Posts by Matt Kelly
Entergy Pays $12M on Poor Controls
Pull up a chair, SOX compliance professionals! Utilities giant Entergy Corp. just settled an accounting controls case with the Securities and Exchange Commission that offers several lessons about oversight of accounting processes and the failure to address weaknesses in a timely manner. The settlement was announced last Friday. Entergy is paying $12 million to settle…
Read MoreAAR Settles Intriguing FCPA Case
Here’s a Christmas present for compliance professionals! AAR Corp., an aviation services company, has agreed to pay $55.6 million to settle civil and criminal charges that the company bribed government officials in Nepal and South Africa in the 2010s — and is giving the rest of us some points to ponder on Justice Department credit…
Read MoreCompliance Jobs Report: Dec. 20
Our last Compliance Jobs Report of 2024 still has lots of news! This week there’s a changing of the internal audit guard at FedEx, plus several CCOs moving on to be general counsels elsewhere. We have news from TikTok, TD Bank, Serco, Box, Carelon, and many more. Job leads are in construction, charitable foundations, and…
Read MoreRegulators Tell USAA: Do Better, Faster
Head’s up, compliance and IT executives in the banking sector! We have another bank sanctioned by regulators for taking too long to get its regulatory compliance act together. This time it’s USAA taken to the woodshed, for failing to implement reforms promised in previous consent orders from 2019 and 2022. The Office of the Comptroller…
Read MoreThe Joys of Pre-Acquisition Due Diligence
Few issues can exasperate a compliance officer as much as pre-acquisition due diligence for a business your company wants to acquire. So when I was moderating a webinar last week on compliance issues and conversation turned to that very subject, I took notes. What if, fellow compliance enthusiasts, there’s a better way to look at…
Read MoreGovernance Lessons From NRA
A New York state judge has ordered the National Rifle Association to implement a suite of corporate governance reforms meant to encourage transparency and enforce ethical conduct, after years of mismanagement by the NRA’s former leaders. It’s fascinating stuff for compliance officers, regardless of what you think about the NRA’s political positions. The judge’s ruling,…
Read MoreCompliance Jobs Report: Dec. 13
Lots of news in the Compliance Jobs Report this week. We have changings of the guard at Liberty Mutual and Toyota, a new CCO at Edward Jones, new hires at RTX, Medexus, and elsewhere; plus a slew of promotions at other companies. Job leads are in pharma, healthcare, and financial services; and Meme of the…
Read MorePCAOB Points to Audit Progress
The head of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board launched a charm offensive this week, praising audit firms for falling rates of deficient audits and stressing that the PCAOB plays an important role in investor protection. I’m sure Republicans’ anti-PCAOB mood these days was just a coincidence. Erica Williams, chair of the PCAOB, spoke Wednesday…
Read MoreCompliance Program Priorities That Endure
’Tis the season for speeches from Justice Department officials, as they reflect on the year’s enforcement activity — and these days, try to establish some sense of continuity even as the incoming Trump Administration portends a very different approach to corporate compliance and regulatory enforcement. Which brings us to a Justice Department speech delivered late…
Read MoreQuestions for Incoming SEC Chairman
Last week President-elect Trump said he will nominate Paul Atkins to be the next chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Now compliance and audit professionals can start considering how an Atkins-led SEC will shape corporate compliance for the next few years, and there are lots of questions to contemplate here. Start with the biographical…
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