In this episode Matt Kelly and I discuss the Treasury Department’s recently released A Financial System That Creates Economic Opportunities-Capital Markets report. The report has multiple proposals, including multiple ideas about rolling back Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, especially for smaller public companies. In this podcast, we discuss the three most significant ones for the compliance practitioner.

1. Exempt more companies from audits of internal financial control. Companies with market cap below $75 million are currently exempt from the SOX 404(b) requirement that an annual outside audit of internal control over financial reporting. The Trump Administration proposes raising that exemption ceiling to $250 million in market cap.
2. Doubling the lifespan of Emerging Growth Companies. Congress created a new class of public filers in 2012, “emerging growth companies,” that are exempt from numerous corporate governance and compliance rules for the first five years of their lives; to 10 years.
3. Ending “social disclosure rules” required under the Dodd-Frank Act. The Dodd-Frank Act imposed several required disclosures such as the Conflict Minerals Rule, the CEO Pay Ratio Rule, and the Mine Safety Rule.

For more on this subject, see Matt’s blog post Treasury Report Eyes SOX Compliance

In this episode, I have back James Koukios, a partner in the law firm of Morrison and Foerster. We review some of the top FCPA and international anti-corruption cases and issues which have occurred over the summer of 2017. The topics are based on the firm’s most excellent monthly newsletter Top Ten International Developments for Anti-Corruption, which is available at no charge on the firm’s website. In this podcast, we discuss topics from the following newsletters: 

From the June newsletter 

1. The Supreme Court decision in Kokesh-what does it mean for prosecutors, what does it mean for compliance practitioners and does it change the calculus around self-disclosure?
2. DOJ Continues to Pursue “Declinations with Disgorgement.” What does this mean for companies going forward? Should it encourage or discourage self-disclosure?
3. DOJ Files Forfeiture Complaint in connection with Alleged Malaysia Bribery Scheme. How does this tool relate to anti-corruption enforcement? Why is it such a powerful tool for prosecutors?

From the July newsletter

1. The Halliburton FCPA enforcement action. What does it mean for the compliance practitioner?
2. Three Long-Standing Corporate FCPA Investigations End without Charges. What can be learned from these cases about enforcement going forward?
3. Dimitri Harder was sentenced to Five Years’ Imprisonment for FCPA Violations. What was the basis of the sentence? Do you see anything in this sentencing unusual?
4. Was the Second Circuit decision in the FOREX trading case a setback for International Law Enforcement Cooperation? What is compelled testimony? What are the implications for international cooperation going forward? 

From the August newsletter

1. Following Undercover Investigation, DOJ Charges Retired U.S. Army Colonel with Conspiring to Bribe Haitian Officials. How do undercover operations work in the FCPA and what they might mean going forward?
2. UK Financial Reporting Council Announces Plans to Require Increased Anti-Corruption and Bribery Disclosures. What does this mean for US companies doing business in the UK?

Check out the firm’s newsletter or better yet subscribe to it.

Jay and I return for a wide-ranging discussion on some of the top compliance and ethics related stories, including: 

1. Roy Shell considers whether compliance officers should be liked or respected. See his article on the SCCE Compliance and Ethics Blog.
2. What is the intersection of sports, corruption and compliance? Jaclyn Jaeger explores in Compliance Week.
3. The Alere FCPA enforcement action emphasized the convergence of rev rec and corruption. Richard Bistrong considers in the FCPA Blog.
4. Bill Coffin asks who will be the next compliance hero, see his article in Compliance Week.
5. Ireland requested a review by the European Court of Justice of the legality of contracts governing data transfers between Europe and the U.S. Ben DiPietro reports in the WSJ Risk and Compliance Report. Jonathan Armstrong reports from the UK perspective on the Cordery Compliance website.
6. More chaos from the Trump Administration as Secretary of HHS Tom Price resigns. Matt Kelly reports on the ethical considerations in Radical Compliance.
7. Proving once again that he is not a mere mortal, Jose Altuve hits 3 home runs in the first division playoff game, which the Astros win 8-2. He becomes only the 9th player in MLB history to do so. Stephanie Apstein reports in SI.com.
8. Join Tom’s monthly podcast series on One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program. In October, I consider compliance with business ventures such as in the M&A context, joint ventures, distributors, channel ops partners, teaming agreements and all other manner of business venture. The second week I continue to take a deep dive in M&A and begin JVs under the FCPA. This month’s sponsor is the Volkov Law Group. It is available on the FCPA Compliance Report, iTunes, Libsyn, YouTube and JDSupra.
9. Jay and I will be podcasting a live episode of This Week in FCPA from the SCCE 2017 Compliance and Ethics Institute, stay tuned for details on time.
10. The Everything Compliance gang is back with Episode 19. Check in with the top roundtable podcast in compliance by clicking on Everything Compliance.
11. Tom premiers an exciting new services offering the Doing Compliance Master Class.

