Posts Tagged ‘Trump’
Oh Lord, Michael Cohen Risk Is Now a Thing
The lawyer for Stormy Daniels dropped yet another eye-popping allegation Tuesday afternoon: that some of the biggest names in Corporate America gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to Michael Cohen via the same shell company he used to give Daniels $130,000 in hush money just before the 2016 election. That gasping sound you hear is…
Read MoreTrump Tests Corporate America’s Commitment to Values
Yet again, on a certain abstract level, corporate compliance officers owe President Trump a debt of thanks. Rarely has one chief executive given us so many lessons to learn about poor tone at the top and unethical behavior. This week’s lessons, of course, stem from the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. over the weekend.…
Read MoreSecretary Mattis’ Insights on Ethics
We begin this week with a round of praise for James Mattis, U.S. secretary of defense. On Friday Mattis circulated a memo to Defense Department staff stressing the importance of ethics, saying he expects all DoD staff “to play the ethical midfield.” The message isn’t long: five staccato paragraphs squeezed onto one typewritten page. I…
Read MoreThis Is How It Ends
It ends with President Trump leaving office before his full term, of course. I don’t know exactly how he’ll leave, or when. But the crucial question isn’t whether Trump’s departure is imminent; the question is whether his departure is inevitable. So just ask yourself: Do you really believe this man can fulfill his full four-year…
Read MoreFCPA: Pilot Program Extended, and Much More
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…
Read More‘Trump Risk’ Disclosures Start Rolling In
When we last left disclosure of “Trump risk” just after the November 8 presidential election, only a few brave filers mentioned the victory of Donald Trump in their risk factors. Prompt as they were, those disclosures were predictably vague because nobody knew what a Trump Administration might portend. Now fourth-quarter 2016 reports are hitting the streets, with many…
Read MoreDrone Industry Pans Trump Regulatory Plan
Many thanks to the unmanned drone industry, which last week said the obvious about Donald Trump’s idea for government agencies to repeal two existing regulations for every new rule they want to adopt: it’s a simplistic notion that could actually harm new industries more than it helps them. The Commercial Drone Alliance sent a letter to…
Read MoreRefugee Ban: A Policy Management Disaster
Corporations have every right, and often a duty, to push forward with new, unpopular policies. A significant part of any corporate compliance officer’s job is to help with exactly that unpleasant task. Still, what America witnessed this weekend with the Trump Administration’s refugee ban is among the worst policy management failures we’ve ever seen. Regardless…
Read MoreTrump Gets Subtle Pre-taliation Warning
All you compliance officers in the corporate world, spending all your time trying to protect whistleblowers and root out retaliation risks: take a gander at the challenge your federal government counterparts have under the Trump Administration. On Wednesday the Office of Special Counsel issued a reminder that any policies about communications from government employees—like, say, telling them…
Read MoreTrump Compliance Counsel: People Are Saying…
Whatever else we might say about the person who takes the job of compliance counsel at the Trump Organization, we can all agree on one point. That person will have a lock on speaking gigs at compliance industry conferences for a long, long time. We can’t say much more about Trump’s compliance counsel, since his…
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