Posts by Matt Kelly
Corporate Compliance and ‘Cartel Risk’
Last week I moderated a webinar on Latin American drug cartels, and where “cartel risk” is or isn’t similar to the corruption risks that compliance teams have worried about for years. Perfect timing! That same week, the Justice Department settled an FCPA case where drug trafficking was one element of the story. Let’s review the…
Read MoreMillicom FCPA Settlement, Part II
Today we return to that FCPA enforcement action last week against Millicom, which paid $118.2 million to settle criminal charges of bribery and corruption in Guatemala in the 2010s. The filings in the case have been unsealed, and they raise a few points worth compliance officers’ attention. First, a quick recap for those who missed…
Read MoreCompliance Jobs Report: Nov. 14
This week the Compliance Jobs Report includes some regional CCO hires at Walmart, a new CCO at the troubled Australian stock exchange, and more news from Google, Cooper Companies, McKinsey, Penn State, and lots more. Job leads are in semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and life insurance; Meme of the Week goes out to the Epstein Files.…
Read MoreThoughts on Job-Seeking and Referrals
The other day I heard from a friend who has been a corporate auditor for many years. She recently landed a new job as head of internal audit at a respectable and stable company, presumably with a respectable and stable salary too. So I asked her: How’d you get that job, anyway? After all, I’ve…
Read MoreFCPA Enforcement Is Happening!
Who says FCPA enforcement has flat-lined under the Trump Administration? Well, pretty much everyone, including the Administration itself — but apparently not! Prosecutors settled FCPA charges on Monday with Millicom Cellular, which is paying $118.2 million and entering a two-year deferred-prosecution agreement for corruption payments in Guatemala. The news comes from Millicom itself, which issued…
Read MoreMore on the Fannie Ethics Meltdown
We have more clarity today on why pretty much the entire internal ethics team at Fannie Mae was fired two weeks ago. The reasons are as bad as you’d expect, and a grim sign for ethics and compliance at the mortgage giant going forward. As you might recall, Fannie’s senior leadership fired at least a…
Read MoreCompliance Jobs Report: Nov. 7
This week the Compliance Jobs Report has compliance promotions to note at Netflix, Wood, State Street, Bristol Myers, and elsewhere; plus new hiring at Lloyds, AIG, Pernod Ricard, Novartis, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, and more. (We also have rumors of cutbacks at HPE.) Job leads are in surgical products, food, and law firms; plus our Meme of…
Read MoreLessons in Fraud From Atlanta Hawks
Today, another compliance lesson from the world of sports! Federal prosecutors have indicted the now-former head of finance of the Atlanta Hawks professional basketball team, on charges that he embezzled millions from the team over at least eight years to buy sports cars, concert tickets, luxury vacations, and all the usual goodies we see in…
Read MoreFINRA Fines Firm $10M on Gift Spending
We have a great case study this week for compliance and internal control folks worried about lavish spending on gifts and entertainment: FINRA just fined a financial services firm $10 million for providing clients luxury meals and event tickets in exchange for business deals, and for a weak recordkeeping system that allowed employees to cover…
Read MoreCompliance and Incentives, Part II
Today I want to return to the idea of effective incentives for corporate compliance. In a post on the subject last week, we explored some fundamentals of how to build an incentives program, but struggled with exactly how to tie executive compensation to compliance criteria. So for help, I turned to that fount of all…
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