All articles by Jaclyn Jaeger – Page 98
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Liability Protections Included in New Cyber-Security Law
You may have not even noticed it, but discreetly tucked into the massive omnibus spending bill signed into law last month is a provision that effectively makes it safer for companies to share cyber-threat information with one another—but critics argue the bill doesn’t go far enough to ease privacy concerns.
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Court: Compliance Officers Must Ensure Compliance With AML Laws
A federal district court this month upheld a $1 million fine imposed against the former chief compliance officer for MoneyGram International, finding that individual officers of financial institutions, including chief compliance officers, may be held responsible for ensuring compliance with the anti-money laundering provisions of the Bank Secrecy Act.
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SEC Charges State Street for Pay-to-Play Scheme
State Street Bank and Trust Company last week reached a $12 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle charges that it conducted a pay-to-play scheme through its then-senior vice president and a hired lobbyist to win contracts to service Ohio pension funds.
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SEC Initiated Record Enforcement Actions in 2015
The number of enforcement actions initiated by the SEC has steadily increased over the past six fiscal years, reaching a record high in 2015, according to a recent report drawing on data from the Securities Enforcement Empirical Database (SEED) that tracks and records information on SEC enforcement actions filed against ...
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EZCORP Names Chief Accounting Officer Amid Financial Restatements
EZCORP has appointed David McGuire as deputy chief financial officer and chief accounting officer, effective as of Jan. 11. The hiring of McGuire comes two months after the payday lender and pawn shop operator announced that it has filed its amended and past due periodic reports with the Securities and ...
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Systemic Cases Dominate EEOC Enforcement
Image: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission achieved record enforcement results in 2015 and shows no signs of letting up this year. The good news is that employers now have a leg up in defending EEOC claims where they had little to no leverage before. “The EEOC’s focus on systemic investigations ...
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Mitigating Cyber-Threats From the Inside Out
As attacks on corporate networks become more common, companies are getting more adept at protecting their most valuable assets against cyber-threats outside the company, but it’s the insider threats that continue to elude many. Inside, we walk through the difficult part of insider-threat programs: not just creating the program and ...
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U.K. Printing Company to Pay £2.2 Million in Bribery Case
The Southwark Crown Court in London last week ordered U.K. printing company Smith and Ouzman to pay a total of £2.2 million for making corrupt payments. The sentence and conviction followed a four-year investigation by the U.K. Serious Fraud Office.
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Petrobras Cancels Drilling Services Contract With Ensco
U.K.-based Ensco said this week in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that its customer, Brazil state-owned oil and gas company Petrobras, cancelled its contract for a drilling services contract because of alleged irregularities with respect to contracting prior to the company’s acquisition of Pride International in 2011.
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Dental Practice Software Provider to Pay FTC $250K for Misleading Customers About Encryption
Henry Schein Practice Solutions, a provider of office management software for dental practices, this week agreed to pay $250,000 to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it falsely advertised the level of encryption it provided to protect patient data.
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SEC: JPMorgan Misled Customers on Broker Pay
Image: JPMorgan’s brokerage business has agreed to pay $4 million to the SEC to settle charges that it falsely stated on its private banking website and in marketing materials that advisers are compensated based on client performance, rather than commission. According to SEC Enforcement Division Director Andrew Ceresney, “JPMS ...
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New Sentencing Guidelines Could Alter Fraud Prosecutions
Image: Several important changes to the federal Sentencing Guidelines could drastically reduce the sentences imposed for violations of fraud and antitrust laws, even as the Justice Department heightens its focus on prosecuting individuals in corporate misconduct cases. “Some of the changes in the Sentencing Guidelines are a step in the ...
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FCPA Enforcement Trends to Watch in 2016
Image: A recalibrated focus by the government on individual culpability, expanding cross-border cooperation and prosecutions, and hordes of new whistleblower complaints are just a few upcoming enforcement trends that are expected to elicit some big compliance headaches in 2016. “The FCPA Unit, it seems to us, is working as hard ...
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U.S. Sues Volkswagen Over Clean Air Act Violations
Image: The Department of Justice, on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency, today filed a civil complaint against Volkswagen over allegations that Volkswagen violated the Clean Air Act by installing illegal defeat devices that impaired emission control systems in nearly 600,000 diesel engine vehicles. In a statement, Barbara McQuade, U.S. ...
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LifeLock to Pay $100 Million in FTC Case
LifeLock last month agreed to pay $100 million to settle Federal Trade Commission contempt charges that it violated the terms of a 2010 federal court order requiring the company to secure consumers’ personal information and prohibiting the company from deceptive advertising. The settlement represents the largest monetary award obtained by ...
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Revised Ofcom Guidelines Could Mean Higher Penalties
Ofcom, the independent regulator and competition authority for the U.K. communications industry, this month published updated penalty guidelines, which were last revised in 2011. The new guidelines give Ofcom greater flexibility to impose higher penalties for non-compliance. “Companies should therefore take immediate steps to assess and reduce such potential exposure ...
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Treasury Amends Russia and Ukraine Sanctions List
The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control yesterday designated and identified 34 new individuals and entities under four executive orders related to Russia and Ukraine. The updated sanctions list also provides several new lessons for compliance officers.
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Blog
FinCEN Fines First Card Club for Bank Secrecy Act Violations
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network this week announced its first settlement with, and assessment against, a “card club” gaming establishment for violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). The settlement and FinCEN’s assessment requires Oaks Card Club to pay a fine of $650,000 for willful violations of the BSA.
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Managing Cyber-Risk in the Healthcare Industry
Image: Recent high-profile data breaches at several major healthcare providers have jolted the industry, which is trying to piece together better ways to manage the risks. “As opposed to an organization trying to invest more money in firewalls or other types of technical solutions to protect against an intrusion, at ...
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SEC Enforcement Trends to Watch in 2016
Image: A legal analysis of SEC enforcement brought in 2015, along with recent speeches given by SEC enforcement staff, provide a pretty clear roadmap of where the enforcement staff will continue to focus its top priorities in 2016. “Making sure you are addressing those issues in your compliance programs is ...