Nobody ever wants to end up sitting across the table from federal prosecutors. But if the worst happens, here’s what compliance officers and corporate counselors need to know about how charging decisions are made when corporate wrongdoing occurs, straight from current and former law enforcement officials. Current and former federal prosecutors speaking at Compliance Week’s […]
Regulatory Enforcement
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
Exec Comp Reform Debate Picks Up Steam
The national debate on executive compensation reform picked up steam this week, as the Treasury Department laid out its principles for compensation reform, unveiled its Interim Final Rule on the compensation and corporate governance standards that apply for TARP recipients, and appointed Kenneth Feinberg as Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation (aka the Pay Czar). […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
SEC Heal Thyself: Compliance Program Revamped
The Securities and Exchange Commission just hasn’t had enough bad news recently, so last month the media piled on even more: a probe of insider-trading allegedly going on inside the SEC. Specifically, the agency’s inspector general has found evidence of “suspicious activity, appearances of improprieties, and … possible trading on non-public information, and/or potential insider […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
Keeping Compliance Effective in Difficult Times
By all accounts, the tough economic environment has created an even tougher enforcement environment for Corporate America. Companies shouldn’t expect that to improve any time soon. “There’s a simple but sobering reality right now,” former Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, now at the law firm of Baker & McKenzie, told several hundred compliance officers attending […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
“Urgent Change” Needed to Fix Reporting
Corporate reporting is too complex and needs “urgent change,” according to a discussion paper from U.K. regulator the Financial Reporting Council (FRC). The International Accounting Standards Board should overhaul its standards so each one has an easy-to-follow structure with a clear statement of what it is supposed to achieve, the FRC said. It also called […]
Posted inInternal Controls
SEC’s Aguilar on 404, IFRS Proxy Access, More
Smaller companies should prepare to become “more familiar” with the auditor attestation requirement under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, an SEC commissioner told a group of compliance officers gathered in Washington D.C. The SEC’s cost-benefit study on Section 404 is “close to final” and the anecdotal evidence is that “the hard learning that the […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
Editorial: Enforcement: The Next Big Wave
It’s the primary axiom of corporate compliance: A new rule emerges over the horizon, companies ignore it until the rule’s arrival is imminent, and then they panic and scramble to implement a compliance regime as quickly as possible. The Securities and Exchange Commission seems to be following a similar pattern. Stronger enforcement is now the […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Europe Speeds Up Financial Regulation Reform Plan
The European Commission has accelerated plans to create a new regulatory framework for financial services firms. Announcing more detail on the trading bloc’s plans and a timetable for the needed legal changes, Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said he wanted it up and running next year, not 2012 as originally proposed. The Commission’s plan is […]
