Many chief compliance officers today report directly to the board or chief executive officer. But what happens to the CCO when the CEO is the problem and, furthermore, has such an authoritarian hand in the company that even its board is left in the dark about critical ethics and compliance matters?

Jaclyn Jaeger is a freelance contributor to Compliance Week after working for the company for 15 years. She writes on a wide variety of topics, including ethics and compliance, risk management, legal,...