The top compliance roundtable podcast is back with a wealth of new topics.

1. Matt Kelly opens with a discussion of the Equifax data breach and its implications for the compliance profession.

For Matt Kelly’s posts on the Equifax data breach and cybersecurity, see the following:

Vendor, Cybersecurity Risk, Ugh

Clayton, Congress Talk Cybersecurity

2. Jonathan Armstrong considers the Uber situation in London where it recently lost it license to do business from the regulator Transportation for London (TfL). He discusses a prior case that he handled which had similar issues.
3. Jay Rosen considers the massive FBI undercover operation resulting in 10 arrests in college basketball for corruption regarding high school recruits.
4. Tom Fox sits in for Mike Volkov, who is on assignment this week. He discusses the top FCPA enforcement action of all-time, the recently announced Telia enforcement action.

For Tom Fox’s posts on the Telia enforcement action, see the following:

The Telia FCPA Resolution, Part I - Introduction

The Telia FCPA Enforcement Action: Part II - The Bribery Schemes

The Telia FCPA Enforcement Action: Part III - The Individuals

Telia FCPA Enforcement Action: Part IV - Getting Some Monies Back

Telia FCPA Enforcement Action: Part V-Lessons Learned 

The gang is back with rants which follow the discussions.

The members of the Everything Compliance panel include:

• Jay Rosen– Jay is Vice President, Business Development Corporate Monitoring at Affiliated Monitors. Rosen can be reached at JRosen@affiliatedmonitors.com
• Mike Volkov – One of the top FCPA commentators and practitioners around and the Chief Executive Officer of The Volkov Law Group, LLC. Volkov can be reached at mvolkov@volkovlawgroup.com.
• Matt Kelly – Founder and CEO of Radical Compliance, is the former Editor of Compliance Week. Kelly can be reached at mkelly@radicalcompliance.com
• Jonathan Armstrong – Rounding out the panel is our UK colleague, who is an experienced lawyer with Cordery in London. Armstrong can be reached at armstrong@corderycompliance.com

Jay and I return for a wide-ranging discussion on some of the top compliance and ethics related stories, including: 

1. The DOJ announces a major criminal case which rocked the world of college athletics, involving pay for shoes scandal. See article by Michael McCann in Sports Illustrated. See article by Mark Schlabach on ESPN.com. Sam Rubenfeld looks at the corruption in college sports angle in the WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal.
2. Consumer product sellers need to check the SDN list before a sale? Before shipping? If you are Cartier jewelers, yes, according to SEC enforcement action. See article by Dick Cassin in the FCPA Blog.
3. Alere settles FCPA and accounting fraud SEC enforcement action. Dick Cassin reports in the FCPA Blog. See copy of SEC Cease and Desist Order.
4. McKinsey reminds us that a promise to pay can be a FCPA violation as its imbroglio in South Africa continues. See article Tom’s article in Compliance Week.
5. Todd Haugh, an assistant professor of business law and ethics at Indiana University, wrote in the most recent issue of the MIT Sloan Management Review that even best practices compliance program fail to take into account behavioral best practices and one important but too often overlooked key to strengthening both individual and overall corporate behavior is eliminating rationalizations. See Tom’s blog post in the FCPA Blog.
6. Uber loses it license in London and for the first time an Uber CEO apologizes for the company’s unethical behavior. Prashant S. Rao and Amie Tsang reports in the New York Times.
7. After the Equifax breach comes news the SEC was hacked. Joe Mont reports in Compliance Week. Matt Kelly reports on SEC Chairman Jay Clayton’s testimony before Congress on this and other subjects this week in Radical Compliance.
8. Jose Altuve reaches 200 hits for fourth straight season, becoming on the 4th Second Baseman to do so. He has also clinched the AL top hitter for the 3rd time in four years. Is an MVP far behind. Cubs clinch and Red Sox magic number is 1, having been stomped by the Astros 12-2 last night.
9. Join Tom’s monthly podcast series on One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program. In October, I will consider compliance with business ventures such as in the M&A context, joint ventures, distributors, channel ops partners, teaming agreements and all other manner of business venture. The first week I take a deep dive in M&A under the FCPA. This month’s sponsor is the Volkov Law Group. It is available on the FCPA Compliance Report, iTunes, Libsyn, YouTube and JDSupra.
10. The Jay Rosen weekend report preview.

