Tag: Modern Slavery

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Regulatory Ramblings

Regulatory Ramblings: Episode 59 – Four Decades Fighting Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery – A Diplomat Reflects with Matt Friedman

As a former US and United Nations diplomat, Matthew Friedman has been a true warrior on the frontlines against modern slavery and sex trafficking for over four decades. He is an international human trafficking expert and the CEO of The Mekong Club, a non-governmental organization comprised of Hong Kong’s leading businesses that have joined forces to help end all forms of modern slavery.

The Mekong Club is very active in the ESG space and is well-versed in identifying red flags and appropriate metrics to gauge anti-human trafficking compliance.

Previously, he worked for the United States Agency for International Development and the UN in over 40 countries. Matt offers technical advice to numerous governments, banks, and corporations working to eliminate all forms of modern slavery and authorizes fifteen books. In 2017, he won Asia’s prestigious “Communicator of the Year” Gold Award.

His postings have taken him all over Asia, from Nepal to Bangladesh and Thailand. The Mekong Club works with private sector banks, manufacturers, retailers, and the hospitality sectors to do what they need to do in the fight against human trafficking and slavery.

The topic of modern slavery – more colloquially referred to as human trafficking – is a bleak one. In this episode of Regulatory Ramblings, Matt chats with host Ajay Shamdasani about what the global banking and financial institutions and multinational corporations can do about the matter.

The problem indirectly affects us all: estimates are that 50 million people in the world are currently in some form of slavery. Twenty-seven million of them are engaged in forced labor, of which 82% of this figure is associated with supply chains.

Though many survivors of human slavery put on a brave face and try to go about their lives as best they can, it is debatable whether or not they can truly ever be made whole.

The conversation begins with Matt sharing his background and what drew him to the cause of modern slavery. He also stresses that despite the Mekong Club being an NGO, it works with the private sector, perhaps more so than with other NGOs or state bodies. As he notes, there is a greater impetus to take action to effect change in the private sector than in the public sector.

Working with the private sector is an approach that has served Matt and the Club well because, as he puts it: “The private sector has a sense of urgency, unlike the public sector. If a company does an audit on human trafficking and there is a problem, within fifteen minutes, they will call a meeting of all the relevant stakeholders and work to remediate it. The private sector does more than traditional NGOs because they are closer to the action,” he said. He added that NGOs tended to intellectualize matters, often reducing them to purely academic or legal concerns.

Reflecting on his four decades in the field, Matt also recounts what has changed about human trafficking and what has remained the same. As he points out, the evolution of human trafficking is interesting, going from forced manual labor to compelling enslaved persons to undertake more elaborate crimes such as scam farms and ‘pig butchering’ schemes.
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The discussion concludes with Matt sharing his views on how the financial sector can protect themselves from becoming unwitting participants in human trafficking and the sex trade. There is an intersection between money laundering, financial crime, and human trafficking, he says, and it is something the UN Counter-Trafficking program was created to combat.

The Regulatory Ramblings podcasts are brought to you by the University of Hong Kong—Reg/Tech Lab, HKU-SCF Fintech Academy, Asia Global Institute, and HKU-edX Professional Certificate in Fintech, with support from the HKU Faculty of Law.

Useful links in this episode:

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Great Women in Compliance

Great Women in Compliance – Episode 248 – GWIC x Everything Compliance

Welcome to the Great Women in Compliance podcast with Hemma Lomax and Lisa Fine, sponsored by Corporate Compliance Insights. GWIC goes in a different direction today with a cross-post with Everything Compliance. Welcome to the only roundtable podcast in compliance as we celebrate our second century of shows. Kristy Grant-Hart hosted a Special Edition episode of Everything Compliance a few months ago with some of the Great Women in Compliance. The episode was so popular (and the host and guests had so much fun) that everyone involved decided to make it a quarterly event and cross-post it on GWIC. Kristy Grant-Hart hosts today’s episode of Everything Compliance (Q4-GWIC edition), which features Karen Moore, Lisa Fine, and Hemma Lomax on a guest panel.

  1. Host Kristy Grant-Hart takes a deep dive into meeting recording and note-taking services and why you need to disable these default settings. She shouts out to her hometown LA Dodgers for winning the World Series and rants about one of her favorite stores, Williams-Sonoma, playing holiday music before Halloween.
  2. Karen Moore examines Modern Slavery. She raved about United Airlines and its unending stream of communications.
  3. Lisa Fine takes a deep dive into the RTX settlements. In her Raves and Rants segment, she has a rant and a rave. First, after noting she cannot play Christmas music more than two weeks before Thanksgiving, she rants about vendors pushing compliance officers to use the budget in Q4 and raves about her hometown, the Buffalo Bills.
  4. Hemma Lomax explores the recent termination of multiple EY personnel for taking multiple pieces of training simultaneously. She rants about employees coming to compliance to write policies for AI development and the need to take a principles-based approach.

