Appointment Blogs | Compliance Week – Page 277
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Companies Pause on New Discontinued Operations Rule
Image: Companies are hitting bumps as they attempt to apply FASB’s new approach to defining discontinued operations. The standard says a discontinued operation is a major strategic shift and has a major impact on the entity, although it doesn’t provide guidance on how to define those terms, says Beth Paul, ...
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Gallagher Uncorks on SEC Action Against CCOs
Image: SEC Commissioner Dan Gallagher, often a contrarian voice at the agency, spoke up again last week to denounce recent enforcement actions against compliance officers at investment advisory firms. Gallagher panned the SEC rule that dictates how investment advisers establish compliance procedures, and he railed that “the Commission seems to ...
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Same Old, Same Old With SEC Budget Process
On Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee approved a fiscal year 2016 appropriations bill eerily similar to the bill Congress passed four years ago—both bills appropriate $222 million less than the SEC requested, freeze the SEC’s budget at the prior year’s level, and prohibit the SEC from drawing upon an important ...
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Sand Hill Exchange Founder Accepts Responsibility, Has Feedback for SEC
Despite a few outliers, most defendants in SEC settlements continue to settle cases "without admitting or denying" the allegations against them. While such language was also included in the Order memorializing the settlement of the SEC's recent administrative proceeding In the Matter of Sand Hill Exchange, et al., the settlement ...
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Eletrobras Investigating Possible FCPA Violations
Brazil’s state-run power company Eletrobras announced this week in a Form 6-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it has hired law firm Hogan Lovells to evaluate whether the company may have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Brazil’s anti-corruption law, and Eletrobras’ Code of Ethics. Eletrobras said ...
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Google and Amazon’s Antitrust Woes Continue
Image: This week, Europe’s Antitrust Chief Margrethe Vestager escalated a running regulatory battle with American tech giant Google—and Amazon is not too far behind. While the European Union launched an investigation into Amazon’s business practices last week, Vestager recently warned the online retailer about abusing its dominance in the marketplace ...
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IAP Worldwide to Pay $7.1 Million in FCPA Case
Defense and government contracting company IAP Worldwide Services yesterday agreed to pay a $7.1 million penalty and entered into a non-prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice. The NPA requires IAP to “conduct a review of its existing internal controls, policies and procedures, and make any necessary modifications to ensure ...
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Britain to be Exempted From EU’s Structural Reforms
Britain will be cleared of EU reforms that drop the axe on risky trading activities among big banks. The draft law was presented Wednesday to the EU’s state ambassadors for review. If it receives their support, the proposed law will be passed on to Parliament on Friday for approval. ...
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Report: Attributes of Effective E&C Programs
Companies with top-performing ethics and compliance programs conduct formal assessments of their programs at least annually compared to their lower-scoring peers. They also are more likely to use metrics—such as audits, employee survey results, Code of Conduct violations, hotline call metrics, and more—in setting business objectives, and they typically have ...
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Rite Aid Appoints Group VP of Risk and Controls
Rite Aid Corporation month appointed Paul Zikmund as group vice president of risk and controls, according to his LinkedIn profile. Zikmund joins the drug store chain from Bunge, where he served as director of global ethics and compliance since December 2011. Details inside.
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SEC Might Explore Auditor Tenure for Audit Committee Disclosure
Image: When the SEC issues its audit committee discussion paper, it likely will explore more on the audit firm’s tenure and naming engagement partners. As the PCAOB has tried to get consensus on these themes, the board has heard pushback that the disclosure is better placed in audit committee reports, ...
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Millennium Capital and Recovery Names Chief Compliance Officer
Millennium Capital and Recovery, a provider of nationwide recovery management services, has appointed Daniel Clevenger as general counsel and chief compliance officer. Clevenger will lead the company’s in-house legal and compliance activities. Details inside.
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PetroTiger Exonerated From FCPA Prosecution
First, it was Morgan Stanley in 2012. Now, for only the second time in the history of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (at least, that's been publicly reported), the Department of Justice has exonerated a company from FCPA prosection, despite guilty pleas by three of its top executives. The Justice ...
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As BHP Enforcement Shows, the Proof Is in the Doing
Yes, Virginia, you can violate the FCPA even without bribing a foreign government official—just ask BHP Billiton, fined $25 million by the SEC for having a compliance program that looked great on paper, but was never strongly implemented. This week, columnist Tom Fox does a post-mortem on how BHP’s program ...
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Help! Advisory Board Wanted for CW 2016 Conference
Image: It is that time of year again, Compliance Week enthusiasts: fresh off our hugely successful 2015 annual conference, we now are starting to plan our 2016 event happening next year. As always, we need your help. We are looking to recruit a small group of compliance professionals to serve ...
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Zynga Names Chief Accounting Officer
Social gaming giant Zynga has appointed Michelle Quejado as chief accounting officer. She assumes the role from Chief Financial Officer David Lee. Quejado, who joined the company in May, previously was vice president of finance and corporate controller. She previously served as assistant corporate controller at semiconductor company Lam Research. ...
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Shire Names Corporate Secretary and General Counsel
Biopharmaceutical company Shire has appointed Bill Mordan as general counsel and corporate secretary. He will report to CEO Flemming Ornskov and serrve as a member of the executive committee. Details inside.
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SEC Commissioners Want New Rules for Transfer Agents
In an increasingly rare display of unity among members of the Securities and Exchange Commission, they say that the Commission needs to dust off decades-old rules for transfer agents. New requirements could include requiring agents to be appropriately insured, properly disclosing conflicts of interest; and being subjected to more robust ...
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MetricStream, Everbridge Partner to Provide Disaster Recovery Service
MetricStream, a GRC Management Apps provider, this week announced that it is integrating MetricStream's Business Continuity Management (BCM) App with the Everbridge Unified Critical Communications platform to provide users with an integrated communication management capability that supports the end-to-end disaster recovery process. More inside.
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Société Générale to Pay $17.8 Million Under Swiss Bank Program
The Justice Department announced that two more banks—Société Générale Private Banking and Berner Kantonalbank—have reached a resolution under the Swiss Bank Program, which provides a means for Swiss banks to resolve potential criminal liabilities in the United States. Société Générale will pay a $17.8 million penalty, Berner Kantonalbank a $4.6 ...