With Jay on a holiday assignment, Tom is joined by Mike Volkov to look at some of the week’s top compliance and ethics stories this week in the Tribute to Madden and Harry edition.
Stories
1. We lost two greats this week, one in sports and gaming and one from politics. John Madden and Harry Reid. Tom and Mike reflect.
2. No poaching in the Defense Industry. Jay DeVecchio and Lisa Phelan in a MoFo Client Alert.
3. What is a ‘Bump Up’ provision in an E&O policy. Barry Buchman and Michael Scanlon in D&O Diary.
4. Reflections on 2021 in Compliance. Lisa Schor Babin in CCI.
5. Should lawyers file SARs? Jason Morris in Compliance Week (sub req’d).
6. Fraud in the taxi business? (This is my shocked face.) Matt Kelly in Radical Compliance.
7. Making ESG 2nd nature in asset allocation. Sara Rosner and Jess Gaspar in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance.
8. An app for ESG investment. Lawrence Heim in PracticalESG.
9. Thoughts for the Board from 2021. Marty Lipton in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance.
10. Tom and Mike look back at 2021 in compliance. Tom in FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog.
Podcasts
11. Want some fun? Join Tom and One Stone Creative co-founder Megan Dougherty for an exploration of the full MCU. In their most recent posting, check out Episode 3, Iron Man.
12. In December on The Compliance Life, I visit with Matt Silverman, Director of Trade Compliance at VIAVI. Matt is the first Trade Compliance Director I have hosted on TCL. In Part 1, Matt details his academic career and early professional life. In Part 2, Matt moves into trade compliance. In Part 3, Matt moves into the Director’s chair. In Episode 4, Matt looks down the road for trade compliance.
13. The Compliance Podcast Network welcomes Professor Karen Woody and her new podcast, Classroom Insider. In this most unique pod, Karen interviews some of her student to tell the history of insider trading. Check out Episode 1 where they discuss the history of insider trading. In Episode 2, the disclosure or abstain rule. On Episode 3, they will take up narrowing the scope of the disclose or abstain rule.
14. On EMBARGOED!, Brian and Tim run through a Lightning Round-style discussion of the top economic sanctions and export controls stories of 2021.
15. Looking to enhance your compliance program? Check out 31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program returns, which runs for the month of January, from January 1 to January 31. Available on the Compliance Podcast Network, Megaphone, iTunes, and all other top podcast platforms.
Tom Fox is the Voice of Compliance and can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com. Mike Volkov is the founder of the Volkov Law Group and can be reached at mvolkov@volkovlaw.com.
Tag: ESG
Categories
Year End Review, Part 2
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. On Tuesday, Matt and Tom began a special two-part year-end review of six topics which they saw as significant in 2021 and believe will be so into 2022 as well. They looked at SPACs, the Robinhood/GameStop phenomena and the new hybrid working environment and what is means for the compliance professional. Today in Part 2 we consider the Biden Administration’s Strategy on Countering Corruption, in conjunction with DAG Lisa Monaco’s speech on the refocus of the Department of Justice on FCPA enforcement and other white collar prosecutions, the continuing evolution of ransomware attacks and ESG in 2021 and beyond.
Resources
Matt in Radical Compliance
Tom in the FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog
In this episode of the FCPA Compliance Report, I visit with John Katsos, Assistant Professor and Scholar at American University of Sharjah. John has researched and performed due diligence in conflict zones in the Middle East and Africa. He was part of a research team that published a series in the Big Idea section of the Harvard Business Review entitled Preparing for the Era of Uncertainty, which is a must read for every compliance professional. He brings a unique perspective to a variety of compliance topics. Highlights of this podcast include:
- Academic and professional background.
- Why due diligence in conflict zones so difficult?
- What are some of the important differences in performing DD in conflict zones?
- What are some keys to successfully performing DD in conflict zones?
- Key lessons you observed on DD in Cyprus?
- Where did you come up with the idea for this series of articles, Preparing for the Era of Uncertainty?
