Internal Controls Come for Trump

trump

At long last, we have an internal controls and compliance angle on Donald Trump’s courtroom drama! When Trump was ordered last week to pay $355 million in damages for his civil fraud trial in New York, the judge in the case also ordered the Trump Organization to hire a director of financial compliance.  This person,…

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Pre-Taliation in Trump Fraud Trial!

trump

Well this is about as surprising as sunrise in the east: a hot corporate compliance issue just made a guest appearance in the civil fraud trial against Donald Trump that’s unfolding in New York this week. Turns out that the former president (may he ever remain so) included a pre-taliation clause in the employment contract…

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Trump, the Coup, and Corporate Ethics

trump

Corporate America might be hoping that the difficult issues raised by President Trump’s attempted coup this week and the remaining days of his term will somehow pass them by. Too bad.  What Trump has unleashed isn’t something businesses will be able to avoid. In several practical ways, dealing with Trump and his minions — both…

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The Biden Administration & Compliance

anti-corruption

Well, thank the Lord this is ending. The Trump Administration has given the United States (and the world) four years of ignorance, incompetence, immorality, greed, divisiveness, and corruption. President Trump has been a singular menace to this country and the American experiment; and also to corporations that have struggled to navigate the cultural divisions Trump…

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The Sound & Fury of Trump Regulation

Trump

Setting corporate strategy and regulatory compliance has never easy during the Trump Administration, and an article from the New York Times earlier this week demonstrates why that’s so. The article is worth a compliance officer’s time, since it’s quite possible we’re about to enter a period of even greater regulatory and political mess. The piece…

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What the Shootings Mean for Ethics & Compliance

This week Tom Fox and I dedicated our usual Compliance Into the Weeds podcast to the ethics and compliance implications of the mass shootings that happened in El Paso and Dayton last weekend. Nobody relishes analyzing something so painful for so many — but corporations are foolish to ignore what’s happening in this country, and…

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Ethics Lessons in Trump Tweets

Occasionally President Trump raises some thought-provoking points for ethics and compliance officers. Not the usual stupid stuff showcasing the ethical decay of the Trump Administration, mind you — but rather, genuinely relevant issues about corporate ethics and compliance programs, that don’t always have clear answers. Trump did that twice this week, which is two times…

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Thoughts on Workplace Violence Risks

violence

A grimly well-timed survey landed on my desk this week, examining trends in employee background checks and “workplace security incidents.” It underlines the challenge companies face today when trying to perform employee background checks and to reduce the risk of workplace violence. The report comes from Endera, a tech firm that sells software to help…

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Salesforce Runs Into Trump Risk

Trump Risk

Another intriguing dimension to Trump Risk emerged last week, this time involving Salesforce.com and a tart rebuke from one of the groups fighting to stop the Trump Administration from separating migrant families at the border. The story is this: In March, Salesforce signed a contract to provide staffing software and services to the U.S. Customs…

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Bad Control Environments Ruin Everything

automation

The compliance and audit worlds like to rely on lingo such as “control environment” and “control activities” all the time. The scandal of Corporate America’s payments to Michael Cohen, personal lawyer and fixer to President Trump, reminds us what those words really mean, and why a bad control environment can sour all the control activities you…

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