If you’re reading this, then the Mayan Apocalypse didn’t happen. (At least not yet.) That means back to work and a look at some of the compliance stories that caught my attention recently.
Dispatches From the Front Lines of the Ethics & Culture Wars by Matt Kelly in Compliance Week
Does your organization know what its values actually are? That was the first question I asked at our roundtable, playing to the cynics who say most companies either don’t have clearly articulated values beyond the profit motive, or don’t bother telling employees what those values are. More than a few roundtable participants reluctantly agreed that the cynics have a point.
Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP 2012 End of Year Checklist
December is the busiest month of the year for most hedge fund managers. In addition to all of the administrative details involved in closing out the year, the regulatory landscape has shifted dramatically over the past year. As a result, year-end processes and 2013 planning are particularly important, especially for General Counsels, Chief Compliance Officers and key operations and financial personnel. We have updated our own year-end checklist to help managers stay on top of these priorities.
More on “Chaos in the SEC’s Inspector General’s Office: ‘He Said, They Said'” in CorporateCounsel.net
The latest is that former Assistant Inspector General Weber has filed a $20 million lawsuit alleging he was fired for being a whistleblower. And the complaint is full of juicy details (which may – or may not – be true). Here are some articles on this development: …
Banks Behaving Badly or Brother Can You Spare A Billion (or Two)? by Tom Fox
Remember when a billion dollars was real money? Over the past couple of weeks there have been some mammoth fines paid by financial institutions for conduct, which would appear to fall under the category of “Banks Behaving Badly”. Last week HSBC agreed to pay a fine of $1.92 billion for its transgressions involving money laundering. UBS is in the final stages of negotiations to pay $1.5 billion to resolve allegations that it tried to rig interest rate benchmark (i.e. ‘Libor’) to boost trading profits. Finally, on December 10, coming in at a paltry $327 million are our old friends Standard Chartered, which admitted processing thousands of transactions for Iranian and Sudanese clients through its American subsidiaries; subsequently to avoid having Iranian transactions detected by the US Treasury Department computer filters, Standard Chartered deliberately removed names and other identifying information, according to the authorities. All in all, it’s not been a bad couple of weeks for the US Treasury, given the current stalemate over the ‘fiscal cliff’ and the need to reduce the US deficit.
Does The Victims Of Corporate Fraud Compensation Fund Deny Due Process? by Keith Paul Bishop in California Corporate & Securities Law blog
Under SB 1058, a person who obtains a final judgment against a corporation based upon the corporation’s fraud, misrepresentation, or deceit, made with intent to defraud, may after “diligent collection efforts” submit a claim to the Secretary of State for payment from the fund. Cal. Corp. Code § 2282. The Secretary of State is required to give notice to the corporation (which may contest granting of the application for payment). Cal. Corp. Code § 2282.1 The Secretary of State may deny or grant the application or may enter into a compromise with the claimant to pay less in settlement than the full amount of the claim. Cal. Corp. Code § 2284. The legislation expressly authorizes only the judicial review of a denial of a claim. Cal. Corp. Code § 2287. If the Secretary of State grants the application, she is subrogated to the claimant’s rights. Cal. Corp. Code § 2293.
