The fraud triangle is well-known to most compliance practitioners: pressure, opportunity, and rationalization. When these three factors converge, there is danger of an ethical lapse which could lead to violation of law. Bribery and corruption under the FCPA are types of fraud where the employee or employees do not keep the direct proceeds of their conduct but enrich the company. Of course, if their collective bonuses are drawn from the fraudulent conduct, the cycle is complete around how the fraud triangle applies to the FCPA.
Yet, most compliance practitioners do not think of the fraud triangle when they consider their corporate compliance programs. Todd Haugh, wrote in a MIT Sloan Management Review article, “The Trouble With Corporate Compliance Programs,” that even best practices compliance programs fail to take into account behavioral best practices and one important, but too often overlooked, key to strengthening both individual and overall corporate behavior is eliminating rationalizations.
