We generally assume that the prosecution of crime acts as a deterrence to others who may think about committing the crime. One of the key factors in fraud is opportunity. If the wrongdoer thinks they can not get away with the violation, they are less likely to commit the violation. At least that is the … Read more »
It Does Not Take Much to Get You Into FCPA Trouble
The recent FCPA enforcement actions brought against Veraz Networks, Inc. shows that it does not take huge piles of money to get in trouble. Veraz admitted to making improper payments of only $40,000. Not that $40,000 is an insignificant amount. It just pales in comparison to the huge dollars we have seen on other FCPA … Read more »
Goldman Settles; Fabulous Fab is Left on His Own
Goldman Sachs settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That’s not a surprise. Goldman did not want to litigate this action. It wanted it to go away. As a shareholder in Goldman, I wanted it to go away. It seems others did also. GS stock price opened at $138.50 on Thursday morning. It opened at … Read more »
Compliance Bits & Pieces for July 16
Here are some recent stories that I found interesting: Canada and the Corruption of Foreign Officials Act by Tom Fox The CFPOA was passed in back in 1999. However, up until this year, there was only one enforcement action under the legislation involving a Canadian company and no prior enforcement actions against individuals. The Canadian … Read more »
Revisiting Toyota, Ethics and Compliance
After many people slapped Toyota with the unethical label over its unintended acceleration problem, it appears that Toyota may be vindicated. The Wall Street Journal is reporting some early results form the U.S. Department of Transportation’s analysis of data recorders. They found that throttles were wide open and brakes not engaged on Toyotas involved in … Read more »
Power Corrupts – So Does Powerlessness
Rosabeth Moss Kanter points out another reason that the “tone at the top” is only one factor for corporate compliance in Powerlessness Corrupts. “Power corrupts, as Lord Acton famously said, but so does powerlessness. Though powerlessness might not result in the egregious violations associated with arrogant officials who feel they are above the law, it … Read more »
Trust and Compliance
Yesterday’s Carnival of Trust post got me thinking about the relationship of compliance and trust. “Compliance lays out policies and checks to make sure you are complying with those policies. Trust, but verify, and mostly verify.” I equate trust more with the ethics side of business: Doing what you should (or should not) do, based … Read more »
Carnival of Trust
The Carnival of Trust is the brainchild of Charles Green of Trust Matters. It’s intended to highlight the best posts about trust in the business and professional workspace over the previous month. He apparently ran out of worthy people to host his carnival and, in what must have been a moment of weakness, asked me … Read more »
Compliance Bits & Pieces for July 9
Here are some stories I found interesting: Compliance Lessons in Country Music by Frank Sheeder in The Healthcare Compliance Blog We all get our inspiration from different places. As you will see, country music can support some of the best themes that we can establish as compliance professionals. The titles of some of the more … Read more »
Performance Fees for Private Investments Funds under the Investment Adviser Act
As more private investment funds will be pulled under the regulatory umbrella of the Investment Advisers Act,they will need to focus on the limitation on performance fees. Section 205(a)(1) of the Advisers Act generally prohibits any investment adviser, unless exempt from registration pursuant to Section 203(b) of the Advisers Act, from entering into, extending, renewing, … Read more »