In this Episode 2 of Compliance Man Goes Global podcast of FCPA Compliance Report International Edition, we focus on real priorities of the corporate compliance programming at high-risk markets.  In each podcast, we take two typical concepts or probably misconceptions from in-house compliance reality. We check out if these concepts work at emerging jurisdictions. For each podcast, we divide roles with Tim Khasanov-Batirov, a compliance practitioner who focuses on high risk markets for 17 years and myself.

Corporate Concept #1. We have officially deployed compliance program at a high-risk market. All hallmarks are duly identified in it. I do not understand what kind of priorities I have to consider in addition to regulatory hallmarks. When enough is enough?     

Tim Khasanov-Batirov: Here are my pros:

Argument #1.

To address regulatory expectations you should have a program that is comprised of 10 Hallmarks. Here are your priorities. This is a very straightforward and in my view a very clear philosophy.

Argument #2.

10 Hallmarks cover both legal aspects along with implementation side. If we want to find priorities for particular organization among already identified regulatory priorities we can simply choose them from 10 Hallmarks.

Argument #3.

Attempt to perplex the framework could harm the execution of the program. I do not see any merits from practical side to distract attention of the team and to spare resources on reinventing the wheel.

Tom:  OK, let me give you some examples, which probably allow you to re-think about priorities. Here are cons:

Argument #1.

You definitely want to avoid paper compliance program. Therefore, you probably need to distinguish 10 Hallmarks from practical methods on implementing them. We can call these practical methods priorities.    

Argument #2.

The following priorities come to my mind when I think about practical side on implementation of the corporate compliance program in emerging markets. First, clear understanding by compliance personnel of how they could achieve goals prescribed by the hallmarks. Second, obtaining trust from the management by compliance team. It is vital. Third, constant engagement and cooperation with key stakeholders aimed on keeping compliance team’s eye on the ball.    

Tim: I believe Compliance man referred to this topic in the first episode of the illustrated series entitled: First Things First.  

 Corporate Concept #2 “In real world compliance goals and priorities mismatch business needs or even prevent business from growing”. Tim, will you support this philosophy if you look at high-risk markets?  

Tim: It is common place to oppose corporate compliance efforts to business growth. Moreover, this statement is a kind of vague. I strongly disagree with it. I believe compliance priorities exist on the radar of business leaders at least due to very pragmatic and even cynical reasons. 

 Argument #1.

Threat of personal liability and possible negative impact on the company in case of enforcement actions.

Argument #2.

Wish to comply with corporate rules and maintain status of a “good corporate citizen” in the company.

Argument #3.

I also believe in scenario when compliance philosophy gets a high priority status in the in-house reality due to Compliance team’s efforts.

Tom: My concerns are the following:

Argument #1.

As we know the main business goal is earning money. What we call compliance in certain cases is viewed by business leaders as obstacle in money making.

Argument #2.

Sometimes top managers unfortunately are not aware about compliance risks and consequently their own duties to mitigate them. Thus, unintentionally management might ignore even basic compliance rules.

Argument #3.

The worst-case scenario when compliance team was not able to demonstrate the ability to work in the team rather than being just bureaucratic “Dr. No” department.

Tim: As key takeaways from today discussion, I think we can mention the following ones: a compliance practitioner should implement the program based on regulatory requirements in cooperation with business leaders. To achieve this goal he or she should obtain trust from top management and get awareness (and even appreciation) of compliance activity by key stakeholders.  

Join Tom Fox and Tim Khasanov-Batirov for the next episode of Compliance Man Go Global episode of FCPA Compliance Report International Edition.  Join us again as we bust more corporate compliance myths.

In this episode, Matt Kelly and I take a deep dive into the Telia FCPA enforcement action. It is the largest FCPA fine ever, coming in at $965MM. The breadth and scope of Telia’s illegal conduct was about as far-ranging as one could imagine. The fines and penalties certain bore this out. The bribes were specifically approved by the highest level of Telia, including senior executives and the Board of Directors. There was an explicit awareness that the bribery scheme would violate the FCPA, so the company tried to navigate its way out of potential FCPA liability. Clearly those efforts were lacking.

We discuss the blatant nature of the bribery scheme, the international investigation and enforcement effort involved, how this enforcement actions differs from other types of enforcement actions and lessons to be learned from the matter. We also consider that the company did not self-disclose but did cooperate in the investigation and provided extensive remediation. This netted the company a 25% discount off the minimum penalty as calculated under the US Sentencing Guidelines. 

