These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention.
Sherlock Holmes and Innovation in the Compliance Function, Part I – A Study In Scarlet by Tom Fox in the FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog
First I am back with an homage to Sherlock Holmes, for it was in the magazine Beeton’s Christmas Annual that the characters Sherlock Holmes and Watson were introduced to the world in 1887, in the short story A Study in Scarlet. The second theme will be innovation in the compliance department. I will take some recent concepts explored in the December issue of the Harvard Business Review (HBR) and apply them to innovation and development of your compliance function. I hope that you will both enjoy my dual themed week and find it helpful.
Be Careful When You Are 100% Correct by Roy Snell in SCCE’s Compliance & Ethics Blog
People are often careful when they are not sure how to fix a particular problem. They do their research and bring everyone along. Everything is covered and everything is explained, when you are in doubt. However, when we are 100% correct we let our guard down. At least I do. I get indignant and ask questions like “why do I have to explain this all over again?”
2015 SEC Trial Scorecard Update: Agency is Undefeated After Two Trials by Bruce Carton in Compliance Week
To date in FY 2014 (which began on October 1, 2014), the SEC has had two trials in federal court reach a verdict. The first verdict was in the SEC’s case against iShopNoMarkup.com, Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. In that case, the SEC charged that in 1999-2000, among other things, iShop conducted a fraudulent and unregistered securities offering.
Compliance Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow by Matt Kelly in Compliance Week
Part of the challenge, of course, comes from the huge advances in technology that have allowed businesses to do more things, and to do them more efficiently—because once you can do something more efficiently, it’s only a matter of time before “the market” compels you to do something more efficiently. Hence the quest to develop new products, to reach new customers, to launch new mergers, to enter new markets—more than we could ever dream of 50 years ago. All of those things bring new risks, and new ways to manage them.
Largest Derivative Lawsuit Settlements by Kevin LaCroix in the D&O Diary
My purposes in posting this list are two-fold: first, in response to several requests, to share the information I have; and two, to encourage others who may have different or additional information to share the information so that I can update or supplement the list as appropriate. Here is my list of the eight largest derivative lawsuit settlements of which I am aware:
Get the SEC Out of the PR Business by Russell G. Ryan in the Wall Street Journal (opinion section)
Given the SEC’s peculiar quasi-judicial role in these cases, you might think the agency would refrain from gratuitously stoking prehearing publicity against the accused. Think again. The SEC now routinely issues press releases when it files charges in administrative cases it will eventually decide. This practice calls into question the agency’s ability to decide those cases fairly and impartially.