All articles by Jaclyn Jaeger – Page 113
-
Blog
A Recap of FCPA Enforcement in 2014
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement actions brought by the Justice Department and the Securities Exchange Commission in 2014 held steady in comparison to the previous year's enforcement numbers, while the average price tag in penalty amounts continued to skyrocket. In 2014, the average total value of monetary resolutions in FCPA ...
-
Article
Lessons to Learn From the Alstom Fiasco
The record $772 million criminal penalty reached between the Justice Department and French power and transportation giant Alstom is yet another real-life example of corporate governance gone haywire. Abounding with cover-ups and an overall lack of due diligence, “The Alstom case is the antithesis of the hallmarks of an effective ...
-
Blog
Ousted Infosys Compliance Chief Joins Tata Steel
Image: Tata Steel has appointed Parvatheesam Kanchinadham, the ousted chief risk and compliance officer of Indian software giant Infosys, as company secretary and compliance officer. Kanchinadham, who joined Infosys in 2003, resigned last year after an ethics investigation found that he had made gender-insensitive comments to female employees. Details inside.
-
Blog
NHTSA Issues Record Fines in 2014; Fines Honda $70 Million
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration slapped Honda with two $35 million civil penalties for failing to report deaths, injuries, and certain warranty claims to the federal government in violation of the TREAD Act. Including Honda, NHTSA issued more than $126 million in civil penalties in 2014, exceeding the total ...
-
Article
T&E Controls That Won’t Get You Busted
Image: Title: TillenThe SEC set the compliance community buzzing in December with two FCPA enforcement actions that hinge on improper travel and entertainment spending—an offense historically seldom seen in FCPA enforcement. Usually, “T&E abuses are add-on charges to an enforcement action involving a larger pool of improper activity,” says James ...
-
Article
More Cooperation, More Whistleblowing, More Prosecution
Image: Title: Berland2015 may be the year when overseas regulators hit their stride in prosecuting companies for misconduct, as tactics get more sophisticated and investigations come to fruition. In the United States, enforcement stemming from whistleblowers will be at full speed and pressure to cooperate with prosecutors will be high. ...
-
Blog
New Sanctions Imposed on North Korea
President Obama has signed an executive order imposing new sanctions on North Korea in response to the cyber-attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment. Specifically, the sanctions target agencies and officials associated with the North Korean government and Workers’ Party of Korea. They will be denied access to the U.S. financial system ...
-
Blog
Fiskars Product Safety Case Offers Compliance Lessons
Gerber Legendary Blades, a division of Fiskars Brands, this week agreed to pay a $2.6 million civil penalty to the Department of Justice to settle allegations that it knowingly failed to immediately report to the Consumer Product Safety Commission a safety hazard associated with Fiskars’ Gator Combo Axe. As part ...
-
Blog
FTC Finalizes User Privacy Charges Against Snapchat
Image: The Federal Trade Commission has approved a final order settling charges that Snapchat deceived consumers with promises about the disappearing nature of messages sent through the service. “If a company markets privacy and security as key selling points in pitching its service to consumers, it is critical that it ...
-
Blog
AR Capital Shakes Up Its Board
Nicholas Schorsch, co-founder of AR Capital, will be stepping down from the board of directors of RCS Capital, New York REIT, and eleven non-traded real estate investment trusts and direct investment programs sponsored by AR Capital. The announcement comes at a time when the investment management firm faces a defamation ...
-
Blog
Computer Sciences to Pay $190 Million in Accounting Probe; Makes Compliance Enhancements
Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) disclosed in a securities filing yesterday that it has reached a $190 million proposed settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission and will restate three years of financial results to resolve accounting issues dating back four years ago. The SEC charged the IT services company with ...
-
Blog
Bank Leumi Fined $400 Million for Tax Evasion Scheme; Bans Compliance Officer
Israel-based Bank Leumi has agreed to pay a total of $400 million to resolve charges that it conducted an illegal cross-border scheme to help U.S. clients evade taxes by hiding income and assets in offshore bank accounts at the bank’s locations in Israel, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and the United States. Details ...
-
Blog
Israeli Police Launch Biggest Ever Anti-Corruption Operation
Dec. 29—Israeli police have made more than two dozen arrests in what some say is the most significant anti-corruption operation in the country’s history. Officials have been questioned on suspicion of corruption, embezzlement of public funds, and illegal money transfers. According to police, “millions” of shekels of public funds were ...
-
Blog
Justice Department Intervenes in Whistleblower Suits Against Omnicare
The Justice Department recently intervened in two consolidated whistleblower lawsuits against drug company Omnicare over allegations that it solicited and received millions of dollars in kickbacks from drug maker Abbott Laboratories. “Although the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia is small, we will not waver in our ...
-
Blog
OECD: France Still Lags on Anti-Bribery Efforts
France still has several more improvements to make when it comes to combating the bribery of foreign public officials involving French companies, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's follow-up report to its Phase 3 recommendations. Of the OECD’s 33 recommendations, the group deemed four to be fully ...
-
Blog
Ocwen Financial to Pay $150 Million Over Wrongful Foreclosures
Ocwen Financial this week agreed to pay a total of $150 million in “hard-dollar” assistance to current and former New York borrowers to resolve numerous and significant abuses in violation of a previous settlement agreement with the New York Department of Financial Services. As part of the settlement, founder William ...
-
Blog
NLRB Issues Labor Violation Complaints Against McDonald's
The National Labor Relations Board Office last week issued 13 complaints involving 78 charges against fast-food giant McDonald’s USA and McDonald’s franchisees, as joint employers. The complaints could have far-reaching effects for McDonald’s, and others that rely on a franchise model, in that it opens the door to unionization and ...
-
Blog
Sustainability Standards for Services Industries Released
The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board issued its latest set of standards, this time for companies in the services sector to help them improve disclosure of environmental, social, and governance risks. The standards represent the sixth set in a planned industry-focused series of sustainability standards. More details inside.
-
Blog
Alstom to Pay Record $772 Million for FCPA Violations
Image: French power and transportation giant Alstom SA agreed Monday to pay $772 million to settle criminal violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, setting a record for largest FCPA settlement ever. Deputy Attorney General James Cole called Alstom’s misconduct "astounding in its breadth, its brazenness and its worldwide consequences," ...
-
Blog
Parker Drilling Unit Pays $267,000 for Bribery
Scotland-based oil and gas services company International Tubular Services, a subsidiary of Parker Drilling, last week agreed to pay a £170,000 ($267,000) fine to Scotland’s Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service’s civil recovery unit to resolve charges that a former Kazakhstan-based employee paid bribes to secure contract work from a ...