The resolution documents include the SEC Cease and Desist Order, the DOJ issued an Information and a Deferred Prosecution Agreement, Telia. The DOJ also issued an Information and DPA for Coscom LLC, the Telia subsidiary through which the bribery occurred and a Plea Agreement. 

In a separate Press Release, Telia said in part, “The information being reported by media about the terms of the resolution is not complete. Telia Company has already announced that it has taken a provision with respect to the expected financial sanctions. It is correct that we are very close to a final resolution with all authorities (SEC, DOJ and the Dutch prosecutor), but cannot comment further at this time.” Cassin reported, “The company said in April it had adjusted its “estimate of the most likely outcome of the ongoing investigations into the company’s market entry and operations in Uzbekistan to $1 billion from $1.45 billion.”” 

The bribery scheme involved the company illegally buying its way into the Uzbekistan telecom market through its bribery of Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of the late Uzbek President Islam Karimov. Karimova was also the bribery conduit in the VimpleCom matter, resolved in February 2016. In the Telia case Karimova parlayed her providing telecom licenses and upgrades into bribe payments of over $330MM to shell companies which she controlled. 

In the DOJ Press Release, Acting US Attorney Joon H. Kim stated “Telia, whose securities traded publicly in New York, corruptly built a lucrative telecommunications business in Uzbekistan, using bribe payments wired around the world through accounts here in New York City. If your securities trade on our exchanges and you use our banks to move ill-gotten money, then you have to abide by our country’s laws. Telia and Coscom refused to do so, and they have been held accountable in Manhattan federal court today.” 

The SEC Press Release stated, “Telia entered the Uzbek telecommunications market by offering and paying at least $330 million in bribes to a shell company under the guise of payments for lobbying and consulting services that never actually occurred. The shell company was controlled by an Uzbek government official who was a family member of the President of Uzbekistan and able to exert significant influence over other Uzbek officials, causing them to take official actions to benefit Telia’s business in Uzbekistan.” 

For more on the Telia enforcement action, see Tom’s blog posts:

Part I-Background;

Part II-the Bribery Schemes; and

Part III-the Individuals involved

Compliance into the Weeds is a part of the Compliance Podcast Network

Linda Justice bring Nancy Drew to your side to fill all those knowledge gaps in your pursuit of clients. Using her technical background in corporate investigations, brings experience to business development, strategic management of risk and compliance. In this episode, she discusses her new consulting venture and how using a range of tactics, from strategizing with a CEO of a small company on the best go-to-market strategy, to helping a solo practitioner target and triangulate a very specific company, to working with a larger group of Partners within an organization create an underlying process and nurture multiple opportunities simultaneously. It is fascinating interview with a learn know compliance practitioner from the Bay Area. 

Linda Justice can be reached at linda.justice@justiceconsultingllc.com. 

Jay and I return for a wide-ranging discussion on some of the top compliance and ethics related stories, including: 

1. Telia settles massive FCPA enforcement action. See reports by Dick Cassin the FCPA Blog, here and here. The Telia resolution documents include SEC Cease and Desist Order, SEC Press Release, DOJ Information, DOJ Press Release and DOJ DPA. The Coscom settlement documents include the DOJ Information and Plea Agreement.
2. New concerns about money laundering in Venezuela for US commercial entities. See article in the FCPA Blog.
3. Airbus Launches Internal Probe Into Unexplained Payment. See article by David Pegg and Rob Evans in The Guardian.
4. ENI releases new information about allegations of bribery and corruption in Africa. See article by Jaclyn Jaeger in Compliance Week.
5. Compliance Week Editor Bill Coffin interviews Hui Chen. See Bill’s article in Compliance Week.
6. More details on the FCPA probe of Uber. David Ingram reports in Reuters.
7. Astros clinch the AL west.
8. Burner phones, Ole Miss recruiting scandal and compliance. Tom explores in Compliance Lessons from Burner Phones.
9. This month’s podcast series on One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program is in full production. In September, I am reviewing innovations for your compliance program. This week’s topics include superforecasting in your compliance program, OODA feedback loop, real-time v. right-time monitoring in your compliance program, improvisation in compliance and putting compliance at the center of business strategy. Oversight Systems is this month’s sponsor. It is available on the FCPA Compliance Report, iTunes, Libsyn, YouTube and JDSupra.
10. The Jay Rosen weekend report preview.

The top compliance roundtable podcast is back with a wealth of new topics. 

1. Matt Kelly has a discussion on the current state of the SEC and what he sees for changes by SEC Chairman Jay Clayton. 

For Matt Kelly’s posts on SEC and Chairman Clayton, see the following: 

SEC Chair Clayton Talks Compliance Costs

Framing the Arguments Over SOX Compliance

The Private Market Stresses Driving SOX Compliance Debate

 2. Mike Volkov considers the intersection of anti-corruption compliance and anti-trust compliance in connection with the role of the Chief Compliance Officer. 

