These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention.
Happy Birthday, Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations by Jeff Kaplan in Conflicts of Interest Blog
Twenty-two years ago today the Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations went into effect. Although only a set of rules (i.e., not an actual statute), these Guidelines have had a revolutionary effect on how many governments around the world seek to prevent/detect business crime and what businesses do – i.e., develop and implement C&E programs – to try to stay out of trouble.
Paradise By the Dashboard Light and Compliance Tune-Ups by Tom Fox
Meatloaf’s standard Paradise by the Dashboard Light, is the lead in for today’s blog post (the ‘automotive’ focus of the song and not the ‘paradise’ focus for the less prurient among you.) I still think that one of the most significant Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) enforcement matters over the past couple of years was the Morgan Stanley Declination to Prosecute. In this Declination the Department of Justice (DOJ) listed a variety of factors which led to its decision not to prosecute the company for the FCPA violations of its Managing Director Garth Peterson. Although all of the factors were clearly important in the DOJ’s calculus, one which has stuck with me is the 35 separate compliance reminders that Peterson received over the seven years in question. That is five reminders a year. I do not think that such a number of reminders will induce compliance fatigue.
Colonel Solicitation by William Carleton
The article says that one must have 10 years of experience in the industry, or something like that, to be invited to participate in the forum. That sounds like a group of folks who might have pre-existing relationships with one another. The entrepreneur engaged in solicitation, for sure – cold calling, really, if the article recites the story accurately – but was this solicitation of a general, public nature?
Maybe he was engaged in solicitation of a lower rank or grade. We might call it “Colonel Solicitation.”
