These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. Maybe you need something to read over Labor Day Weekend?
Conflicted Feelings About Conflict Minerals by Matt Kelly in Radical Compliance
Don’t die of shock, but a new government report finds that compliance with the Conflict Minerals Rule is still sputtering.
That’s the overall conclusion of the latest Government Accountability Office review of conflict minerals compliance, which is pretty much the same conclusion as last year’s GAO report. Companies are marginally better at determining where their conflict minerals come from. They are not any better at determining whether their conflict minerals somehow fund African warlords. [More…]
Companies Lack Active-Shooter Plans by Ben Dipietro in the WSJ’s Risk & Compliance Journal
A survey of about 900 organizations found while 69% of respondents listed an active-shooter situation as one of the biggest threats to workplace safety, 39% said their organization doesn’t have a communications plan in place to deal with such an incident. Even at those organizations that do have a plan, 79% said their organization isn’t fully prepared. The survey from critical communications services provider Everbridge Inc. highlights the risks companies face as they try to protect employees and others from potentially deadly office attacks, said Imad Mouline, Everbridge’s chief technology officer. [More…]
Why You May Want To Reconsider Promising Confidentiality To Whistleblowers by Keith Paul Bishop in California Corporate & Securities Law
The scope of the promise may be unclear. Often, the promise of confidentiality is as succinct as “All reports and disclosures you make under this Code of Ethics will remain confidential unless required to be disclosed by applicable law.” The company may believe that it is agreeing not to disclose the reporting person as the source of the disclosure. The reporting person may take the position that the company has agreed not to disclose either the fact of the report or its substance, particularly when either may serve to identify the whistleblower. Misunderstandings about what was and was not promised may lead to litigation [More…]
Ethics for ethicists? A Code of Ethics and Compliance Professionals by Joe Murphy in the Compliance and Ethics Blog
As children we learn the story of the cobbler’s children. The person who makes the shoes for the village is the one whose children lack shoes. It is an ironic picture—those whose job is to provide a product in fact do without the product themselves. And yet, in the compliance and ethics field, where we spend our days telling corporate clients how to act legally and ethically, and we routinely push them to adopt and apply codes of conduct, do we follow this advice ourselves? [More…]
The Hedge Fund Trader Who Beat the Feds by William D. Cohan in Fortune
Hedge fund manager Todd Newman’s successful career was upended when he was prosecuted for insider trading. After his conviction was thrown out on appeal, the case became a landmark in Wall Street regulation. An inside look at what it’s like to be stalked by the feds—and not back down.[More…]