For Mike Volkov’s post on the intersections on anti-corruption and anti-trust compliance, see the following:

Chief Compliance Officers Have to Address Criminal Antitrust Risks

Focusing Antitrust Compliance Programs on the Real Criminal Risks

 The members of the Everything Compliance panel include:

• Jay Rosen– Jay is Vice President, Business Development Corporate Monitoring at Affiliated Monitors. Rosen can be reached at JRosen@affiliatedmonitors.com
• Mike Volkov – One of the top FCPA commentators and practitioners around and the Chief Executive Officer of The Volkov Law Group, LLC. Volkov can be reached at mvolkov@volkovlawgroup.com.
• Matt Kelly – Founder and CEO of Radical Compliance, is the former Editor of Compliance Week. Kelly can be reached at mkelly@radicalcompliance.com
• Jonathan Armstrong – Rounding out the panel is our UK colleague, who is an experienced lawyer with Cordery in London. Armstrong can be reached at armstrong@corderycompliance.com

In this episode, Matt Kelly returns to his journalism roots with a live report from TEC 2017, the Workiva user conference. We discuss some of the hot topics at the conference including possible repeal or modification of SOX sections 404 and 302. We consider how internal controls around financial reporting intersect with compliance internal controls and how SOX reporting has elevated effective compliance internal controls as required under the FCPA. We also discuss document and information security and the concept of a single source of truth. We take a deep dive into the subject in the areas of audit trails for documentation in an FCPA investigation and in the upcoming SEC requirements around CEO Pay Ratio Reporting.

For more insights, see Matt’s blog post SOX Compliance: Do Better Than a ‘C’ Grade

To my mind the most significant and important book that every Chief Compliance Officer (CCO), General Counsel (GC) and compliance practitioner needs to read is The Chickenshit Club by Pulitzer Prize winning author Jesse Eisinger. It puts together for the first time, the story and timeline of how the Justice Department (DOJ) devolved from the group of prosecutors who convicted felons from the late 90s and early 00s financial scandal such as Enron and WorldCom, to the group which did not even bother to attempt to prosecute high ranking executives after the 2008 financial meltdown.

In this episode, I interview with book author, Jesse Eisinger and Paul Pelletier, a key source for the book. The interview is fascinating and I urge you to take a listen for both the substance and the interplay between Eisinger and Pelletier. We discuss the genesis of the book, what happened between Enron and 2008 which led to no prosecutions and conclude with both Eisinger and Pelletier's proposals to get the DOJ back on track as the nation's trial lawyers. 

For the Everything Compliance podcast recording reviewing The Chickenshit Club, click here.

Finally and most importantly, to purchase a copy of The Chickenshit Club, click here.

The top compliance roundtable podcast is back with a wealth of new topics. Stayed tuned to the end where there are some great rants in this edition. 

1. Jonathan Armstrong considers the UK government’s response to GDPR. Jonathan rants about idiots on social media. 

For the Cordery Compliance client alert and podcast on the topic see the following: 

UK Government publishes GDPR intentions

 GDPR Intentions with New Criminal Offenses Published by UK Government

Jay Rosen brings a detailed discussion of voluntary monitoring and contrasts it with the ISO 37001 standard. Jay rants on the Patriots lose in their season opener. 

For Jay Rosen’s posts see the following: 

Mayweather, Jr. vs. McGregor; Balboa vs. Creed and ISO-37001 vs. Voluntary Monitoring

The members of the Everything Compliance panel include:

• Jay Rosen– Jay is Vice President, Business Development Corporate Monitoring at Affiliated Monitors. Rosen can be reached at JRosen@affiliatedmonitors.com
• Mike Volkov – One of the top FCPA commentators and practitioners around and the Chief Executive Officer of The Volkov Law Group, LLC. Volkov can be reached at mvolkov@volkovlawgroup.com.
• Matt Kelly – Founder and CEO of Radical Compliance, is the former Editor of Compliance Week. Kelly can be reached at mkelly@radicalcompliance.com
• Jonathan Armstrong – Rounding out the panel is our UK colleague, who is an experienced lawyer with Cordery in London. Armstrong can be reached at armstrong@corderycompliance.com

In this episode, Roy Snell and I have a wide ranging discussion on the SCCE's Compliance and Ethics Institute. Roy reviews its history and how it became the largest annual event for the compliance professional. He talks about some of the highlights over the years and hits on some of the highlights for the 2017 event. 

