31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program with Boards- What leads to a successful Board investigation?

19 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Many companies have an investigation protocol in place when a potential Foreign Corruption Practices Act (FCPA) or other legal issue arises. However, ...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program with Boards – What Is Your Board’s Investigation Protocol

16 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Many companies have an investigation protocol in place when a potential Foreign Corruption Practices Act (FCPA) or other legal issue arises? However, ...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program with Boards - Board Governance and Risk Oversight

15 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One of the ongoing questions from members of the Board of Directors is how to resolve the tension between oversight and management. I recently had the...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program with Boards-Board Oversight Role over Internal Controls

14 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Best practices compliance program. The first in Hallmark No. 1 states, “Within a business organization, compliance begins with the board of director...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program with Boards - the Board as an Internal Control

13 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

James Doty, former Commissioner of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) was once asked if the Board or its sub-committee which handle...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program with Boards - Boards Inquiring Up and Down

12 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Where does “tone at the top” start? It is with public and most private U.S. companies at the Board of Directors. But what is the role of a company...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program with Boards- OIG Guidance for Boards Regarding Compliance

09 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The OIG white paper “Practical Guidance for Health Care Governing Boards on Compliance Oversight” (OIG Guidance), provides an excellent road map ...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program with Boards- Compliance Expertise on the Board

08 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Every Board of Directors needs a true compliance expert sitting at the table. Almost every Board has a former CFO, former head of Internal Audit, or p...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program with Boards-the Board Compliance Committee

07 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, the Board must exercise reasonable oversight on the effectiveness of a company’s compliance program. The DOJ P...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program with Boards - Prudent Discharge of Board Obligations

06 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What are the obligations of a Board member regarding the FCPA? Are the obligations of the Compliance Committee under the FCPA at odds with a director’...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program with Boards - Legal Requirements of the Board Regarding Compliance

05 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As to the specific role of best practices in general compliance and ethics, one can look to Delaware corporate law for guidance. The case of In Re Ca...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program in Training and Communications - Compliance Training From the Movies

26 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

If there is one truism from the practices of law which translates to the practice of compliance, it is that your imagination only limits you. Marc Hav...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program in Training and Communications - Measuring Compliance Training Effectiveness

25 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Since at least 2017, the DOJ has emphasized the need to determine compliance training effectiveness. In the 2020 Update, it stated under the section e...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program in Training and Communications - Compliance Training Frequency

24 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What should be your organization’s compliance training frequency? How does the amount of training can positively or negatively impact an overall tra...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program in Training and Communications - Compliance Training Governance Committee

23 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One issue that needs to be considered by compliance professionals around compliance training is compliance training governance. Yet a multinational or...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program in Training and Communications - 10 Compliance Training Program Design Objectives

22 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Well-know compliance training guru Shawn Rogers has developed ten design objectives for establishing your compliance program training design objective...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program in Training and Communications - Envisioning Your Compliance Training Program

19 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How can you begin to think through a best practices compliance training program? I asked Shawn Rogers, training guru, expert, and maven. Rogers advise...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program in Training and Communications - Twitter and 360-degrees of Communication

18 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Even with the Elon Musk defenestration of Twitter, one of the ways that CCOs and compliance practitioners can better use 360 degrees of communication ...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program in Training and Communications - Asking Questions

17 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Other than the skill of listening, asking questions is about as important to the compliance practitioner as any other that can be employed. Yet, equal...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program in Training and Communications -Communication Across Cultures

16 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A 360-degree approach to communications entails looking at all forms of interactions as a way to interconnect. This means both verbal and non-verbal a...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program in Training and Communications - Multiplying the Influence of Compliance

15 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What if you could multiply the impact and effectiveness of your compliance program throughout your company? That would be a great boon to any complian...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program in Training and Communications - Communication through persuasion

12 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Such small gestures can make a difference. I recently read a biography of Dale Carnegie by Steven Watts, entitled “Self-Help Messiah: Dale Carnegie...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program in Training and Communications - Using Communications to Foster your Compliance Brand

11 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Our next lesson on compliance communications comes from best-selling authors James Patterson and David Baldacci, and it is about your brand. I have al...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program in Training and Communications- Using Communications to Drive a Speak Up Culture

10 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How often have you thought about the role of communications in your entire hotline reporting system? I do not mean posters giving the hotline number, ...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program in Training and Communications - Using 360 Degree of Compliance to Tell a Story

09 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The 360-degree approach to compliance works with all the stakeholders in a compliance program, even the “Document, Document, and Document” stakeho...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program in Training and Communications - Compliance and the Clash of Cultures

08 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One of the more difficult things to predict in the mergers and acquisition context is how the cultures of the two entities will merge. Further, while ...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program in Training and Communications - Sharing to 360-Degrees of communication

05 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why do people share information? The answer to that question has important implications for every compliance practitioner and compliance program. Shar...

One Month to a More Effective Training and Communications - Using Social Media to Innovate in Your Compliance Regime

04 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

I am a huge fan of using social media in your compliance function. But how can you get your arms around how to structure such a program for your compa...

