Ethics & Culture

For years—essentially since the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines were first enacted in 1991—companies have been left pretty much to their own devices to figure out how to develop effective ethics and compliance programs that live up to (or go beyond) what the Sentencing Guidelines require. In their original incarnation (from 1991 to 2004), the compliance provisions […]

He was the sheriff of Wall Street, a rising star whom some believed might eventually occupy 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Beyond Wall Street, he wanted to change the ethics of New York State and perhaps the nation as a whole. But his own ethical decisions paved the way for his political demise and his disgraced exit […]

Aletter came to me from a reader not long ago, and I have to admit that her question gave me pause. (I’ve given the author a psuedonym.) Dear Pat, I read some of your articles in Compliance Week and wanted to seek your perspective on incentives—specifically, the thought of recognizing employees who have set an […]

With corporate scandals continuing unabated and hitting the headlines daily (the U.S. sub-prime mortgage crisis, Siemens’ bribery probe, Societe Generale’s rogue trader, to name a few), more and more organizations—whether corporate, non-profit, academic, or governmental—are adopting global codes of conduct for their employees, executives, agents, partners, and vendors. And these global codes are not necessarily […]

Rising numbers of mortgage defaults, growing business inventories, declining consumer confidence, falling interest rates, and roller-coaster trading sessions—without question, few economic indicators are heading in the right direction these days. Regardless of the terminology we will ultimately use to define this period in our economic development, it also doesn’t appear that the situation is going […]

Picture the scene: It’s the end of the quarter, and your compliance report is due for inclusion in the board materials. You and your staff have been busy crunching the numbers; so far they’re looking pretty good. The board is going to be pleased, you say to yourself. Fewer helpline calls this quarter. Theft numbers […]

The phone rings; it’s a call to the compliance helpline. You greet your caller, and you are pleased to meet a well-spoken and seemingly responsible employee. She proceeds to tell you her problem. The caller is a fairly senior employee in the company’s procurement division, and part of her responsibility is to assist with the […]

When it comes to corporate ethics, technology may again be playing an important role in leveling the playing field, and helping to create more consistent policies and standards in companies across the globe. “We live in an age of information, where there are no secrets, and no places to hide,” says Keith Darcy, chief operating […]

A top Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement official tells Compliance Week the regulator will likely close out a large number of its options backdating cases in the near future without taking any enforcement action. And in a break from its recent practice, the official, Walter Ricciardi, deputy director of the Division of Enforcement, said the […]

If in-house counsel advise their coworkers based anywhere in the European Union on a competition matter, the conversations, e-mails, and documents aren’t protected by attorney-client privilege, according to a controversial decision handed down on September 17, 2007. General counsel across Europe roundly condemned Akzo Nobel Chemicals Ltd. v. Commission, which found that attorney-client privilege in […]