A case study written by former Compliance Week data and research journalist Aly McDevitt won a National Gold Medal in enterprise reporting from the Association of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE, known as “Azbee”). In April, she won a regional award from the organization.
Published in September, the case study, Inside a Dark Pact: A Case Study of Lafarge’s Terrorist Funding and Compliance Fallout in Syria, followed a French cement makerʼs descent into paying bribes to terrorist organizations in Syria in order to stay in business. The case study traced how sidelining ethics and compliance can lead companies into dangerous territory. What began as “local concessions” ended in funding terrorism—and a historic legal and reputational disaster.
One judge called the story “one of the most impressive Azbee entries I can remember judging.”
The judge went on: “McDevitt’s reporting and writing are both top notch. The level of detail is impressive. The amount of research is apparent, with factual details enhanced by an expert narrative that compels readers to keep reading. A timeline not only tells a condensed version of this terrible tale, but highlights the publication’s expertise in delivering a compelling and alarming story to its readers.”
“If only all subheads were as gasp-inducing as LaFarge’s ‘Road to Hell Paved with Local Concessions,'” the judge continued. “This cogent narrative shows how a cascade of seems-like-the-right-thing-to-do decisions propelled the company into terrifying situations. This should be a case study in journalism school.”
McDevitt worked for Compliance Week from 2019 until earlier this year, when she stepped away to focus on raising her three young children. McDevitt’s work on case studies for compliance was celebrated on Compliance Week and was the subject of a series of podcasts by compliance podcaster Tom Fox.
The ASBPE’s Azbee Awards of Excellence program is “one of the most competitive there is for business-to-business, trade, association, and professional publications. The awards recognize outstanding work by magazines and digital media — websites, e-newsletters, digital magazines, social media and blogs,” the organization said as it published its National award winners Friday.
Other National gold medal winners included entries from the MIT Sloan Management Review, Bloomberg Tax, Bloomberg Law, Restaurant Business, BioPharma Dive and many others.
McDevitt was also one of four finalists for the 2026 Stephen Barr Award for Feature Writing, won by Evan Ackerman, Senior Editor, IEEE Spectrum.
“I am thrilled and honored to receive this national award. This level of recognition is a first for me, and I am incredibly grateful to CW’s editor-in-chief, Aaron Nicodemus, for his encouragement and for believing in my work. It is wonderful to see Compliance Week recognized for the hard work we did on the editorial team last year.”
McDevitt’s previous case study, in which she reported on the compliance missteps made by JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank in their handling of the finances of disgraced financier and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, was drawn into the national spotlight 18 months after its publication by The New York Times Magazine and other media outlets.
The ongoing debate on the Epstein files, and the high-profile politicians and business leaders contained within them, continues to roil American politics. McDevitt’s reporting on the compliance implications of the Epstein case is as relevant today as they were when the case study was published in 2024.
Lessons from Volkswagen’s Dieselgate scandal, or how Carnival Corporation navigated the coronavirus pandemic, continue to offer compliance officers a roadmap to how to handle crisis within their own organizations.
“Compliance Week readers have long known what folks outside the compliance community are only just recognizing: Aly McDevitt consistently produced world-class journalism during her six-year career at Compliance Week. The Lafarge case study was just the latest example,” said Aaron Nicodemus, Compliance Week’s Editor-in-Chief. “What made these case studies really special, though, was how each case study offered lessons learned to the compliance industry about what went wrong, and how to implement controls to prevent future misconduct.”