Join the Great Women in Compliance community on LinkedIn here.

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10 For 10

10 For 10: Top Compliance Stories For The Week Ending November 2, 2024

Welcome to 10 For 10, the podcast which brings you the week’s Top 10 compliance stories in one podcast each week. Tom Fox, the Voice of Compliance brings to you, the compliance professional, the compliance stories you need to be aware of to end your busy week. Sit back, and in 10 minutes hear about the stories every compliance professional should be aware of from the prior week.

Every Saturday, 10 For 10 highlights the most important news, insights, and analysis for the compliance professional, all curated by the Voice of Compliance, Tom Fox. Get your weekly filling of compliance stories with 10 for 10, a podcast produced by the Compliance Podcast Network.

  • Alibaba settles with shareholders for $433MM. (WSJ)
  • How a BBC podcast led to the arrest of Mike Jeffries. (BBC)
  • AstraZeneca China BU President under investigation. (FT)
  • Trafigura faces $1bn hit for corruption in Mongolia. (Bloomberg)
  • Sri Lanka to probe corruption in tanker disaster. (Al Jazeera)
  • UBS stuck in yet another Mozambique tuna bond investigation. (Bloomberg)
  • It turns out audit reports do matter. (WSJ)
  • JP Morgan set to settle several SEC enforcement actions. (Reuters)
  • Modern slavery stopped on the Scottish trawler. (BBC)
  • Olympus chief fired for purchasing illegal drugs. (FT)

 

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10 For 10

10 For 10: Top Compliance Stories For The Week Ending October 5, 2024

Welcome to 10 For 10, the podcast which brings you the week’s Top 10 compliance stories in one podcast each week. Tom Fox, the Voice of Compliance, brings to you, the compliance professional, the compliance stories you need to be aware of to end your busy week. Sit back, and in 10 minutes hear about the stories every compliance professional should be aware of from the prior week.

Every Saturday, 10 For 10 highlights the most important news, insights, and analysis for the compliance professional, all curated by the Voice of Compliance, Tom Fox. Get your weekly filling of compliance stories with 10 for 10, a podcast produced by the Compliance Podcast Network.

  • CEOs turning to pods. (FT)
  • Francis Haugen says we need more whistleblowers. (WSJ)
  • Britain to give banks a new tool to fight fraud. (Reuters)
  • Cheat at home, cheat at work? (Bloomberg)
  • SEC head of enforcement to step down. (WSJ)
  • The ghost of Odebrecht lives on. (WSJ)
  • Where do you find modern slavery? At a McDonald’s in the UK.    (BBC)
  • Hearing on Boeing/DOJ guilty plea set. (Reuters)
  • SEC fines 11 more firms for failures in messaging apps.  (SEC Press Release)
  • Adams’s Lawyers Ask Judge to Dismiss Federal Bribery Charge. (NYT)

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Daily Compliance News

Daily Compliance News: October 2, 2024 – The Where is Modern Slavery Edition

Welcome to the Daily Compliance News. Each day, Tom Fox, the Voice of Compliance, brings you compliance-related stories to start your day. Sit back, enjoy a cup of morning coffee, and listen to the Daily Compliance News. All from the Compliance Podcast Network.

Each day, we consider four stories from the business world: compliance, ethics, risk management, leadership, or general interest for the compliance professional.

In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

  • Where do you find modern slavery? At a McDonald’s in the UK. (BBC)
  • More on corruption in Kenya. (Reuters)
  • Creation of EU, AI Code of Practice. (Reuters)
  • Chevron purchase of Hess cleared but not Board seat. (NYT)

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FCPA Compliance Report

FCPA Compliance Report – Fighting Forced Labor with Supplier Due Diligence

Welcome to the award-winning FCPA Compliance Report, the longest-running podcast in compliance. In this episode, Tom welcomes Ragini Bhalla, head of content and PR for Creditsafe, focusing on the North American region, and Steve Carpenter, Country Manager for Creditsafe in Canada. Their discussion centers around a new Canadian law designed to combat human trafficking forced labor, and child labor within supply chains. Throughout the conversation, they shed light on the practices of various multinational corporations, emphasizing the need for cohesive anti-slavery reporting and measures across different jurisdictions. It becomes evident that addressing these critical issues requires collaboration and comprehensive efforts from all parties involved.