You can find out more information on the event at the SCCE website, by clicking here. 

After a two week absence, Jay and I return for a wide-ranging discussion on some of the top compliance and ethics related stories which happened while we were off, including: 

1. Retired U.S. Army colonel, Joseph Baptiste was caught in a FCPA sting. Sam Rubenfeld reports in the WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal. Richard Bistrong writes that the Baptiste arrest was unlike the Gun Sting case, where he was a cooperating witness. See his blog post in the FCPA Blog.
2. Andy Spalding asks if the DOJ could make the Pilot Program even better? See his article in the FCPA Blog.
3. New York banker Mahmoud Thiam jailed for seven years for laundering bribes from Chinese companies. See article by Dick Cassin the FCPA Blog.
4. Wells Fargo’s woes grow even worse. See Joe Mont’s article in Compliance Week.
5. Mike Volkov has a two-part series on the intersection of anti-corruption compliance and anti-trust compliance. For Part I, click here. For Part II, click here.
6. Bill Steinman writes about why we fight graft and corruption in the FCPA Blog.
7. Compliance Week explores the pro and con arguments of SEC no admission settlements. For the pro side see post by Brad Karp and Susanna Buergel of Paul Weiss. For the con side see post by Judge Jed Rakoff.
8. SFO wants great powers to fight money-laundering. See article by Suzy Ring in Bloomberg.
9. Not surprisingly, Uber is under investigation for possible FCPA violations. See article in the WSJ.
10. Tom interviews Adam Turteltaub about the upcoming SCCE 2017 Compliance and Ethics Institute. See podcast and for registration information click here.
11. What are the compliance lessons from Hurricane Harvey? Tom explored in Hurricane Harvey-Reflections on Being Prepared and Practicing Compliance. Jaclyn Jaeger discusses Corporate Philanthropy at it Finest in Compliance Week. Matt Kelly explored these themes in a blog post on Radical Compliance. Finally Tom and Matt explored these themes and more in podcast in Compliance into the Weeds.
12. Yet another Boston sports team caught cheating, as the Red Sox steal signs from the hated Yankees via an AppleWatch. See article in the New York Times.
13. This month’s podcast series on One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program is in full production. In September, I am reviewing innovations for your compliance program. This week’s topics include how to set a strategic plan for innovation in your compliance program, Artificial Intelligence as a compliance advantage, how to find patterns in raked leaves and ComTech. Oversight Systems is this month’s sponsor. It is available on the FCPA Compliance Report, iTunes, Libsyn, YouTube and JDSupra.

In this episode, Matt Kelly and I take a deep dive into the good, bad and ugly of Hurricane Harvey for the compliance professional. We discuss what lessons may be drawn from the storm and its aftermath for the greater compliance, ERM and business communities and the need to take a much greater holistic approach to the consideration of your risk management strategy. We end with some thoughts on the travails of Salt Lake City nurse Alex Wubbels who was arrested for obeying the law in refusing to take blood from an unconscious patient.  We consider her plight from the compliance perspective. 

For more on Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath see the following:

Matt Kelly’s piece Corporate Ethics, and Glitches, in Houston

Tom Fox’s pieces

 Hurricane Harvey - Reflections on Being Prepared

How Weather Can Bring Analytical Clarity to Compliance

How the Storms of “The Scottish Play” Inform Your Compliance Program

Holmes, the Fog of London and Root Cause Analysis

Practicing Compliance

For Matt’s piece on the arrest of Nurse Wubbels, click here.

In this episode, I visit with Adam Turteltaub, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and International Programs. We discuss the upcoming 2017 Compliance and Ethics Institute, which is one of the primary education and networking event for professionals working in the Compliance and Ethics profession across all industries around the world. Sessions at the 2017 conference will offer the latest compliance information on hot topics and current events. Sessions are carefully selected and will be presented by leading experts who will explore real-world compliance issues, practical application, emerging trends, and state of the art techniques. 

The CEI conference and compliance training is great for everyone in the compliance and ethics field including: Compliance Auditors, Compliance Directors, Compliance Management, Compliance Officers, Risk Managers, International Compliance, Financial Compliance, Corporate Business Ethics, Ethics Officers, Ethics Management, Compliance Lawyers, HR Management, and Human Resource Risk. 

Adam and I discuss the tracks for breakout sessions and events, the pre-and post conference events and sessions you wish consider and the volunteer opportunities that are available. If you attend only one compliance and ethics event for the year, this is one for you. You can find out more information at the SCCE homepage, by clicking here.

