Tag: DOJ

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Compliance and Coronavirus

Don Stern on US Enforcement Agencies During the Time of Covid-19


Welcome to the newest addition to the Compliance Podcast Network, Compliance and Coronavirus. In this episode, I visit with Don Stern who is Managing Director of Corporate Monitoring & Consulting Services. In this role, Stern oversees the company’s corporate monitoring programs across a spectrum of industries: corporate, healthcare, financial services, environmental and others. Stern is the former United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. We discuss how the enforcement agencies such as the Department of Justice, Securities and Exchange Commission and US Attorneys are responding to the pandemic and in particular any crimes, fraud and financial abuses arising out of the crisis.
Some of the highlights include:

  • What are some of the key government initiatives during Covid-19?
  • What will be the cadence of enforcement during the summer of 2020 and through the rest of the year?
  • Has self-reporting become even more important during Covid-19?

For me information check out the Affiliated Monitors website here.

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This Week in FCPA

Episode 209 – the George Floyd is Buried edition


As Trump goes back into hiding in his bunker, the rest of the country continues to reopen. Self-Tom and Jay are back to consider some of the top compliance articles and stories over the past week.

  1. Final thoughts on the DOJ 2020 Update to the Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs. Tom summarizes the highlights on the FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog. Mike Volkov gives his five top takeaways.
  2. Want to see examples of ham-fisted leadership. Matt Kelly on Radical Compliance. Tom and Matt take a deep dive in Compliance into the Weeds.
  3. Why does WFH raise compliance risks? Vera Cherapanova on the FCPA Blog.
  4. How did Jho Low use Kuwait to continue his fraud? Reporting in the WSJ.
  5. Common features of corruption and police brutality. Matthew Stephenson opines in GAB.
  6. How can you sharpen your cyber security? Jim DeLoach in CCI.
  7. How can you build a listen up culture? Bob Conlin on Navex Global’s Ethics and Compliance Matters
  8. Managing risk in compliance staffing. Kathryn Reimann on NYU’s Compliance and Enforcement Blog.
  9. Brian Benczkowski bails the DOJ. Dylan Tokar on the WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal.
  10. 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 2, he details why the corp compliance function can be seen as a Black Box. The Compliance Life is now available on iTunes.
  11. On Compliance and Coronavirus this week, I feature three podcasts from the folks at K2 Intelligence FIN: Gabe Hidalgo on lessons for financial institutions during the time of Covid-19; Sepideh Rowland on PPP and changing risks for financial institutions; Ray Dookhie joins me to discuss evolving fraud risk during the time of Covid-19. Compliance and Coronavirus is available on iTunes here.
  12. 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-internal reporting and whistleblowers during layoffs; Tuesday-triage of allegations; Wednesday-the investigation protocol; Thursday– preparing for an investigation; Friday– selection of investigative counsel. Note 31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program now has its own iTunes channel.
  13. Join Tom and Jonathan Marks for a webinar on the 2020 Update to the Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs. Thursday, June 18 at noon CT. Registration and information available here.
  14. Join Jay’s AMI colleagues Dionne Lomax and Jesse Caplan for a webinar entitled, “The DOJ’s New Guidance for Antitrust Compliance Programs + Special Considerations During the COVID Pandemic”. This webinar will discuss the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division’s recently announced initiative to encourage corporations to develop and implement effective antitrust compliance programs. Our panel will discuss 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. The event will be held next Tuesday, June 16th, at 12P EST/9A PST. Registration and information can be found 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.

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Everything Compliance

Everything Compliance-Episode 60


Welcome to the only roundtable podcast in compliance. Today, we have a serving of Jonathan Armstrong, Jay Rosen, Matt Kelly, and our newest panelist Jonathan Marks with a veritable potpourri of topics and issues. Rants and shouts outs (with commentary) conclude this episode.

  1. Jonathan Armstrong celebrates the anniversary of GDPR by looking back over the past year at some of the key decisions and enforcement actions.
  2. Jay Rosen takes a look at a rare release of a monitor’s report, in the Wynn Casino monitorship and data mines it for the compliance professional.
  1. Matt Kelly considers the difference in response by Facebook v. Twitter in the incendiary and racist tweets by Donald Trump.
  1. Jonathan Marks looks at the DOJ’s 2020 Update to the 2019 Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs.
  1. Tom Fox talks about how fighting racism and white supremacy is the responsibility of everyone. It is based on piece by Ben DiPietro 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
  • 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 Compliance Evangelist. Everything Compliance is a part of the Compliance Podcast Network. He can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com

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This Week in FCPA

Episode 208 – the Trump Administration Attacks Americans edition


As peaceful protesters are attacked by the Army on the order of the Trump Administration, Tom and Jay ask “now that Trump has his wall around the White House, will Mexico pay for it?” Self-distancing Tom and Jay are back to consider some of the top compliance articles and stories on the new 2020 Update to the 2019 DOJ Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs.

