In this podcast, I am joined by Mikhail Reider-Gordon, Managing Director of Global Affairs at Affiliated Monitors. In this episode, we consider the cultural differences between international and US domestic monitorships.
Gordon noted that when structuring a monitorship of an entity or an individual, it can be an unknown. Some of the issues include how to approach and interact with all the stakeholders and how that is organized, as monitorships are heavily impacted by cultural considerations. Gordon stated, “I’ve lived in, worked in numerous countries and I can tell you that those legal processes, there are absolutely important cultural differences that have to be built in. For instance, I’ll take an example here in the US there really is not the same expectation that a corporation will take care of its employees beyond what is required under labor and employment law and safety laws. Yet in many other countries, employers may develop deep personal relationships with employees, really on a level that you and I might associate with familial relationships.” Obviously, this has impacts for monitorships with an international component.
Additionally, there may be separate monitorships from different sets of prosecutors. For instance, the Odebrecht corruption case mandated a US and Brazilian monitor. Gordon said that in such a situation, “as a monitor, we are appointed to help the organization remediate and approve. We need that buy-in, all the stakeholders.” Equally importantly, when a US based monitor is in other countries, considerations of cultural sensitivities, norms, values, are part and parcel of the design of the monitoring program. There can be “cultural values such as maintaining harmony within the organization, change how we approach interviews, dialogue with employees and managers, building consensus and so on. This can extend to seemingly basic monitoring elements such as asking and receiving questions. It can also be around how poor decisions can even be challenged within the company as in many cultures, they do not embrace challenging management even when employees know that what the managers are doing are violating the law.” All of these factors must be taken into consideration.
For more information on AMI, check out their website. For more information on Mikhail Reider-Gordon, check out her LinkedIn profile.
Tag: monitorships
Welcome to the only roundtable podcast in compliance. Today, we have the full quintet of Jonathan Armstrong, Jay Rosen, Jonathan Marks, Matt Kelly and Mike Volkov for a deep dive into plethora of topics in this special holiday edition. We end with a veritable mélange of rants and shouts outs.
- Jonathan Armstrong data privacy issues related return to work in the new year after most employee spent 2020 working from home. Armstrong shouts out the scientist who spearheaded the research which has led to the Covid vaccines.
- Jay Rosen looks at what a company needs to do to get through a monitorship. Jay rants about the San Francisco 49ers leaving California to play in one of the country’s biggest Covid-19 hot spots, Arizona.
- Matt Kelly considers the changes in enforcement, policy and focus in the SEC and other regulatory agencies under the Biden Administration. Matt shouts out to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger who has withstood criminal actions by the Trump Administration to secure a fair vote from Georgia.
- Mike Volkov looks at the Vitol FCPA settlement and how it may portend greater inter-agency cooperation in corruption and anti-competitive enforcement actions. Volkov rants about Gary Cohen, former head of Goldman Sachs and his refusal to allow the Goldman mandated clawbacks for the firm’s 1MDB corruption and fraud.
- Jonathan Marks looks at Board of Directors and sees the Dunning-Kruger Effect of over confidence and lack of self-awareness in many areas of corporate governance. Marks rants about the NLF not giving a flip about player safety around Covid-19 all the while moving games without any thought to competition.
- Tom Fox gives a bittersweet shout out David Prowse who recently died. Prowse was the first actor to play Darth Vader albeit voiced by James Earl Jones.
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 Voice of Compliance. He can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com. Everything Compliance is a part of the Compliance Podcast Network.
Welcome to the only roundtable podcast in compliance. Today, we have the full quintet of Mike Volkov, Jay Rosen, Matt Kelly, Jonathan Armstrong and our newest colleague, Sarah Hadden. In this episode, we present a potpourri of topics.
- Sarah Hadden considers the behavioral side of ethics and how this needs to be incorporated more fully into a compliance regime. Sarah shouts out to the University of Texas, McCombs School of Business (Hook ‘Em) and its online video series entitled Ethics Unwrapped.
- Matt Kelly considers the current state of whistleblower programs. He asks if corporate legal departments will support the fix to Dodd- Frank after the Digital Realty Trust ruling? Matt shouts out to smaller law firms and companies having more focused compliance events.
- Jay Rosen tells you everything you wanted to know about monitors but were afraid to ask. Jay shouts out to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her slap down of AG William Barr.
- Mike Volkov discusses the new OFAC compliance program and the current state of OFAC sanctions. Mike shouts to the recently concluded ECI national conference Impact 2019.
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 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.
For additional reading and listening, check out the follow resources:
Matt Kelly’s blog post, Progress on Whistleblower Fix in Radical Compliance. Matt and I take a deep dive into the topic on Episode 123 of Compliance into the Weeds.
For more information on Sarah’s topic, check out the new eBook she referenced in her section, Compliance and Ethics Risk Assessmentby Jeff Kaplan. It is available free for download hereon Corporate Compliance Insights.
Check out Mike Volkov’s 5-part blog post series on the new OFAC compliance program on his blog site, Corruption, Crime and Compliance. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4) For those who prefer the podcast format, you can list to his podcast on the topic here.
See Jay’s multipart article series on working with monitors, available on Corporate Compliance Insights.