- A discussion of each article in the series.?
- What is it like teaching anti-corruption and other forms of compliance outside the US?
- How do you see your work tying into a broader ESG discussion?
- How does climate change and migration across borders influence your thinking?
Resources
Preparing for the Era of Uncertainty-Harvard Business Review
John Katsos website, including some great research and papers
John Katsos LinkedIn profile
With Jay on a holiday assignment, Tom is joined by Professor Karen Woody to look at some of the week’s top compliance and ethics stories this week in the Naughty List edition.
Stories
- JPMorgan tagged $200MM for failures in electronic record keeping. Tom in the FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog. Matt Kelly in Radical Compliance. Tom and Matt in Compliance into the Weeds.
- Nikola was fined $125MM for the former CEO’s imprudent tweets. Tom in the FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog. Matt Kelly in Radical Compliance. Jaclyn Jaeger in Compliance Week. (sub req’d).
- SOX 20 years later. Michael Peregrine looks back at the upcoming 20th anniversary of Sarbanes-Oxley in the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance.
- France is updating its ABC regime. Frederick Davis in GAB.
- Another Unaoil defendant appeals conviction based upon SFO misconduct. Dylan Tokar in WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal.
- What happened to FCPA Compliance in 2021? Dick Cassin explores in the FCPA Blog.
- The story of internal controls and Netflix? Jonathan Marks in BakerTilly.
- Vietnam imposes a 14-year sentence for wildlife trafficking. Jon Rusch in Dipping Through Geometries.
- Lawyers and ESG. Lawrence Heim in PracticalESG.
- Prioritizing your policy updates. David Banks in Risk and Compliance Matters.
Podcasts and Events
- Want some fun over the holidays? Join Tom and One Stone Creative co-founder Megan Dougherty to explore the full MCU. In Episode 1, Captain America. In Episode 2, Captain Marvel. Next week in Episode 3, Iron Man.
- In December on The Compliance Life, I visited with Matt Silverman, Director of Trade Compliance at VIAVI. Matt is the first Trade Compliance Director I have hosted on TCL. In Part 1, Matt details his academic career and early professional life. In Part 2, Matt moves into trade compliance. In Part 3, Matt moves into the Director’s chair.
- The Compliance Podcast Network welcomes Professor Karen Woody and her new podcast, Classroom Insider. In this unique pod, Karen interviews some of her students to tell them the history of insider trading. Check out Episode 1 on Episode 2, the disclosure or abstain rule. In Episode 3 (premiering Dec. 31), they will take up narrowing the scope of the disclose or abstain rule.
- The Shout Outs and Rants of Everything Compliance gets its own iTunes show. Everything Compliance has its first-year end review episode.
- On Hidden Traffic, Gwen Hassan hosts Andrew Wallis, head of Unseen UK.
Tom Fox is the Voice of Compliance and can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com. Karen Woody is a Professor of Law at Washington and Lee. She can be reached at kwoody@wlu.edu.
Cécilia Fellouse-Guenkel is a well-known compliance practitioner in France. She and Tom Fox have worked together in live as well as virtual conferences. She moved into the compliance industry when she joined a medical device company in the US. Since then, she says, compliance has been her passion. She eventually opened her own compliance consulting business, called Compliance For Good. The name of her company signifies that compliance is not only for the greater good, but for the long term. She and Tom talk about the evolution of ESG and how it has a positive impact on companies as well as the wider community.
Evolution of ESG
Tom asks, “How have you seen ESG evolve in Europe and the EU over the past few years?” Cécilia responds that ESG is a broad notion, many aspects of which have existed for quite some time. “I guess what’s changed now with ESG is on the one hand, how the investment and the financial world have been behaving recently,” she remarks. ESG-oriented investments have increased to the tune of US$30 trillion in recent times. Financial institutions are now willing to put a price tag on companies’ ESG efforts based on KPIs, which is an area compliance professionals are experts in. She discusses the strict ESG regulations in France and the EU – particularly the Duty of Care Act and the SFDR mandates respectively – which she says are catapulting ESG into the limelight as a critical issue for companies and compliance professionals. She and Tom talk about the impact on companies’ supply chain and the disquiet some stakeholders feel about these new regulations because of the presumption of responsibility now placed on businesses.
