According to research conducted by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), U.S. organizations lose an estimated 7 percent of annual revenues to fraud. Based on the projected U.S. Gross Domestic Product for 2008, this percentage indicates a staggering estimate of losses around $994 billion among organizations, despite increased emphasis on anti-fraud controls and recent … Read more »
Institutional Investors Taking A Proactive Stance With President- Elect Obama
A group of 60 institutional investors send a letter to President-Elect Obama. More than 60 institutional investors were signatories to this letter encouraging President-Elect Obama to improve financial risk disclosures by U.S. corporations. The letter encourages President-Elect Obama to Work in First 100 Days to Reverse Recent SEC Roadblocks to Shareholder Proxy Resolutions Inquiring About … Read more »
The Corporate Risk Management Library
Here are my notes from this webinar from Compliance Week, sponsored by CA, Inc.: Enhancing the Risk Profile of Your Organization: The Corporate Risk Management Library Speakers: Tom McHale, Vice President of Product Management, CA Christopher Fox, Principal Consultant, Governance Compliance and Risk Group, CA We are seeing a movement from executive autonomy to executive … Read more »
Government Seizes 650 Park Avenue
According to the Wall Street Journal, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York has filed a forfeiture proceeding against 650 Fifth Avenue in New York. In its press release: United States files civil forfeiture action against ASSA corporation’s interest in Manhattan office tower (.pdf), the DOJ claims that a 40% interest … Read more »
The Roles and Responsibilities of the General Counsel in the Organization’s Ethical Culture
The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University hosted a panel discussion on The Roles and Responsibilities of the General Counsel in the Organization’s Ethical Culture. The panel consisted of: Tom McCoy, executive vice president, legal affairs, and chief administrative officer, Advanced Micro Devices, moderator Craig Nordlund, senior vice president, general counsel and … Read more »
GE To Stop Offering Quarerly Earnings Forecasts
GE had originally begun making quarterly earnings forecast to display its consistent earnings to Wall Street. According to the Wall Street Journal, some GE observers think the earnings forecast prompted executives to sell assets or make other moves to hit their estimates. From a compliance perspective, you would be worried that the pressure to hit … Read more »
FCPA Trends and Patterns
Danforth Newcomb and Philip Urofsky of Shearman and Sterling have updated their FCPA Digest of Cases and Review Releases and Recent Trends and Patterns in FCPA Enforcement (.pdf). In addition to a general increase in FCPA enforcement activity in recent years, four distinctive new trends can be seen. First, both the frequency and severity of … Read more »
Canadian Real Estate Developers and Money Laundering
Eli Udell of Perley-Robertson, Hill and McDougall LLP penned a summary of the effect of the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act on Canadian real estate developers: Real Estate Developers And Money Laundering Law – What You Need To Know. What Must a Developer Do To Comply? 1) Implementation of a “Compliance … Read more »
FSA Berates Compliance Officers in Crackdown on Data Security Breaches
Joanne Wallen of Complinet writes about the reaction of the U.K.’s Financial Service Authority: FSA Berates Compliance Officers in Crackdown on Data Security Breaches (.pdf). The FSA focused on compliance officers for not putting enough focus on data security. Examples of good practice at firms that the FSA visited included encrypting laptops and using secure … Read more »
No Laughing Matter; National Lampoon Subject to SEC Complaint
See a copy of the complaint at JD supra: SEC v. National Lampoon. The Commission’s complaint alleges that, from at least March 2008 through June 2008, Laikin, Barsky, Rodriguez and Dougherty engaged in a fraudulent scheme to manipulate the market for the common stock of National Lampoon. Specifically, Laikin, along with Barsky, paid kickbacks in … Read more »