One Month to a More Effective Training and Communications - Use of Social Media in Compliance

03 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What is the message of compliance inside of a corporation and how it is distributed? In a compliance program, the largest portion of your consumers/cu...

One Month to a More Effective Training and Communications - The D&B Experience in Training and Communications

02 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How did one company and one CCO actively use social media to make the company's compliance culture more effective? The company was Dun & Bradstreet, I...

One Month to a More Effective Training and Communications - Introduction

01 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this month's offering of 31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program, you will learn about training and communication techniques that the CCO ca...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program for 3rd Parties - Risk Ranking in the Supply Chain

27 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One of the areas many companies do not focus on enough is possible corruption in their supply chain for goods and services provided on a company’s b...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program for 3rd Parties- Freight Forwarders

26 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The FCPA world is littered with cases involving freight forwarders, brokers and agents in the shipping and express delivery arena. Both the DOJ and SE...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program for 3rd Parties - Distributor Compensation

25 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One of the issues in any compliance program is the compensation paid to a third party, as FCPA exposure arises when companies pay money, either direct...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program for 3rd Parties-Terminating 3rd Parties

24 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

At some point, you will be required to terminate a third party and there will be multiple legal, compliance and business issues to navigate through. I...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program for 3rd Parties-3rd Parties as Innovation Partners

21 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It is universally recognized that third-parties are your highest FCPA risk. What if you could turn your third-party from a liability under the FCPA to...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program for 3rd Parties-ROI for 3rd Party Risk Management

20 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A study by Forrester Research Inc. compared the user experience which lead to a finding of a positive ROI for the technology user around third-party...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program for 3rd Parties-Ongoing Monitoring of 3rd Parties

19 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One of the key themes in the Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs is the use of data and data analytics in a best practices compliance program....

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program for 3rd Parties-Auditing 3rd Parties

18 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Auditing of third parties is critical to any best practices compliance program and an important tool in operationalizing your compliance program. This...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program for 3rd Parties-Managing 3rd Party After the Contract is Signed

17 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The building blocks of any compliance program lay the foundations for a best practices compliance program. For instance, in the life cycle management ...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program for 3rd Parties-DOJ Metrics on Third Parties

14 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In a 2015 speech before the SIFMA Compliance and Legal Society New York Regional Seminar, former Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell for the f...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program for 3rd Parties-The How Question in Due Diligence

13 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What is satisfactory due diligence under the FCPA? That question seems to be more important after the story on Unaoil S.A.M. and the subsequent releas...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program for 3rd Parties-3rd Party Compliance Terms and Conditions

12 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The 2020 Resource Guide stated, “In addition to considering a company’s due diligence on third parties, DOJ and SEC also assess whether the compan...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program for 3rd Parties-Evaluation of Due Diligence With Candice Tal

11 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

An important part of the job duties of any compliance practitioner is clearing red flags which might appear for a proposed third-party relationship du...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program for 3rd Parties-Levels of Due Diligence With Candice Tal

10 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today, I am joined by Candice Tal, founder of Infortal to explain the 3 levels of due diligence. Due diligence is generally recognized in Level I, Lev...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program for 3rd Parties-Due Diligence

07 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Most companies fully understand the need to comply with the requirements around third parties as they represent the greatest risks for bribery and cor...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program for 3rd Parties-Questionnaire

06 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The next step in the five-step process is the questionnaire. The term ‘questionnaire’ is mentioned several times in the 2020 FCPA Resource Guide. ...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program for 3rd Parties-Business Justification

05 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The 2023 Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs stated, “Prosecutors should also assess whether the company knows the business rationale for ne...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program for 3rd Parties-3rd Party Risk Management Process

04 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As every compliance practitioner is well aware, third parties still present the highest risk under the FCPA. The 2020 Update devotes an entire prong t...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program for 3rd Parties-Introduction and Key 2022 Enforcement Actions Involving 3rd Parties

03 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Over the month of April, I will consider the risk management of third parties in an operationalized compliance program. As every compliance practition...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program for Business Ventures-Why Business Ventures are Different than 3rd Parties

30 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Business ventures, whether JVs, partnerships, franchises, team agreements, strategic alliances or one of the myriad types of business relationships a ...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program for Business Ventures-Distributor Liability Under the FCPA

29 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Three enforcement actions which made clear that there were no distinctions between agents and distributors. They were the Smith & Nephew, Inc., Oracle...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program for Business Ventures-Following the Money Through Distributors

28 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Polycom came to FCPA grief in China, as have many other US companies. The bribery scheme was long running, occurring from 2006-2014. They included the...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program for Business Ventures-Franchisor Compliance

27 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Most franchisors have thorough financial vetting requirements before allowing any person or business to become a franchisee. However, how many of thes...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program for Business Ventures-Franchisor Liability

24 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There remains a question about franchisor liability under the FCPA. Franchising has been a successful model in the U.S. and now many corporations are ...

