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Year: 2009
SEC Settlements in Ponzi Scheme Cases: Putting Madoff and Stanford in Context
In the last six and half years the Securities and Exchange Commission has reached settlements with over 300 defendants in cases related to alleged Ponzi schemes. NERA Consulting has been tracking these SEC settlements since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was enacted in July 2002. In that time frame there have been 12 Ponzi scheme settlements that … Read more »
Business Codes of The Global 200
In drafting and updating my code of conduct and ethics it is always useful to see what other companies are doing. I look for both approach, content and style. For instance, I collected the Whistleblower Hotlines for Home Builders. It is great to see a comparison of a group of compliance codes. KPMG put together … Read more »
Martindale-Hubbell Connected – My Thoughts
I have been a member of the Martindale-Hubbell Connected community for several months. I met John Lipsey, Vice President, Corporate Counsel Services for LexisNexis in September at a speaking engagement on Social Networking for Lawyers. John told the story of why Connected would be a great resource for lawyers. The lure of Connected is the … Read more »
Short Bites
Here are a few stories and items that caught my eye, but I have not had time to build-out to a full post: Reminder to Review Insider Trading Compliance by Melissa Klein Aguilar for Compliance Week The SEC settled an administrative proceeding this month involving Merrill Lynch based on the firm’s failure to have adequate … Read more »
How to reduce the cost of audits, operations, training and compliance with SharePoint!
These are my notes from a webinar presented by Knowledge Management Associates, Inc. that featured speaker: Sean Megley, KMA SharePoint Architect and resident “compliantist.” What contributes to the cost of compliance?: Lack of Tools Ad hoc audits Random frameworks Unreliable results Sean thinks we should free ourselves from the “tyranny of spreadsheets and email!” The … Read more »
Model COBRA Subsidy Notices Released
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 included some relief for laid-off employees. One of the biggest is a 65% subsidy for the payment of health plan payment from the government for certain eligible participants in COBRA health plan continuation coverage. ARRA mandates that health plans notify certain current and former participants and beneficiaries … Read more »
Corporate Compliance & Ethics Week is May 3 to 9
The Society of Corporate Compliance & Ethics is promoting the week of May 3-9, 2009 as Corporate Compliance & Ethics Week. Read more »
Hedge Funds and Fraud: The Future of Due Diligence
Garrity, Graham, Murphy, Garofalo & Flinn and PRMIA (Professional Risk Managers International Association) sponsored a webinar that focused on the signs of fraud and what you can do detect fraud in the context of hedge funds. The agenda and my notes: The profile of a fraudster (James Tunkey, I-OnAsia) The psychology of the gullible investor … Read more »
More on Madoff’s Auditor
Yesterday, Madoff’s auditor was arrested for falsely stating that the firm had audited the financial statements. No surprise that such a small firm could be auditing a supposedly large investment company like Madoff Investments. Just in time, the AICPA (that’s the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants) has expelled Friehling from its membership following an … Read more »