A Holistic Conversation
What advice are you giving your clients about ESG, Tom asks Cécilia. Companies come to her with questions about the Duty of Care law and other ESG regulations. “What I love the most is to make it a more holistic conversation, a global conversation,” she tells Tom. She shows her clients how they can achieve both an impact analysis and Duty of Care plan at the same time. “What I like about ESG is that it’s a shift for compliance people going from mostly looking at the risks … ESG is also looking at the positive aspects. So it’s really risk, opportunity and positive impact,” Cécilia comments. The conversation immediately becomes more strategic, efficient and helpful when you take this perspective, she adds. Boards also are more willing to listen. She emphasizes that this type of holistic approach is not new to compliance officers: another reason they are in a good position to lead the conversation around ESG.
Value of Compliance in ESG
A recent report by McKinsey explains the impact ESG has on a company’s profitability, including lower risk of sanctions, higher employee retention, and attracting potential talent. Cécilia says that compliance professionals should make sure they’re part of the conversation. She shares practical advice from two books. Tom comments that some compliance professionals don’t feel as comfortable with the E of ESG, as they believe they lack technical skills in that area. He asks Cécilia to share her thoughts on the subject. Even though the environmental aspect is a technical area, she remarks, compliance officers can still offer their expertise, such as in monitoring and standardizing KPIs. Another key area where compliance has valuable expertise is in third-party risk management.
ESG Into the Future
Cécilia wants compliance professionals to jump on the ESG train in the future. “It’s where we belong,” she tells Tom, “in the strategic sphere and the strategic role of ethics and compliance.” She likes Allison Taylor’s idea of the CCO as the Chief Integrity Officer. She is also hoping for more standard KPIs to move the industry forward.
Resources
Cécilia Fellouse-Guenkel on LinkedIn
Tom takes a solo turn to look at some of the week’s top compliance and ethics stories this week in the Bags of Cash edition.
Stories
1. Why subcontractors continue to cause FCPA grief. Dick Cassin the FCPA Blog.
2. More on the Strategy on Countering Corruption. Tom takes a deep dive in a 5-part blog post series in the FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog. Mike Volkov in Corruption Crime and Compliance.
3. Neil Hodge says non-US companies should beware in Compliance Week. (sub req’d).
4. What next Brazilian President must do re: ABC. Marcelo Cerqueira in GAB.
5. Yet another son of ex-Panamanian President pleads guilty. Rick Vanderford in WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal.
6. NatWest took bags of cash for deposits. $341MM in fines later. Dylan Tokar in WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal.
7. How CCOs use guidance from DOJ? Matt Kelly in Radical Compliance.
8. Should you fall on your sword? Calvin London in CCI.
9. Sustainability not universal. Lawrence Heim in PracticalESG.
10. McDonalds claws back CEO severance. Heather Haddon in WSJ.
Podcasts and Events
11. Are you exasperated? Then check, F*ing Argentina. In this podcast series co-hosts Tom Fox and Gregg Greenberg, author of F*ing Argentina explore the current American psyche of being overworked, over leveraged, overtired and overwhelmed. Find out about modern America’s exasperation with well…exasperation. In our final episode, we wrap up what we learned from the series.
12. In November on The Compliance Life, I visit with Matt Silverman, Director of Trade Compliance at VIAVI. Matt is the first Trade Compliance Director I have hosted on TCL. In Part 1, Matt details his academic career and early professional life. In Part 2, Matt moves into trade compliance.
13. The Compliance Podcast Network welcomes Professor Karen Woody and her new podcast, Classroom Insider. In this most unique pod, Karen interviews some of her student to tell the history of insider trading. Check out Episode 2, the disclosure or abstain rule.