  1. Tom Fox goes through a multipart deep dive. Part 1-Overall Themes, Part 2-Data and Continuous Improvement, Part 3-Third parties and M&A, Part 4-CCO and the Complaince Function, Part 5-Conclusion.
  2. Matt Kelly explores on Radical Compliance.
  3. Matt Kelly goes Pizza Pizza with another article in Navex Global’s Ethics and Compalince Matters.
  4. Dylan Tokar reports in WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal.
  5. Mike Volkov has a 3-part exploration on Corruption Crime and Compliance. Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
  6. Dick Cassin explores organizational justice in the FCPA Blog.
  7. Jonathan Marks looks at it from the forensic perspective in Board and Fraud.
  8. 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 1, he details his journey into compliance and the winding road which took him to the CCO Chair. The Compliance Life is now available on iTunes.
  9. On Compliance and Coronavirus this week: David Wolf on using podcasting and audio white papers as communication tools during the time of Covid-19; James Green on operationalizing risk management during this health crisis; Eden Gillott joins me to discuss crisis communication during the time of Covid-19. Compliance and Coronavirus is available on iTunes here.
  10. 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-intro to internal reporting and investigations; Tuesday-Advantages of an internal reporting system; Wednesday-Internal reporting case study; Thursday– Internal Reporting Best Practices; Friday- Answering DOJ questions on internal reporting. Note 31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program now has its own iTunes channel.

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.

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Daily Compliance News

June 2, 2020-the New DOJ Compliance Guidance edition


In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

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31 Days to More Effective Compliance Programs

One Month to More Effective Compliance for Business Ventures – Post Acquisition Integration

Your company has just made its largest acquisition ever and your CEO says that he wants you to have a compliance post-acquisition integration plan on his desk in one week. Where do you begin? Of course, you think about the 2020 FCPA Resource Guide, 2nd edition but you also remember that the established time frames in the enforcement actions involving Johnson & Johnson (J&J), Pfizer Inc. and DS&S and the Halliburton Opinion Release.

While there are time frames listed in these DPAs, they are a guide of timeframes, not a ‘how to’ guide and many compliance professionals struggle with how to perform these post-acquisition compliance integrations. The 2020 Update to the Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs asked the following questions, What has been the company’s process for tracking and remediating misconduct or misconduct risks identified during the due diligence process? What has been the company’s process for implementing compliance policies and procedures, and conducting post- acquisition audits, at newly acquired entities?
Whatever compendium of steps you utilize for post-acquisition integration, they should be taken as soon as practicable.
Three key takeaways: 

  1. Planning is critical in the post-acquisition phase.
  2. Build upon what you learned in pre-acquisition due diligence.
  3. You need to be ready to hit the ground running when a transaction closes.
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Daily Compliance News

February 12, 2020, the Trump Orders DOJ edition


In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

  • Trump orders DOJ reduce sentence recommendation on Roger Stone. (WSJ)
  • FTC expands investigation into Big Tech. (WSJ)
  • FED watching coronavirus risk, Trump says there is no risk. (WSJ)
  • New Wells Fargo CEO makes structural changes to prevent more fraud. (WSJ)
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Compliance Into the Weeds

Procurement Collusion Strike Force

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. In this episode, Matt Kelly and I go into the weeds about the recent DOJ announcement of the Procurement Collusion Strike Force (PCSF).  Some of the highlights include.
Some of the highlights include:

  • Why was the PCSF created?
  • What will it focus on?
  • Why does the funding (or lack thereof) matter?
  • What do the twin DOJ announcements of the PCFS portend?
  • Why are analytics more critical for compliance going forward?
  • What are procurement red flags?
  • What does all this mean for compliance professionals going forward?

Resources
Matt’s blog post, Brace for Procurement Compliance, on Radical Compliance.
DOJ Press Release on PCSF
PCSF website

Categories
FCPA Compliance Report

Episode 452, the Hoskins Jury Verdict

In this episode I visit with Mike Volkov about the Hoskins verdict, which was announced on Friday, November 8. In it Lawrence Hoskins was found guilty on six counts of violating the FCPA, three counts of money laundering, and two counts of conspiracy. Hoskins was acquitted on one money laundering count. We explore this case from the trial perspective. Some of the highlights include:

  • What was the significance of the verdict?
  • What evidence did the prosecutors have to put forward to prove agency?
  • How do prosecutors think through jury presentations?
  • Did the fact that Hoskins basic defense was that he was in charge of a criminal conspiracy and not an agent play poorly in front of the jury ?
  • What might all this mean for FCPA prosecutions going forward? How about internal investigations?
  • What does this case say about being the first to cooperate?
  • What signal does this case say about DOJ prosecution of individuals under the FCPA?
Categories
FCPA Compliance Report

DOJ 2019 Guidance: Part V – Final Thoughts

Over the course of this podcast series, sponsored by Affiliated Monitors, Inc. (AMI), I have visited with Eric Feldman, Senior Vice President of AMI. We have considered the Department of Justice (DOJ) Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs, (the “2019 Guidance”), which was released in April 2019. We are exploring what the 2019 Guidance changes are from the Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Program (2017 Guidance), released in February 2017, the structure and emphasis of the 2019 Guidance and what it means for the compliance practitioner going forward. In this concluding Episode, we bring together our final thoughts through a consider of the question “What does it all mean for your compliance practice? For more information on how an independent monitor can help improve your company’s ethics and compliance program, visit our sponsor at www.affiliatedmonitors.com.