A key to compliance with ethical sourcing and compliance with this new Canadian law is through a company’s Supply Chain. Companies must ensure their supply chains are free from forced labor and child labor, and Credit Safe provides services to help. The Canadian Forced Labor Law and the UK’s Modern Slavery Act are steps toward making companies accountable for their actions, but governments must also work with countries like India, Bangladesh, and China to create real change. Non-compliance can lead to fines, customer trust loss, and potential stock dips, and due diligence checks and audits are necessary for companies to protect the integrity of their supply chains. Ethical sourcing is a complex issue requiring collaboration between governments, companies, and experts.

 

Creditsafe is in a unique position to assist companies comply with laws making illegal human trafficking, forced labor, and child labor. In this podcast, you will learn how to investigate your suppliers in a way that enhances your business operations. Once again, this demonstrates that effective compliance leads to more effective business processes, leading to greater profitability.

 Key Highlights

·      Fighting Forced Labor

·      ESG Supply Chain Auditing

·      Canadian Compliance Law

·      Reputational Risk of Non-Compliance

·      Ethical Sourcing

Resources

Ragini Bhalla on LinkedIn

Steve Carpenter on LinkedIn

Creditsafe

Tom Fox

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Principled Podcast

Principled Podcast – S9 E18 – What Compliance Leaders Need to Know About Modern Slavery

What you’ll learn on this podcast episode

Modern slavery is on the rise, and criminal organizations are becoming more sophisticated about it. According to the International Labor Organization, more than 28 million people experienced forced labor in 2021. That’s equivalent to the entire population of Australia. What can be done about it? How can ethics and compliance professionals make a difference? In this episode of LRN’s Principled Podcast, LRN Global Head of Segments, Matt Plass, talks with Jacob Sims from the International Justice Mission in Cambodia, who has been working actively to address modern slavery in Southeast Asia. Listen in as the two discuss how Jake’s work as county director combines investigators, lawyers, social workers, and programmatic and operational staff in the fight against violent labor exploitation.

Guest: Jacob Sims

Jacob Sims – Grayscale

Jacob Sims has worked on human rights and development challenges facing Southeast Asia for over a decade—spanning issues from governance in the Philippines to internal displacement in Northern Myanmar to labor rights in Cambodia. He currently serves as country director of the International Justice Mission (IJM) Cambodia where he leads a team of investigators, lawyers, social workers, and programmatic and operational staff in the fight against violent labor exploitation. Concurrently with his role at IJM, he serves as a non-resident fellow at Duke University’s Kenan Institute, a leading research center working to understand and address real-world ethical challenges facing individuals, organizations, and societies worldwide. Sims’ team at IJM mounted one of the earliest programmatic responses to the human trafficking epidemic emerging within scamming compounds in Cambodia and has helped facilitate the rescue of over 100 individuals to date. In recent months, analysis from Sims on the emerging global phenomenon has featured in The Economist, The Guardian, LA Times, Al Jazeera, VICE World News, Sydney Morning Herald, ProPublica, and Channel News Asia, amongst many others.

Host: Matt Plass

Matt Plass – Grayscale

Matt Plass is the global head of segments at LRN. He was formerly chief executive officer with Interactive Services, where he led the executive team responsible for bringing Interactive Services’ award-winning integrity, ethics, and compliance learning solution to market. Matt has an extensive background in e-learning, blended learning, classroom education, and learning design for adult audiences and has engaged with numerous Fortune 500 organizations in the design of learning solutions for global audiences. He provides advanced learning expertise to partners and is a regular speaker at learning and development conferences. Matt led Interactive Services through its acquisition by LRN in 2020. He lives in Devon, England.

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Hidden Traffic Podcast

Supply Chains and Risk Assessments with Mollie Sitkowski


 
Mollie Sitkowski is Trade Compliance Counsel at Faegre Drinker, where she handles import and export control and compliance work on behalf of the firm’s clients. She has assisted numerous clients in developing and implementing import and export compliance programs and offers continued training to the business areas that touch on import and export compliance. She returns in this episode to discuss key points about the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.
 

 
Customs has been advocating forced labor risk assessments since the consumptive demand loophole that allowed companies to import goods made by forced labor was taken out. However, aside from companies in very high-risk industries such as textiles, most companies weren’t conducting these risk assessments. Mollie advises listeners to start mapping out supply chains and identifying ones with the highest risk – you can’t assess your risk without knowing your supply chain. 
 
Every company should have a supplier code of conduct, Mollie adds. The best practice would be flowing down the requirements from your first-tier suppliers to their suppliers, because the manufacturers also need to be on board and held responsible.
 