14. The Shout Outs and Rants of Everything Compliance gets its own iTunes show. Everything Compliance has its first-year end review episode.
15. On Hidden Traffic, Gwen Hassan hosts Andrew Wallis, head of Unseen UK.
Tom Fox is the Voice of Compliance and can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com. Jay Rosen is Mr. Monitor and can be reached at jrosen@affiliatedmonitors.com.
Welcome to the only roundtable podcast in compliance. The entire gang was also thrilled to be honored by W3 as a top talk show in podcasting. In this episode, we have the sextet of Karen Woody, Jonathan Armstrong, Matt Kelly, Jonathan Marks, and Jay Rosen, with host Tom Fox also weighing in on this episode. We also discuss our favorite story of 2021. We end with a veritable mélange of shouts outs and rants.
1. Karen Woody reviews the increase in SEC enforcement that the regulators have told us throughout the year that is coming. Karen shouts out to starting early Emmy buzz for Ted Lasso.
2. Jay Rosen reviews the Activision imbroglio from the missteps of the CCO to the disseminations of the CEO. Rosen shouts out to civility.
3. Matt Kelly reviews the latest iteration of ransomware attacks and contrasts it with data privacy breaches from the past. Kelly shouts out to the NJ sandwich shop Hometown International, which with $35K in annual sales resulting in a $100MM market cap evaluation.
4. Jonathan Armstrong goes back to consider the long running soap opera, sage and story that is Carlos Ghosn and Nissan. Armstrong shouts out to who show true leadership in a crisis and the Spirit of Christmas.
5. Jonathan Marks reviews the increase Caremark duties for Boards of Directors coming out of the Delaware courts. Marks expands on his rant about Hall of Fame horse trainer Bob Blaffert.
6. Tom Fox reviews the year in ESG and why compliance is the most well-suited corporate function to lead a corporate ESG effort. shouts out to John Lee Dumas, who as a college senior on 9/11, knew that night he was going to war, and to all the men and women who served in combat in America’s 20-year war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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
• Karen Woody – One of the top academic experts on the SEC. Woody can be reached at kwoody@wlu.edu
• 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 jonathan.armstrong@corderycompliance.com
• Jonathan Marks is Partner, Firm Practice Leader – Global Forensic, Compliance & Integrity Services at Baker Tilly. Marks can be reached at jonathan.marks@bakertilly.com
The host and producer, ranter (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.
Aaron Nicodemus has been a reporter for over 30 years in the US and South Africa, having written for various notable publications including Bloomberg. He has been a writer/reporter at Compliance Week for the last 18 months. He is Tom Fox’s guest this week on the ESG Report. They discuss his recent article about the intersection of ESG and compliance, entitled “Compliance Must Carve Out Role in Company ESG Efforts.”
Inside the Mind of the CCO Survey
“Every year for the past three years Compliance Week has conducted an Inside the Mind of the CCO survey,” Aaron tells Tom. This year the focus was on ESG since it has been a hot topic, and they wanted to gauge what ESG initiatives looked like across industries and organizations. “Almost all of the compliance officers who took the survey felt that compliance should be involved in ESG initiatives at their company,” Aaron reveals. CCOs believe that compliance is best positioned to lead ESG since it intersects with so many of their core functions. “Putting [compliance] in charge of the ESG initiatives would help make sure that [the company] meets all the regulations that they should, and also that they are reporting on data that is both accurate and informative,” he comments. Now that the SEC is poised to issue new mandates regarding climate change disclosures, compliance will most likely have to be front and center for ESG going forward. “When regulators get involved that tends to push compliance to the fore,” Aaron remarks.
Key Findings
Tom and Aaron discuss some key findings outlined in the article. These include:
- The actual role of CCOs in ESG – 73% of CCOs have an active role in ESG, either as advisor, primary overseer, or advocate.
- Where they see their role – 23% of CCOs feel they should have more oversight over ESG than they currently have. Most persons surveyed feel that compliance should have a prominent role in ESG.
