The Department of Justice released its latest FCPA Opinion Release. The requesting company for this opinion release is stepping into a situation full of FCPA red flags. In the end, the DOJ opined that it would not bring an enforcement action based on the safeguards put in place by the company. The company is involved … Read more »
Year: 2010
Blatant Self-Promotion
Each year, LexisNexis “honors a select group of blogs that set the online standard for a given industry.” This year, they expanded Top Blogs to include their Business Law Communities. Compliance Building is one of the nominated candidates for the LexisNexis Top 25 Business Law Blogs of 2010, featured on the LexisNexis Corporate & Securities … Read more »
Telling the Truth During Earnings Calls
Is the CEO or CFO lying during the quarterly earnings call? How can you tell? David F. Larcker and Anastasia A. Zakolyukina of the Stanford Graduate School of Business turned to the rich data set of quarterly calls and subsequent financial restatements. After studying Q&A sections of transcripts of hundreds of calls with CEOs and … Read more »
The Second FTC Action for Online Endorsements
Back in December, the Federal Trade Commission released new guidelines that specifically required bloggers to disclose any material connections to a product or company they are writing about. In May, they brought their first action under those guidelines against Ann Taylor. The FTC declined to bring an enforcement action. Last week, they brought their second … Read more »
Book Review: Rewired
I think a big part of compliance is education. It is great to get compliance imposed through internal systems, but you generally need to get the message out to your company about the policies, why they exist, and what they need to do. There is lots of talk about the generation and age group starting … Read more »
Compliance Bits and Pieces for August 27
Here are some recent stories I found interesting: A Red Flag on G.M. Internal Controls by Peter J. Henning in the New York Times’ DealBook General Motors filed its S-1 on Wednesday, and its list of potential risks to the company contains the usual array of obvious market threats and uncontrollable events that might be … Read more »
How to Get Caught Insider Trading
Purchase out of the money call options set to expire in two weeks, be an employee of the company acting as an adviser in the merger, not have any activity on that stock before, use an account in your name, exclusively use option when you have barely traded options in the account before, and quickly … Read more »
Social Media as a Risk Factor
It’s official. Social media is a risk factor. At least according to Estee Lauder and lululemon athletica. Over at Footnoted, Michelle Leder and her team dig through SEC filings digging up the dirt on bad corporate behavior. They were digging through the 10-K for Estee Lauder when Theo Francis came across a new risk factor. … Read more »
Can Companies Do Well by Doing Good?
Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal published a story by Aneel Karnani, Professor of Strategy at the University of Michigan’s Stephen M Ross School of Business with a controversial headline: The Case Against Corporate Social Responsibility. He manages to pull in some corporate governance arguments: “The movement for corporate social responsibility is in direct opposition, in such … Read more »
Roger Clemens and Lying to the Feds
Roger Clemens taught us another important lesson in dealing with an investigation. Never lie to the feds. Mark McGwire essentially proclaimed his guilt when he refused to answer questions about steroid use during his playing career at a congressional hearing. He may have lost in the arena of public opinion, but he will not have … Read more »