Kroll and Ethisphere released their annual anti-bribery report today, a survey of what anti-corruption risks companies say they face, and the compliance efforts they use to tame those risks. If you’re looking for a good benchmarking report to read over lunch or on your commute home, this is one. The headline number: 57 percent of…
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What’s the difference between a high performance culture, and a high-pressure one? The distinction is important, after all. Pressure is one of the three forces that drive employees to commit fraud, along with rationalization and opportunity. We see pressure all the time in Corporate America, manifesting in all sorts of troublesome ways. Exhibit A would…
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Compliance officers may feel a bit dizzy today—we’ve had a whirlwind of news related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act this week, particularly in the last 24 hours. From the Pilot Program, to voices of support within the Trump Administration, to fresh FCPA arguments in court, and that bizarro news about the U.S. attorneys, we…
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This week’s compliance jobs report has news from Petco, DHL, Uber, Biogen, the Securities & Exchange Commission, and more—all the industry personnel gossip you need for the week of March 10! I gather these bits of gossip from LinkedIn, news alerts, and friends emailing me something to include. If you have a tip to pass…
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I didn’t notice this SEC enforcement until now, but 10 days ago the agency doled out a whistleblower award—and trimmed the final prize to the tipster, because that person both participated in the misconduct and took his sweet time before alerting the SEC. Alas, we don’t know many more details about this case. We don’t…
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Compliance officers wondering whether the Trump Administration would still enforce egregious corporate misconduct with big fines, here’s one answer: the administration today whacked a Chinese telecom firm with nearly $900 million in fines and penalties for export control violations. The firm is ZTE Corp., which pleaded guilty to re-exporting sensitive communications technology to Iran without…
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We missed an important detail in last week’s news that the SEC plans to modernize corporate filings with Inline XBRL technology: for the first time, foreign private issuers trading on U.S. markets will need to start using XBRL as well. XBRL is a technology that allows computers to read and interpret the financial data companies…
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The head of privacy policy for Facebook changed his status this week, jumping to EY to advise companies on privacy issues. MasterCard has a new senior counsel for investigations, and the San Diego school system just sacked more than half its audit department. We apologize that this week’s jobs report is a bit late, but…
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TRACE International has published its latest review of global anti-corruption enforcement, touting a dramatic increase in enforcement last year, led by U.S. authorities. Enforcement activity essentially doubled last year, according to the organization’s annual Global Enforcement Report. There were 255 investigations into bribery of foreign officials conducted by 29 countries as of Dec. 31, 2016.…
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The SEC on Wednesday proposed requiring that public companies and mutual funds start submitting their financial filings using Inline XBRL—an advance that should make the preparation of financial reports much easier. XBRL is a technology that lets computers digest financial data quickly. It’s a godsend to financial analysts who want to answer specific research questions…
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