- Whether compliance should lead all 3 aspects of ESG – Most CCOs see governance as their core function, while environmental and social concerns are secondary roles.
- Compliance is the conscience of the company.
- Stakeholders are demanding more information on ESG to influence their investment decisions.
Growth of ESG
Tom sees ESG as the fastest moving corporate initiative. He asks Aaron if the survey confirms this view. “It’s been a gradual process that has come to a head in Europe and in the UK,” Aaron responds. Similar climate change disclosure mandates are likely to happen in the US in 2022. Companies have been pursuing sustainability and D&I initiatives for several years. “ESG collects up some of those things in a tight little bundle, and you can really pursue a lot of issues under the ESG umbrella,” he continues. He sees ESG accelerating over the next few years, starting with climate change.
Resources
Aaron Nicodemus on LinkedIn | Twitter | Email
Compliance Week: Compliance Must Carve Out Role in Company ESG Efforts
Hannukah came early this year and we are now in the full holiday swing of things. Tom and Jay are back to look at some of the week’s top compliance and ethics stories this week in the Happy Holidays edition.
Stories
1. New Biden Administration anti-corruption strategy revealed. Matt Kelly in Radical Compliance.
2. Mike Volkov asks where are the FCPA enforcement actions? In Corruption Crime and Compliance.
3. Global ESG efforts and compliance. Mike Munro in explores in the FCPA Blog.
4. More on the OECD recommendations. Jessica Tillipman in the FCPA Blog.
5. DOL proposal may change ESG game. Melissa Khan in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance.
6. Nurturing ethical culture. Matt Kelly in Risk and Compliance Matters.
7. Is Italy a safe haven for bribe payors? Rick Messick asks in GAB.
8. How to avoid a dystopian office culture. Rob Shavell in CCI.
9. Top ethics and compliance failures in 2021. Jaclyn Jaeger in Compliance Week (sub req’d).
10. When is a potential fine a threat? Keith Paul Bishop in California Corporate and Securities Law.
Podcasts and Events
11. The recent announcement by DAG Monaco on the refocus of the DOJ’s use of monitors has caused much consternation. To analyze, Affiliated Monitors sponsored a 5-part podcast series this week Not Your Father’s Monitor. In this Episode 1, Bethany Hengsbach considers this change in monitorships from the white-collar enforcement and defense perspective. In Episode 2, Mikhail Reider Gordon looks at global aspects of the new DOJ monitor’s focus. In Episode 3, Cristina Revelo discusses how E&C assessments help drive more compliant companies. In Episode 4, Jesse Caplan brings his views on the intersection of the twin topics of antitrust and healthcare compliance. In Episode 5, Vin DiCianni looks at where monitors and monitorships are going in 2022 and beyond.
12. Are you exasperated? Then check, F*ing Argentina. In this podcast series co-hosts Tom Fox and Gregg Greenberg, author of F*ing Argentina explore the current American psyche of being overworked, over leveraged, overtired and overwhelmed. Find out about modern America’s exasperation with well…exasperation. In our final episode, we wrap up what we learned from the series.
13. In November on The Compliance Life, I visit with Matt Silverman, Director of Trade Compliance at VIAVI. Matt is the first Trade Compliance Director I have hosted on TCL. In Part 1, Matt details his academic career and early professional life.
14. The Compliance Podcast Network welcomes Professor Karen Woody and her new podcast, Once Upon a Trading Law: The History of Insider Trading. In this most unique pod, Karen interviews some of her student to tell the history of insider trading. Check out Episode 1, which looks at the beginnings of insider trading.
15. Join Tom, Mike Volkov, Carrie Penman, Dr. Pat Harned and Skip Lowney (an all-star panel if there ever was one) for the ECI webinar on the intersection of compliance and E&C programs. Wednesday, December 15, from 2-3:30 ET. Registration and information here.
Tom Fox is the Voice of Compliance and can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com. Jay Rosen is Mr. Monitor and can be reached at jrosen@affiliatedmonitors.com.
