Fund management company WisdomTree will pay $4 million to settle allegations by the Securities and Exchange Commission that it improperly invested in fossil fuel and tobacco companies in environmental, social and governance (ESG) funds despite promising to avoid them.
Aaron Nicodemus
Aaron Nicodemus is the Editor-in-Chief of Compliance Week. He previously worked as a reporter for Bloomberg Law and as business editor at the Telegram & Gazette in Worcester, Mass.
Email: aaron.nicodemus@complianceweek.com
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Posted inData Privacy
DOJ proposes rule that would block sale of Americans’ personal data to Chinese, Russian firms
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has proposed a new rule that would regulate the use of Americans’ personal information by foreign companies and foreign persons in six “countries of concern,” prohibiting and restricting the sale of data to thwart the use of data for cyber-enabled activities, espionage, coercion, influence and blackmail.
The notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), issued Monday, designated six countries of concern: China (including Hong Kong and Macau), Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela.
Posted inData Privacy
Keys to a successful GenAI use policy: Clear roles, training, vendor management
For all the hype surrounding generative artificial intelligence, the technology has been met with a healthy skepticism in the compliance community. Compliance practitioners want to know: Is it safe? Can it be deployed ethically? Are the risks greater than the rewards? And what should an AI acceptable use policy contain?
Posted inAnti-Bribery
Raytheon parent RTX settles false claims, defective pricing, Qatar FCPA violations for $950M
The other shoe finally dropped for Raytheon and parent company RTX, as two U.S. regulators announced nearly $1 billion in penalties to settle defective pricing in defense contracts, false claims related to inflated prices on government contracts, and bribes paid to government officials in Qatar that violated the FCPA.
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
Government contractor fined $307K after third-party hack compromised personal data
It was a double whammy of cybersecurity no-nos for a federal contractor hit with a data breach: The personal data of Medicare beneficiaries contained in unencrypted screenshots were allegedly compromised when their third-party vendor’s server was hacked.
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Poor internal controls led to FCPA violations in Moog’s $1.7M settlement with SEC
A company culture geared to “win business at any cost” encouraged employees of New York-based aerospace manufacturer Moog to pay bribes in India to win contracts, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged.
Posted inEthics & Culture
What’s your risk appetite? EU firms grapple with ‘ridiculously complex’ ESG reporting rules
Discussions on the increasingly complex ESG rules in the EU were the crux of some conversations at Compliance Week Europe, a two-day conference in Amsterdam Oct. 15-16. The event brought together Compliance Week and its sister organization, the International Compliance Association, and more than 200 GRC professionals across industries.
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
TD Bank fined nearly $3.1B by U.S. regulators for AML compliance failures
TD Bank will pay nearly $3.1 billion in penalties to four U.S. regulators to settle charges that it “chose profits over compliance” when it allowed three money laundering networks to filter more than $670 million in dirty money through the company.
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
SEC enforcement head Grewal to step down
Gurbir Grewal, director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement, will step down from his post Oct. 11. Grewal, who had served as the division’s director since 2021, will be replaced by Sanjay Wadhwa, currently the division’s deputy director, the SEC said.
Posted inData Privacy
T-Mobile reaches $31.5M settlement with FCC over multiple data breaches
T-Mobile, which experienced three huge data breaches in the past three years, agreed to pay $31.5 million in penalties and remediation for failing to protect millions of its customers’ personal information as part of a settlement with the Federal Communications Commission.