Doug Cornelius on compliance for private equity real estate
On Tuesday, the Russian Olympic Committee was suspended from participating in the Olympic Winter Games at PyeongChang in February 2018. The action was in response to “the systemic manipulation of the anti-doping rules and system in Russia, through the Disappearing Positive Methodology and during the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014″. These penalties for doping are without precedent in…
Legend has it that if you string garlic around your house, you can ward off vampires. What if there was something similar you could do to ward off unethical behavior in the workplace? Apparently, religious symbols may keep you away from an unethical boss. A forthcoming study in the Academy of Management Journal found that…
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged an investment bank’s research analyst with publishing a rating on a stock that was inconsistent with his own view. Charles P. Grom gave a public “buy” recommendation to the retailer Big Lots, but privately expressed his concerns about the company. “We just had them in town so it’s not…
I hate Black Friday. Being at a store in a sea of sleep-deprived shoppers to find bargains would likely make me lose a little faith in humanity. REI, the outdoor retailer, decided to stand behind its core value: “We believe a life outdoors is a life well-lived.” While the rest of the world is fighting…
Is this the worst ethics teacher? 64 Dartmouth Students Charged With Cheating In Ethics Class According to the story, attendance in religion professor Randall Balmer’s “Sports, Ethics and Religion” was measured using handheld devices known as “clickers.” In late October, some students passed their clickers to fellow classmates. Those classmates then used the clickers to…
Vanessa Mae really wanted to compete in the Olympics, but she is better violinist than a skier. She has sold 10 million records so that is a very high bar. The International Ski Federation decided that she cheated her way into the Olympics. When Eddie the Eagle competed in the 1988 Olympics, some thought it…
There is clearly an Ebola scare happening in the United States. It’s a nasty disease and that has attracted widespread media attention. Is there anything your compliance team should do about Ebola? I’ll assume that your firm does not have operations or personnel in West Africa. If it does, then yes, you should be concerned…
The National Football League is by far the most popular sport in the US. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell talks about what he calls “protecting the shield.” He originally handed down a two-game suspension to Ray Rice for a punch to the head of Mr. Rice’s fiance that left her lying unconscious on the floor of…
I was up last night hooked into latest episode of Breaking Bad. Besides it being a great show, it highlights a focus of compliance. How do you prevent your employees from going bad? For those of you who haven’t seen the show, Walter White, a mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher helps ends meet by making…
One of the catchphrases that came out of the 2008 financial crisis was “too big to fail.” It’s a great concept, but hard to define in a meaningful way. Many think that there is no private company that should not be allowed to fail. Dodd-Frank created a concept of systemically important, trying to create additional…