These are some compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention:
Obeying the Law is Hard by Chris MacDonald in the Business Ethics Blog
For businesses, following the law doesn’t exhaust ethical responsibilities, but it’s an awfully good start. Most of us probably think that following the law is absolute minimally-decent behaviour for business. You absolutely must follow the law, and a business certainly shouldn’t be praised for achieving that basic minimum, right? But in fact, it’s not always so easy for companies to follow the law.
ERC’s National Business Ethics Survey
45 percent of U.S. employees observed a violation of the law or ethics standards at their places of employment. Reporting of this wrongdoing was at all-time high – 65 percent – but so too was retaliation against employees who blew the whistle: more than one in five employees who reported misconduct they saw experienced some form of retaliation in return.
Ten Compliance Issues from 2011 by Tom Fox
So as part of the compliance commentariati, I submit, for your consideration, my Top Ten anti-corruption and anti-bribery issues over the past 12 months.
- Amendments to the FCPA?…
- UK Bribery Act goes live…
- Crystal Ball Reading…
- Chief Compliance Officer Upgrade…
- Investigating Private Equity…
- ….
Conflict of Interest Risk Assessments – Part One by Jeff Kaplan in the Conflict of Interest Blog
Risk assessments are increasingly seen as essential to effective C&E programs. This is true for programs generally, of course, under the 2004 amendments to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations. Risk assessments are also contemplated for anti-corruption compliance under the Good Practices Guidance of the OECD Anti-Bribery Working Group, the UK Bribery Act compliance guidance issued by the Ministry of Justice and settlements of various FCPA cases involving both compliance failures and model compliance programs.
Fraud Flashpoints: The Perils of Fake Social Media Profiles – A Growing GRC Concern – Part 1 by Daniel W. Draz in Corporate Compliance Insights
Everyone is talking about the use of social media applications in business, in fact it’s “all the rage!” While there’s no doubt it has incredible value and potential in a variety of business applications, something that most governance, risk and compliance (GRC) professionals don’t seem to be talking about is how the technology and usage of it applies in a corporate environment, where misinformation, competitive business intelligence, industrial espionage, “false profiles” and reliance on errant information, all generate the potential for significant business risk and liability.
In Depth On The Magyar Telekom and Deutsche Telekom Enforcement Action by the FCPA Professor
Total fines and penalties were approximately $95 million ($59.6 million against Magyar Telekom via a DOJ deferred prosecution agreement, $4.4 million against Deutsche Telekom via a DOJ non-prosecution agreement, and $31.2 million against Magyar Telekom via a settled SEC civil complaint). The SEC action against former Magyar executives remains active.
Handcuffs is from VectorPortal.com