In this episode, Matt Kelly and I take a deep dive into the Public Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). We consider the role of the PCAOB in both audit standards and internal controls for compliance. What is goodwill, goodwill impairment and how goodwill can be manipulated to create pots of money to pay bribes? We explore the question of whether there the need for a fresh look at SOX 404? We discuss the role of skepticism by auditors. We end with the forthcoming new auditor report format— the SEC is scheduled to approve that new standard regarding a new auditor report format soon and some people want the SEC to veto it. We discuss how new SEC Chair Jay Clayton may handle this by approving it by having a new PCAOB in place which takes a gentler approach to implementation.

For more information on the PCAOB, see Matt’s blog post PCAOB Overhaul Looms

For more on the intersection of compliance, audit and the PCAOB, see Tom’s four-part series with Joe Howell:

PCAOB, audits and compliance-Part I;

PCAOB, audits and compliance-Part II;

PCAOB, audits and compliance-Part III;

PCAOB, audits and compliance-Part IV;

In this episode, I visit with Mike Skopets, from Miller & Chevalier on the firm’s Summer 2017 FCPA Report. We discuss the background to the Report and begin with what macro trends the firm identified. We discuss the numbers of resolutions, declinations and investigations and what they might demonstrate. We go into the Linde Gas and CDM Smith declinations with disgorgement and what these two superior decisions portend for the compliance practitioner. We consider the Kokesh decision by the US Supreme Court and what it may mean for not only FCPA enforcement but the compliance professionals decision making calculus for self-disclosure. It is a very interesting wrap up of the first six months of the FCPA world in 2017. 

Miller & Chevalier’s Summer 2017 FCPA Report is available at no cost on the firm’s website. You can obtain a copy by clicking here.

Jay and I return for a wide-ranging discussion on some of the week’s top compliance and ethics related stories, including:

1. The SEC charges KPMG and partner with blown oil and gas company audit. See Dick Cassin’s blog post in the FCPA Blog.
2. BSRG raises its head again as company chief Beny Steinmetz was detained in Israel. See article in the FCPA Blog.
3. What should be the response of the compliance community to the events in Charlottesville and the administration’s response. Tom and Matt Kelly explored in this week’s edition of Compliance into the Weeds. See Matt Kelly’s blog post, Trump Tests Corporate America’s Values. See Tom’s blog post Time For Compliance to Take a Stand. Finally for a perspective from the compliance profession, see the statement from the Ethics and Compliance Initiative entitled, To the Members and Stakeholders of the ECI Community
4. Jeff Kaplan considers whether lawyers can be whistleblowers. See Jeff’s article in the Conflict of Interest blog.
5. Can you do any business in Iran? A new treasury ruling complicates the matter (think Catch 22). Sam Rubenfeld reports in the WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal.
6. Roy Snell reflects on 20 years in the compliance profession in an interview with Ben DiPietro in the WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal.
7. This month’s podcast series on One Month to a More Compliance Program is in full production. In August I am reviewing how to have greater continuous improvement in your compliance program. This week’s topics include voluntary monitoring, keeping track of current events, the Desktop Risk Assessment, using big data and controls testing. Affiliated Monitors is this month’s sponsor. It is available on the FCPA Compliance Report, iTunes, Libsyn, YouTube and JDSupra.

Jay and I return for a wide-ranging discussion on some of the week’s top compliance and ethics related stories, including: 

1. The Mattis Memo on ethics. See Tom’s blog post on why this Memo is so significant for the compliance practitioner. Also check out Matt Kelly’s blog post on Radical Compliance. 
2. More Data Security Compliance on EU Horizon. See article Mara Lemos Stein’s article in Risk and Compliance Journal in the WSJ.
3. One of the great musicians of the 20th century died this week, Glen Campbell. Tom pays tribute in a moving blog post.
4. Matt Kelly explores the intersection of FCPA and non-GAAP financial reporting. See Matt’s article in Radical Compliance.
5. Jay asks if FCPA defenses counsel are becoming to whiny, based upon an article in GIR (sub req’d) by Jenner & Block lawyers, David Bitkower and Nicholas Barnaby and associate Marguerite Moeller entitled, “DOJ must beware unintended consequences, as multilateral settlements rise”
6. Everything Compliance, Episode 16 is out. It is our first book review episode. We consider Jesse Eisinger’s book the Chickenshit Club. It is available on the FCPA Compliance Report, iTunes, Libsyn, YouTube and JDSupra. Eisinger and key book source Paul Pelletier have agreed to come on the FCPA Compliance Report to discuss the book next month.
7. This month’s podcast series on One Month to a More Compliance Program has premiered. In August I review how to have greater continuous improvement in your compliance program. Affiliated Monitors is this month’s sponsor. It is available on the FCPA Compliance Report, iTunes, Libsyn, YouTube and JDSupra.
8. Tom surpasses 2000 blog posts. See his blog post on surpassing 2000 blogs posts here.
9. Jay discusses his Weekend Report, And you may ask yourself, well How did I get here?

