All articles by Jaclyn Jaeger – Page 99
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Blog
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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Blog
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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Article
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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Article
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 ...
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Blog
J.P. Morgan to Pay SEC and CFTC $307 million for Disclosure Violations
Two JP Morgan wealth management subsidiaries today agreed to pay a total of $307 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in joint enforcement actions for failure to disclose conflicts of interest to clients. Both the CFTC and SEC charged J.P. Morgan Securities (JPMS) ...
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Blog
OSHA Seeks Comments on Whistleblower Guidance for Employers
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is seeking public comments on a draft document intended to provide guidance to employers on preventing retaliation against whistleblowers. Comments are due Jan. 19, 2016.
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Blog
Finance Teams Play Growing Role in Cyber-Risk Mitigation
According to a survey of 389 financial executives conducted by the American Institute of CPAs, 73 percent said they are being asked to take on a larger role in defending their companies from emerging cyber-risks, while another six percent said cyber-risk mitigation has become the primary responsibility of the finance ...
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Blog
Poll: Lack of Quality Data Poses Due Diligence Challenges
Regulators are increasingly demanding greater evidence of well-developed anti-money laundering compliance programs, processes, and systems and controls, and yet global companies are struggling to keep pace with it all. According to a new webinar poll conducted by Arachnys and Charter, 50 percent of compliance teams said the greatest challenge posed ...
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Article
OSHA Enforcement Trends to Watch in 2016
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is raising the stakes for companies that fail to provide safe workplaces. One development affecting CCOs in the coming year would dramatically increase penalties and emphasize who qualifies as an “employer.” “Every employer should be terrified of OSHA right now,” says Valerie Butera of ...
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Article
Lessons From the SFO’s First Deferred-Prosecution Agreement
The U.K. Serious Fraud Office struck its first-ever deferred-prosecution agreement with Standard Bank in November, giving companies some much-needed guidance on how to disclose misconduct. The SFO’s decision to use DPAs is part of a larger undertaking to put a quick end to corporate criminal cases and encourage cooperation between ...
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Blog
U.S. and China to Expand AML Collaboration
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the China Anti-Money Laundering Monitoring and Analysis Center last week signed a Memorandum of Understanding to create a framework to facilitate expanded U.S.- China cooperation between both nations’ financial intelligence units. According to the Treasury Department, the arrangement provides a mechanism ...
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Blog
Analogic Faces $15 Million FCPA Settlement
Analogic, an airport security and medical-imaging technology provider, said this week in a quarterly filing that the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice have made separate settlement proposals to resolve a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act case totaling payments of approximately $15 million.
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Blog
Wyndham Settles FTC Charges in Cyber-Security Case
Wyndham Worldwide this week agreed to settle charges with the Federal Trade Commission that the company’s security practices unfairly exposed the payment card information of hundreds of thousands of consumers to hackers in three separate data breaches. The FTC first filed the complaint against Wyndham in 2012 over allegations that ...
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Article
U.S. and U.K. Treasury Revisit AML Risks
Image: For the first time in 10 years in the United States—and for the first time ever in the United Kingdom—financial institutions have some much-needed insight into how these two countries intend to prioritize money laundering and terrorist financing risks, enabling compliance officers to better allocate their limited resources. “These ...
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Article
Transparency Gaps in the Telecom Sector
Many telecom companies perform reasonably well when disclosing their anti-corruption practices, but less so concerning their organizational structures and country-by-country operations. With the potential for corruption fueled by relaxed rules and regulations, large licensing fees, major equipment contracts, the sale of state operators, and increased M&A activity, telecom companies need ...
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Blog
Hitachi Settles Case With African Development Bank
The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) announced this week that it reached a settlement agreement with Japan-based Hitachi. The African Development Bank (AfDB) Integrity and Anti-Corruption Department alleged that Germany-based Hitachi Power Europe, and its South African subsidiary, Hitachi Power Africa, engaged in sanctionable practices in exchange for a boiler ...
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Blog
SFO: Sweett Group Admits to Bribery
The U.K. Serious Fraud Office this week confirmed that Sweett Group, a British property management, construction and surveying company, admitted to violating the Bribery Act, regarding conduct in the Middle East. The resolution would mark the SFO’s first conviction since enactment of the Bribery Act in 2011. More inside.
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Article
Working With External Compliance Monitors
Image: So your company has just entered into a settlement with a U.S. government agency and must now install a compliance monitor. How do you respond? For many companies, working with an external compliance monitor is still an intimidating process tainted by misconceptions. “A monitorship was never designed to ...
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Article
Employee Investigations Post-Yates Memo
Image: Any company that has faced allegations of corporate misconduct knows how quickly the scope and cost of an internal investigation can grow—a concern that has only amplified following the Justice Department’s Yates Memo. “Corporate compliance professionals have expressed concern that this policy will result in companies undertaking unnecessarily broad, ...