LONDON—And suddenly, within the space of a week, ethics & compliance officers have all the ammunition they need to tell cynics once and for all why eradicating corruption is so important.

Here in the United Kingdom (where I am spending the week on business), the word “war” is on the front page of every newspaper you see. Every TV news broadcast starts with Ukraine. Few people talk about the crisis all that much, but they do steal glances at the BBC or Sky News every time the subject crosses an announcer’s lips. What’s happened now? Has Russia invaded? Are we wrong to do nothing?