In this episode, the Everything Compliance trio of Matt Kelly, Jay Rosen and Tom Fox unpack our first book review. We consider the recently released The Chickenshit Club by Jesse Eisenger and it may mean for the compliance practitioner. We consider the internal journey of the Department of Justice from their days of Enron, WorldCom and Adelphia convictions to the 2008 financial crisis where no senior executives were prosecuted. It was a series of steps which led to this change and we discuss the key changes in the DoJ's thinking. The book is a real page turner and our discussion reflects this. We believe that every compliance practitioner should read the book and understand its lessons from DOJ prosecution.

Every compliance practitioner should read Eisinger's book The Chickenshit Club.

You can purchase a copy of the book The Chickenshit Club by clicking here.

Show Notes for This Week in FCPA-Episode 64, for the week ending August 4, the 10 Year Anniversary Edition

In this special Saturday edition, Jay and I return for a wide-ranging discussion on some of the week’s top compliance and ethics related stories, including:

 Net 1 UEPS Technologies, Inc. obtains a full declination. Yet the company went through the investigation after being turned in by a competitor. Bryan Cave attorneys Mark Srere and Kristin Robinson explore in their article FCPA Investigations – Competitors Dropping the Dime.

1. OFAC brings an enforcement action against a non-US company. See article in the FCPA Blog.
2. Financial health as an indicia for third parties and corruption. See Tom’s article What is the Financial Health of Your Third Parties.
3. MasterCard uses a Richard Bistrong video in its compliance training. See article by Sam Rubenfeld in WSJ.
4. After 10 years, the FCPA Blog is still dancing. See Dick Cassin’s article in the FCPA Blog.
5. Across the Board premiers. In this new podcast, I explore issues relating to the Board of Directors, risk management and corporate governance. In Episode 1, Richard Lummis and I consider the role of the Uber Board of Directors in the company’s struggles. It is available on the FCPA Compliance Report, iTunes, Libsyn, YouTube and JDSupra.
6. This month’s podcast series on One Month to a More Effective Compliance program has premiered. In August I review how to have greater continuous improvement in your compliance program. Affiliated Monitors is this month’s sponsor. It is available on the FCPA Compliance Report, iTunes, Libsyn, YouTube and JDSupra.
7. Jay reports on the state of compliance in Mexico and Panama.
8. Jay discusses his latest piece for the SCCE Magazine, How compliance can be a business advantage

In this episode, Matt Kelly and I explore last week’s announcement by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the resolution of its outstanding Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) enforcement action with Halliburton Company continues to resonate and provide lessons for the compliance practitioner. We consider the enforcement action around the issue of internal controls, their effectiveness (or lack thereof) and management over-ride of internal controls.

For more information, see my blog posts:

Lessons in Failures of Internal Controls; and 

Halliburton Resolves FCPA Enforcement Action

This week, Jay and I return for a wide-ranging discussion on some of the week’s top compliance and ethics related stories, including: 

1. Halliburton settles long standing FCPA enforcement action. See SEC Cease and Desist Order. Also see SEC Press Release.
2. US authorities end five-year foreign bribery investigation into IBM. See article by Sam Rubenfeld in WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal.
3. DOJ closes FCPA probe of Newton Mining without action. See article by Sam Rubenfeld in WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal.
4. Navex releases its 2017 Ethics & Compliance Training Benchmark Report. See article by Ben DiPietro in WSJ.
5. DOJ finally conviction in FCPA case. See Dick Cassin’s article in the FCPA Blog.
6. Everything Compliance-Episode 15 is out. Topics include The right to be forgotten in the EU; Big data and compliance-the EU regulators wrap anti-trust issues into data privacy; a wrap up for the 6 years since the Bribery Act came into existence; and the troubling inclination of UK regulators to engage in burden shifting in anti-bribery cases; Jesse Eisinger’s book, The Chickenshit Club; with the lack of US leadership, will other countries ramp up anti-corruption enforcement?

7. Want to increase your visibility in the greater compliance community? Consider writing for the FCPA Blog. To see how, see this article by Dick Cassin by clicking here.
8. June Foray, the voice of Rocket J. Squirrel died this week. See NYT obit.
9. Jose Altuve hits over .500 for the month of July. See article by Jared Diamond in WSJ.
10. Jay previews his weekend report, Don't let your E&C skills lapse over the summer.