of Everything Compliance is Tom Fox the Compliance Evangelist. Everything Compliance is a part of the Compliance Podcast Network.

Categories
Innovation in Compliance

Content is King with Andrea Falcione and Tricia Cornell


Andrea Falcione and Tricia Cornell of Rethink Compliance, one of the most innovative companies in the compliance space, join Tom Fox in this week’s show. They discuss their compliance journeys, and how content is reshaping the world of compliance.

Their Compliance Journeys
Andrea is a lawyer by profession. In 2004 she transitioned into compliance; she joined Rethink Compliance about a year ago. Tricia comes from the marketing and advertising world. The founder of Rethink, Kirsten Liston, asked her to join the company two years ago to bring her expertise in creating pieces of content to persuade people to think differently about commercial products, into the compliance space.
Content is King
Tom asks the guests to explain what ‘Content is king’ means, and why it’s so important and innovative in compliance. Tricia explains that it means that people are curious: they want to read, listen, and view videos, so compliance experts have to make their content consumable and desirable, and through that get their brand message out there. Andrea says that legal and compliance professionals find this idea difficult because they are essentially risk averse. When they send a message, it’s more about mitigating risk than engaging their audience. However, many organizations are getting negative feedback from their content consumers, so there is a need to create content that is relevant and engaging. This is becoming more and more critical, as regulators are looking at the effectiveness of companies’ efforts. 
Building Trust with Content
Andrea and Tricia share a piece of content created by ReThink Compliance in response to the Me Too Movement, is helping to change perceptions. Compliance officers should think about using content in different ways to get people to trust the process and the people involved in it, Andrea says. 
A Holistic Approach to Content
Tricia advises that a holistic approach to content starts with reaching your audience where they are. What are their attitudes? What are they looking for from their work? If you start with where they are and understand what they need from you, you’ll reach them more effectively with your message. Always think about how you can make your message relevant to your people. This can help build trust too, Andrea adds. If you think about what your audience needs to hear from you, they will begin to trust you more. 
Revamping the Code of Conduct
Tom asks, how or why can a code of conduct revamp be a powerful tool for a compliance practitioner. Andrea responds that the code of conduct is the cornerstone of every compliance program. As such, it needs to be a document that employees actually use, one that is meaningful and resonates with them. It all comes back to thinking about what your audience needs, Tricia emphasizes. If you want the code of conduct to be a resource, then you must think about where and when your people will need it. What questions might they have? How can you answer those questions in a way that’s easy for them to find the information they’re looking for? She points out that you need to make sure that information is easy to find, and written in language that’s easy to understand, so that they can make the right decision in the moment.
Resources
RethinkComplianceCo.com
LinkedIn: Andrea Falcione | Tricia Cornell | Kirsten Liston

Categories
Innovation in Compliance

Innovation in Compliance: Compliance in Finance Episode 5: Oversight


Welcome to the last installment of this 5-part Compliance in Finance Series, where Innovation in Compliance host, Tom Fox, talks with Philip Fry, the VP of Go To Market Strategy for Verint. Today, Phil and Tom are talking about oversight – bringing together data and analysis from across an organization.
Listen to the episode:

Phil makes the point that the success of a compliance program is dependant on your ability to see the whole picture, so gathering, combining, analysing and understanding the data created by various operational systems can keep an operation running smoothly, or run it off the rails. There are plenty of challenges in managing this month information, but Phil thinks it’s more achievable than it might look at the outset. The key is the ability to cut through all the noise created by the mountains of data, and home-in on areas of concern, of potential or real non-compliance, that require attention.
Tom and Phil discuss the different ways this oversight can be gained, and the importance of open standards across compliance solutions. They talk about Trade Reconstruction, speech analytics, surveillance, and the new technology that is bringing them together and making them accessible to compliance program managers around the world.
If you missed any episodes of the Compliance in Finance Series, click on the links below to catch what you missed, and if your organization needs a comprehensive, up to date and sustainable compliance solution, reach out to Verint to see what they have to offer.
Episode 1: Overview
Episode 2: Capture
Episode 3: Control
Episode 4: Sustainability

Categories
Innovation in Compliance

Innovation in Compliance: Compliance in Finance 4: Sustainability


Welcome back to the Compliance In Podcast Series with Philip Fry from Verint! Yesterday we talked about the tools, strategies and importance of controlling the information its now possible to capture, and today, we’re getting into making that kind of activity sustainable over the long term.
Listen to the Episode:

Tom starts the conversation by mentioning how common and multi-purposed the word sustainability is, so Phil gets into some detail about exactly what sustainability means from a compliance in finance standpoint. Namely, that it refers to effectively managing constant change and moving your compliance organisation and resources, technology, practices, procedures, data, skills etc. to a place where they run effectively and efficiently, without undue drama (however that might be caused) and where compliance risks are minimised.
A big part of successfully making a complex compliance program sustainable is looking back on what different tools, systems and strategies have been in place before the newest one, to help plan an attainable rout from where companies are to where they want to be. Phil talks about how this has shaped his vision of the future and the other factors that have to be considered, like the ability to cope with disruption, verifying the operation of a structure, and the attitude and will of an organization. All stakeholders need to be invested in a compliance program if it’s going to be sustainable going into the future.
In tomorrow’s fifth and final installment, Tom and Phil discuss how to get and keep oversight of the mountains of information that are generated by modern compliance programs.
If you missed any of the previous episodes – click the links below to catch up!
Episode 1: Overview
Episode 2: Capture
Episode 3: Control
 
Resources:
Philip Fry
Verint

Categories
Innovation in Compliance

Innovation in Compliance: Compliance in Finance 3 – Control


What does control mean when we’re talking about compliance in finance? And how do you maintain it? That’s what Tom Fox and Philip Fry are talking about in this third installment of the 5-part Compliance and Podcast series on Innovation in Compliance. In this context, control means the tools and strategies we employ to prevent non-compliant actions from taking place or being alerted to them when they do.
Listen to the episode:

Phil mentions that if at all possible it’s better to prevent non-compliance than find it after the fact – but that isn’t always a reality. He shares some examples of the different tools and strategies available to help manage the difficulties of controlling information capture, like taking a cohesive approach to validating the collection and quality of interaction data. What can be very time and resource-intensive when done manually, can be done quickly and accurately via automation.
Tom asks Phil to apply this kind of automation capability to organizations that have a variety of different communications systems in play, and Phil talks about the importance of having open standards and taking an open approach to developing solutions that help various systems co-exist.
Another way to build better control is by staying on top of changes within the workforce, and making sure that your roster of what needs to be monitored when is kept up to date. By being flexible, but strategically using the tools available, you can have greater control overall.
In tomorrow’s episode of this 5-part series, Phil and Tom will be getting into the important issue of sustainability – and what it means in the context of compliance in finance.
Resources
Philip Fry
Verint

Categories
Innovation in Compliance

Innovation in Compliance: Compliance in Finance 2 – Capture


In this second installment of our 5-part series all about Compliance in Finance, Tom Fox is going to be talking with Philip Fry of Verint about the importance of capturing the information necessary to manage risk and compliance in a fast changing world.
Listen to the episode:

The current breed of regulations governing financial services and trading are much more comprehensive and stringent than their predecessors. In their drive to control how businesses and individuals behave, they typically require that extremely detailed information is captured and stored about every transaction. In fact, in the case of MiFID II, it is necessary to capture data about interaction that was intended to lead to a transaction – even if the final transaction did not take place. What these regulations have done is catch-up with the plethora of communication channels now available to bankers, traders, and customers when they communicate with one another.
Although things move on regularly, with new capabilities and channels becoming available, so both compliance officers and their suppliers need to be agile to keep pace, it is possible to capture all of the many available channels in a useful, and compliant way. Phil and Tom talk about how this works, and what some of the potential challenges are with enforcing it. Using proactive compliance, as you learned about in yesterday’s installment of the series, addresses many of the weaknesses and pitfalls that can be found.
Tom wonders if there are other tools and systems in play, apart from UC that need to remain a part of integrated compliance programs, and Phil explains that there is always going to be a period of overlap with legacy systems, and that nothing really exists in isolation. Embracing this diversity is the only practical, strategic and economic way of implementing a new system.
Make sure to join Phil and Tom for tomorrow’s episode of the Compliance in Podcast series, where they’ll be talking about what it means, and what is required to control this massive flow of information, and if you missed yesterday’s Overview episode, click here to listen now!.
Resources:
Philip Fry
Verint