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Ready for Justice Department scrutiny of your compliance program?

Regulators send a perverse message by using our compliance programs against us

Is CSR Part of the Compliance Operation?

SEC Whistleblower Program’s Latest Threat: Its Success

Sustainability Reports Mature, Focus Now Shifts to Materiality

New sustainability standards are emerging to help companies identify and report the risks related to their environmental, social, and corporate governance efforts in their annual reports. As companies seek to take their sustainability reporting to the next level, the focus is on materiality. "One of the challenges in sustainability reporting has been how to determine what's material—what matters most to stakeholders," says Frank O'Brien-Bernini, chief sustainability officer of Owens Corning.

Sustainability Reports Mature, Focus Now Shifts to Materiality

New sustainability standards are emerging to help companies identify and report the risks related to their environmental, social, and corporate governance efforts in their annual reports. As companies seek to take their sustainability reporting to the next level, the focus is on materiality. “One of the challenges in sustainability reporting has been how to determine what’s material—what matters most to stakeholders,” says Frank O’Brien-Bernini, chief sustainability officer of Owens Corning.

Beware of Bizarre and Far- Fetched Whistleblower Claims

Most companies do an adequate job of investigating serious whistleblower claims and protecting those who make them from illegal retaliation. It is the bizarre, far-fetched claims, or claims from problematic employees and serial reporters, however, where many companies get tripped up. "That's where some companies run into legal trouble," says Heather Sager, a member of the labor and employment group at law firm Vedder Price. "They reach a conclusion before they do the investigation."

Court Ruling Could Push Private Cos. on Compliance Programs

A U.S. Supreme Court decision earlier this month has expanded whistleblower protections under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to private companies that contract with public companies. The ruling could force many private companies to adopt compliance policies for investigating and handling whistleblower complaints. "Private companies might have felt like they had a free pass in the past," says Randy Stephens, vice president of advisory services for NAVEX Global. "This decision clearly ends that misconception."

Keynote Speakers Announcedfor Compliance Week 2014

The Compliance Week 2014 conference, happening May 19-21 in Washington, is shaping up to be another stellar summit meeting of all things risk, audit, and compliance. Keynote speakers include Jay Jorgensen, global compliance chief for Walmart, plus officials from the SEC and Justice Department. Other speakers include compliance executives from McDonald's, Adobe, AirBnB, Terex, International Paper, Aflac, the University of Miami, and elsewhere. Details inside.

Compliance, Ethics Head List of Top General Counsel Worries

Despite calls from enforcement agencies to separate the legal and compliance roles, general counsels still worry about compliance and ethics. According to a recent survey, 87 percent of in-house counsel ranked them as the biggest concerns over the past year, and 61 percent said they spend the most time on compliance issues. "Compliance and ethics topics seem to move higher in priority every year," says Christopher Santomassimo, general counsel and chief compliance officer of Agfa Corp.

IT Systems to Make Policy Management Worth the Effort

Document-centric approaches to policies—that lack technology to manage communication and enforcement—are a recipe for disaster, and could actually cost companies more, since they expose them to ineffective policy management. In the latest installment of our GRC Illustrated series, we look at how IT systems can be put to work for policy management, so the compliance team can, you know, actually enforce things.

Building a Process to Sharpen Third-Party Risk Mitigation

Never has third-party risk management been as high a priority as it is in today's stringent anti-corruption enforcement environment. Yet many companies still have not refined the processes used to mitigate third-party risks. The first step is to establish a credible and defensible risk model. More details inside.

Tyco Compliance Trouble, Redux

Tyco's $27 million settlement on FCPA charges last week could be a bit dispiriting to compliance officers; after all of that company's prior troubles and attempts to improve, it's in trouble again? Take heart in the silver lining that Tyco's vigorous efforts at self-disclosure and cooperation do seem to have led to much less punishment than what could have been meted out. Our full look at the case is inside.

Study: Whistleblowers Want Anonymity, Monetary Rewards

Whistleblowers are far more likely to report wrongdoing if they are given a monetary reward, anonymity, and protection from retaliation, says a recent survey by law firm Labaton Sucharow. Since only the SEC is paying a reward right now, that's bad news for compliance departments. But two-thirds of respondents said they weren't aware of the SEC's whistleblower program launched last year. More results inside.

Warning, Tips From Justice Department's Grindler

Corporate compliance, legal and risk professionals got a warning from a top Justice Department official, along with some advice on how to keep the companies they work for out of trouble.Acting deputy attorney general Gary Grindler made it clear that the agency is taking a no holds barred approach to...

Courts Raise Specter Of ‘Collective’ Scienter

In a potentially ominous development for corporations, a handful of decisions by federal judges in New York have strayed from the traditional rule that a company can’t be found to have had fraudulent intent—known in the law as scienter—unless the individual making a false or misleading material statement actually had such an intent.

Labor Law Violation Shouldn’t Impact Ethics Programs

A ruling by a federal appeals court last month that a company violated federal labor law by implementing a workplace ethics program without union consultation might seem like bad news for companies struggling to satisfy ethics mandates.

SEC’s ‘Up-The-Ladder’ Claims In TV Azteca Case Overstated?

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s filing of civil fraud charges against TV Azteca on Jan. 4 appears to be the first enforcement action implicating the “up-the-ladder” attorney-reporting requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley. However, the case also highlights the fact that, at present, there is no requirement that the SEC be told of a corporation’s non-compliance with the law.

Lessons From The First SOX Whistleblower Cases

The whistleblower protections contained in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 are already creating a groundswell of employee complaints, with more than 300 whistleblowers claiming their employers retaliated against them for their allegations of corporate misconduct. While only a handful of claims to date have been decided on their merits, they offer important cautionary tales for corporations.

Lines Blur Between Law Firms, Public Relations Practices

In April of this year, The Wall Street Journal ran an unfavorable article about $349.2 million NovaStar Financial, claiming that the subprime mortgage lender had purportedly failed to comply with state licensing rules. The article led to a 30 percent stock-price dip, a class action suit, and an informal inquiry by the SEC—all in the course of one week. Like most companies in that situation, NovaStar immediately turned to a public relations firm for assistance.