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?
One real-life example is embattled videogame giant Activision Blizzard, whose CEO Bobby Kotick faces damning evidence that he knew of sexual misconduct allegations for years but did not inform the board, according to the Wall Street Journal. How much Kotick and other executives knew about the sexual misconduct and when is the focus of an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