Resources
Mollie Sitkowski on LinkedIn
 

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Compliance Week Conference Podcast

Matt Friedman on The Human Factor of ESG

In this episode of the Compliance Week 2022 Preview Podcasts series, Matt will discuss some of his presentation at Compliance Week 2022, “The Human Factor of ESG.” Some of the issues he will discuss in this podcast, and his presentation are:

  •  The state of modern slavery and examining the impact on the global supply chain.
  • Working to disrupt the human slavery trade.
  • The ways that compliance professionals can remain vigilant within the human rights sector.

I hope you can join me at Compliance Week 2022. This year’s event will be May 16-18 at the JW Marriott in Washington DC. The line-up of this year’s event is simply first-rate, with some of the top ethics and compliance practitioners around.

Gain insights and make connections at the industry’s premier cross-industry national compliance event offering knowledge-packed, accredited sessions and take-home advice from the most influential leaders in the compliance community. Back for its 17th year, compliance, ethics, legal, and audit professionals will gather face-to-face to benchmark best practices and gain the latest tactics and strategies to enhance compliance programs and many others to:

  • Network with your peers, including C-suite executives, legal professionals, HR leaders, and ethics and compliance visionaries.
  • Hear from 75+ respected cross-industry practitioners who are CEOs, CCOs, regulators, federal officials, and practitioners to help inform and shape the strategic direction of your enterprise risk management program.
  • Hear directly from the two SEC Commissioners, gain insights into the agency’s enforcement areas, and walk away with guidance on remaining compliant within emerging areas such as ESG disclosure, third-party risk management, cybersecurity, cryptocurrency, and more.
  • Bring actionable takeaways back to your program from various session types, including ESG, Human Trafficking, Board obligations, and many others, to listen to, learn and share.
  • Compliance Week aims to arm you with information, strategy, and tactics to transform your organization and your career by connecting ethics to business performance through process augmentation and data visualization.

I hope you can join me at the event. For information on the event, click here. As an extra benefit to listeners of this podcast, Compliance Week is offering a $200 discount on the registration price, and enter discount code TFLAW $200 OFF.

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The ESG Compliance Podcast

ESG Supply Chain Compliance with Travis Miller and Jared Connors


Assent Compliance’s Travis Miller and Jared Connors join us as they discuss their work in conflict minerals supply chains, how ESG compliance plays a role, what companies should do to interpret data and increase efficiency and recovery, and the future of risk management.
▶️ ESG Supply Chain Compliance with Travis Miller and Jared Connors:
Key points discussed in the episode:
✔️ Companies are starting to realize the significance of making a commitment to ESG through responsible sourcing.
✔️ Outsourcing usually occurs in the most regulated, most dangerous, and least profitable businesses.
✔️ Business continuity planning is crucial in risk management, more flexible disaster response, and efficient operations. Aside from environmental and social, risk is also a financial concern.
✔️ The most important letter of ESG is P – product, people, and policies. Middle-aged workers are the most vulnerable and highly targeted in inhumane business practices and violations.
✔️ Dig deeper into organizations and understand their commitments to mitigate and prepare for risk.
✔️ Non-financial risks are pressuring investor disclosures.
✔️ ESG is reorienting the global market and the world. Large-scale environmental and social scandals ruin reputation and business.
✔️ Educating the supply chain contributes to overall company efficiency and risk management.
✔️ Compliance toolkits should be utilized even outside the company. The legal space has become the ideal practice ground for compliance.
✔️ Companies should be proactive in detecting supply chain issues internally.
✔️ Translate technical speak to an executive language to gain interest from the C-level suite.
✔️ Assess supply chain maturity.
✔️Companies are now compelled to make a change due to their global influence. Consumers’ cries for environmental and social accountability are now heard – all thanks to social media.
Jared Connors is a senior subject matter expert on Corporate Social Responsibility at Assent Compliance, the worlds’ leader in supply chain data management.
His expertise involves achieving ESG goals by understanding and mitigating potential supply chain risk, the transition from CSR to ESG, how companies can take a holistic approach to ESG, and ESG-related regulations, such as those pertaining to human trafficking and slavery, conflict minerals, and anti-bribery, anti-corruption.
Travis Miller is General Counsel at Assent Compliance. He manages Assent’s worldwide legal activities, advises the Board of Directors on legal matters, and oversees corporate compliance, governance initiatives, and other commercial transactions. Before coming to Assent, he served in various high-level counsel positions with companies such as Microchip Technology, Foresite Group, and St. Jude Medical.
Resources
Assent Compliance on Twitter
Assent Compliance on LinkedIn
Jared on Linkedin
Travis Miller on Linkedin
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Do you have a podcast (or do you want to)? Join the only network dedicated to compliance, risk management, and business ethics, the Compliance Podcast Network. For more information, contact Tom Fox at tfox@tfoxlaw.com.