These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention.
An Eerie Silence by David Kirk in McGuireWood’s The Fraud Board
There’s an eerie silence in the world of fraud prosecutions in the UK. A Libor trial is about to start, a FCA land banking prosecution is on trial at Southwark, but with reporting restrictions, and a couple of weeks ago David Dixon, author of a Ponzi Scheme, pleaded guilty; and Julian Rifat, having entered a guilty plea in the long-running Operation Tabernula case, was sentenced to 19 months in prison for insider dealing. But the City Slicker pages of Private Eye have not been full of critical comment about the ‘Serious Farce Office’ for some weeks – no doubt to the hearty relief of SFO Director, David Green QC – and apart from the odd reference to continuing enquiries, and the recent embarrassing fine by the Information Commissioner, there is indeed little to report in the Spring of 2015.
What to do When the CEO Vanishes? by Michael Volkov in Corruption, Crime & Compliance
CCOs face real challenges when the CCO does not have his or her star actor or actress to promote the company’s ethical culture. If you can imagine filming The Godfather without Marlon Brando, then you can imagine what a CCO must experience without the help or attention of the CEO.
Assuring Regulatory Compliance Doesn’t Get Lost in Translation by Christine Yi
It’s easy to get foreign language review wrong, and success depends on the right strategy, the right technology and the right aptitudes by those carrying it out.
SEC Brings First Action on Whistleblower ‘Pre-taliation’ by Bruce Carton in Compliance Week
The SEC has warned for some time now that it views companies’ attempts to potentially intimidate employees from coming forward as whistleblowers through confidentiality agreements as a form of retaliation — or “pre-taliation,” as the SEC’s Sean McKessy has dubbed it. McKessy, Chief of the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower, stated last year that the SEC viewed such conduct as unlawful under the Dodd-Frank’s whistleblower rules, and that his office was “actively looking for examples of confidentiality agreements, separation agreements, [and] employee agreements” that condition benefits on not reporting activities to regulators such as the SEC.