Here are some recent stories that I found interesting: Who Does Your Chief Compliance Officer Report To? by Thomas Fox in a guest post on The FCPA Blog Should a CCO report to a company’s Board of Directors, or an appropriate Board committee such as an Audit Committee or Compliance Committee? Or can a CCO … Read more »
Supreme Court Rules on the Privacy of Text Messages
Sort of. The Supreme Court issued its ruling in Ontario v. Quon regarding a police chief reviewing the content of a police officer’s text messages with consent or a warrant. Many commenters hoped that the Court would issue a broad statement on an employee’s privacy rights in this age of cloud computing and web 2.0. … Read more »
Regulation of Advisers to Private Funds
One of the differences between the Senate and House financial reform bills is how they treat advisers to private equity funds. The Senate bill has an exemption for private equity and venture capital. The House bill only has an exemption for venture capital. Since I work for a private equity firm, I am very focused … Read more »
Compliance and Humor
At the Compliance Week 2010 Conference I was surprised to discover that the improv comedy group, Second City, had dived into the world of compliance and ethics awareness. They debuted three of their awareness videos during the conference keynotes. They are now available on their Real Biz Shorts website: Cracking the Code Up-Setting a Good … Read more »
Enterprise 2.0, Policies and Compliance
Mike Gotta asked me to join him on a panel about the policy and compliance issues at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston. This was my fifth Enterprise 2.0 conference: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2009 San Francisco. That the audience was interested in compliance and regulatory issues is an indication of the industry maturing. “Policy formation, … Read more »
Are Facebook and MySpace Messages Subject to Discovery?
In the recent case of Crispin v. Audigier, a California judge ruled that Facebook and MySpace messages that aren’t publicly available are protected information under the Stored Communications Act, and therefore can’t be subpoenaed for use in civil litigation. Buckley Crispin sued clothing maker Christian Audigier for copyright infringement, alleging that Audigier used his artistic … Read more »
School Official Disciplined for Misuse of LexisNexis
The Massachusetts State Ethics Commission fined Mark Rivera, the former Lawrence School Department Urban Affairs Liaison and Special Assistant to the School Superintendent, for misuse of his access rights to LexisNexis. The Lawrence School Department purchased access to the LexisNexis database so Rivera could obtain contact information for parents no longer living in the district, … Read more »
Why Is It Called a “Wells Notice”?
In 1972, SEC Chairman William J. Casey appointed a committee to review and evaluate the Commission’s enforcement policies and practices. Chairman Casey appointed John A. Wells, a lawyer at Royall, Koegel & Wells in New York, to the committee. He also added and former SEC Chairmen Manny Cohen and Ralph Demmler. Chairman Casey asked Jack … Read more »
Compliance Bits and Pieces for June 11
Here are some interesting stories from the past week: SEC Union: Staff Need Not Check BlackBerrys After Hours by Bruce Carton in Compliance Week‘s Enforcement Action In short, Khuzami and his senior colleagues can call, email and text SEC Enforcement staff all they want after hours–but can’t do much about it if staff members fail … Read more »
Getting Cleaned by Oil Spill Stock Scams
I doubt you have missed the news about the oil spill mess in the Gulf of Mexico. The scammers have clearly noticed and sense an opportunity to make a quick buck. Some companies may issue press releases, or send unsolicited faxes or spam emails that might include: Claims to have products or technologies that are … Read more »