Appointment Blogs | Compliance Week – Page 311
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Israeli Police Launch Biggest Ever Anti-Corruption Operation
Dec. 29—Israeli police have made more than two dozen arrests in what some say is the most significant anti-corruption operation in the country’s history. Officials have been questioned on suspicion of corruption, embezzlement of public funds, and illegal money transfers. According to police, “millions” of shekels of public funds were ...
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FuelCell Energy Audit Chair Resigns
James Gerson, who served as a board member of FuelCell Energy for 22 years, resigned from his position on Dec. 18, citing the company's failure to address limited domestic sales. Gerson was also chairman of the audit and finance committee and a member of the executive committee, as well as ...
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Debt Modification May Lead to Hedge Accounting Questions
Dec. 29—A friendly reminder from the SEC and auditing experts: If your company plans to issue or modify debt now, before the Fed raises interest rates sometime in 2015, check your debt agreements carefully to see whether you have any embedded derivatives language in there—since that could trigger new disclosures ...
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'British Madoff' Disappears After $200M Fraud Unravels
The UK press reported this week that a trader named Joe Lewis of Yorkshire has disappeared after admitting earlier this month that his investment firm actually stopped operating back in 2009. Despite the firm not engaging in any trading for years, investors in JL Trading continued to receive detailed monthly ...
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Knowles Appoints New Board Member
Knowles, a global supplier of advanced micro-acoustic solutions and specialty components, has appointed appointed Didier Hirsch to its board of directors effective immediately. He will also serve on the audit committee and the governance and nominating committee. Details inside.
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Petrobras Creates Special Committee Amid Corruption Probe
The board of Brazilian state-owned oil giant Petrobras has created a special committee whose function will be to oversee an existing independent internal investigation amid widespread bribery allegations. "This committee will act independently and will have a direct reporting line with the board of directors," the company said. Details inside.
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Justice Department Intervenes in Whistleblower Suits Against Omnicare
The Justice Department recently intervened in two consolidated whistleblower lawsuits against drug company Omnicare over allegations that it solicited and received millions of dollars in kickbacks from drug maker Abbott Laboratories. “Although the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia is small, we will not waver in our ...
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OECD: France Still Lags on Anti-Bribery Efforts
France still has several more improvements to make when it comes to combating the bribery of foreign public officials involving French companies, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's follow-up report to its Phase 3 recommendations. Of the OECD’s 33 recommendations, the group deemed four to be fully ...
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'You Know What's Cool? A Billion Dollars,' Part II
"A million dollars isn't cool. You know what's cool? A billion dollars." -- Sean Parker, The Social Network In 2009, when Irving Picard and his law firm, Baker & Hostetler, had been working as trustee on the Madoff case for less than a year, I observed that the firm had ...
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SEC: Don’t Ignore Mortality Tables at Year-End
If your company is planning to set aside new mortality tables in arriving at assumptions about pension and other post-employment benefit obligations because they are simply too new, that might be a mistake. The SEC recently sent a clear signal to the accounting profession that companies need to consider new ...
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New UK Anti-Corruption Plan Omits Hideaway Homes
Britain’s ambitious U.K. Anti-Corruption Plan addresses everything from emboldened enforcement agencies to sharper criminal liability, but critics have jumped on one weakness: the plan’s mandate for a public register of beneficial ownership omits the housing market. Given the multitude of luxury homes in London owned by overseas trusts, that’s problematic, ...
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EU Raises ‘Loophole Risk’ With New AML Regime
Transparency advocates are giving tempered praise to a new anti-money laundering regime proposed this month by representatives of the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. The new rules would mandate that member states create centralised registers of beneficial ownership behind companies, but outsiders such as journalists or ...
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Brandywine Appoints Chief Accounting Officer
Brandywine, an asset management firm, has appointed Daniel Palazzo as chief accounting officer, effective Jan. 15, 2015. Palazzo will assume this role from Thomas Wirth, who will continue in his current role as executive vice president and chief financial officer. Details inside.
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SEC Sues F-Squared for Touting Hypothetical and Inflated Performance
Yesterday, the SEC announced an interesting enforcement action against investment management firm F-Squared Investments and its former CEO, Howard Present. According to the SEC, F-Squared misled investors between September 2008 and September 2013 by touting a lengthy record of stellar performance that was, in fact, not only hypothetical but substantially ...
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SEC's EDGAR Filings Go on Christmas Hiatus
The day after Christmas has been declared a non-working day for the federal government and the SEC’s electronic filing system, EDGAR, will not be operational on that day. The system resumes operations on Monday, Dec. 29 and filings due oth the 26th can be delayed until that time.
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Humana Names Chief Accounting Officer
Humana, a managed healthcare company, has appointed Cynthia Zipperle as chief accounting officer and controller, effective immediately. Zipperle has been a part of Humana’s finance team since joining the company in 1998, with increasing responsibility during her tenure. Details inside.
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Ocwen Financial to Pay $150 Million Over Wrongful Foreclosures
Ocwen Financial this week agreed to pay a total of $150 million in “hard-dollar” assistance to current and former New York borrowers to resolve numerous and significant abuses in violation of a previous settlement agreement with the New York Department of Financial Services. As part of the settlement, founder William ...
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NLRB Issues Labor Violation Complaints Against McDonald's
The National Labor Relations Board Office last week issued 13 complaints involving 78 charges against fast-food giant McDonald’s USA and McDonald’s franchisees, as joint employers. The complaints could have far-reaching effects for McDonald’s, and others that rely on a franchise model, in that it opens the door to unionization and ...
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Podcast: Navigating the Pitfalls of Geolocation Data
Uber, Snapchat, and Golden Technologies are the latest companies to come under fire for how they use the geolocation data they collect from their customers. In this week’s podcast, we talk to Fernando Bohorquez, a partner at the law firm BakerHostetler who specializes in privacy and data security issues, about ...
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The Ingredients for Good Non-Financial Reporting
Good disclosure begins with good standards. That has been challenging enough for financial reporting, and now investors want even more disclosure about important non-financial information. This week, Compliance Week columnist Robert Herz talks about the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (disclosure: he sits on SASB’s board), its effort to develop disclosure ...