One Month to More Effective Compliance for Business Ventures - Distributors as Business Venture Partners

23 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Many compliance practitioners generally view distributors as a part of their third-party risk management program, with most of their attention on the ...

One Month to More Effective Compliance for Business Ventures - Financial Review of Your Business Venture Partner

22 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One area not usually considered around your business ventures is the financial health of JV partner, teaming partner, strategic partner or any other t...

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program for Business Ventures-The Corporate Controller

21 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One area not often considered by the CCO as a key part of any compliance regime is the Corporate Controller. The Controller generally has the responsi...

One Month to More Effective Compliance for Business Ventures - Know Your Customer

20 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Do FCPA considerations come into play for customers? How should you think about your obligations under the FCPA for a group not traditionally associat...

One Month to More Effective Compliance for Business Ventures - Tying it all Together for Joint Ventures

17 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

I want to emphasize again the risks JVs pose under the FCPA. Mike Volkov has stated, “A joint venture requires the integration of disparate company...

One Month to More Effective Compliance for Business Ventures - Post Acquisition Integration

16 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Your company has just made its largest acquisition ever and your CEO says that he wants you to have a compliance post-acquisition integration plan on ...

One Month to More Effective Compliance For Business Ventures - Why engage in pre-acquisition due diligence? The Business Perspective

14 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why should a company engage in pre-acquisition due diligence in the M&A context? In this episode, I am joined by Affiliated Monitors founder Vin DiCia...

One Month to More Effective Compliance for Business Ventures - Pre-acquisition Due Diligence in Mergers and Acquisitions

14 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A company that does not perform adequate due diligence prior to a merger or acquisition may face both legal and business risks. Perhaps most commonly,...

One Month to More Effective Compliance for Business Ventures - Pre-acquisition Risk Assessment

13 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One of the clearest themes from the original, 2012 FCPA Resource Guide was around the importance of your pre-acquisition work in any M&A on a target ...

One Month to More Effective Compliance for Business Ventures - Safe Harbor in M&A

10 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

White collar defense practitioners have long called for a specific safe harbor for companies in the mergers and acquisition context where they meet th...

One Month to More Effective Compliance for Business Ventures - Auditing Joint Ventures

09 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

JVs provide many FCPA risks that other types of business relationships do not bring. For instance, the JV may interact with foreign government officia...

One Month to More Effective Compliance for Business Ventures - Compliance Terms and Conditions for TVs

08 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Numerous U.S. companies have come to FCPA grief for their overseas JVs and this continues to be a bane for many companies under the FCPA. There are so...

One Month to More Effective Compliance for Business Ventures - JV Due Diligence

07 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When you bring two entities together to operate jointly, there are several difficult issues to analyze. For the U.S. company operating under the FCPA,...

One Month to More Effective Compliance for Business Ventures - JV risks under the FCPA

06 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Just as the FCPA enforcement field is covered with actions centering around M&A, there are multiple actions involving JVs. JVs continue to plague many...

One Month to More Effective Compliance on Business Ventures: Dis-Linking Illegal Conduct

03 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One of my favorite words in the context of FCPA enforcement is dis-link. It a useful adjective in explaining how certain conduct by a company must be...

One Month to More Effective Compliance on Business Ventures: Key M&A cases under the FCPA

02 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What are some of the key FCPA enforcement actions involving M&A? These enforcement actions, FCPA Resource Guide and the Evaluation of Corporate Compl...

One Month to More Effective Compliance on Business Ventures: Introduction

01 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For the month of March, we will be considering how to create a more effective compliance program involving business ventures. This will include the ro...

One Month to More Effective Internal Controls - Culture as a Foundational Internal Control

28 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

To conclude this month's series on Internal Controls, I am joined by Vin DiCianni, Founder and CEO of AMI. We discuss how corporate culture is a found...

One Month to More Effective Internal Controls - Assessing compliance internal controls

27 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One of the specific requirements laid out in the 2020 Update, is around internal controls and more specifically control testing. It stated: Control Te...

One Month to More Effective Internal Controls - COSO Objective V: Monitoring Activities

24 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The fifth and final Objective is Monitoring Activities and as with all other components of the COSO Cube, Monitoring Activities are part of an int...

One Month to More Effective Internal Controls - COSO Objective IV: Information and Communication

23 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As with the other components of the COSO Cube, the objective of Information and Communication is not to be taken in a vacuum. Indeed, one of the more ...

One Month to More Effective Internal Controls: COSO Objective III: Control Activities

22 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In its Framework Volume, COSO Control Activities “are the actions established through policies and procedures that help ensure that management’s d...

One Month to More Effective Internal Controls - COSO Objective II: Risk Assessments

21 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Objective II is designed to provide a company with a “dynamic and iterative process for identifying and assessing risks.” For the compliance pract...

One Month to More Effective Internal Controls-COSO Objective I-Control Environment

20 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Both Board of Directors’ independence and Compliance Committee (or other applicable committees) oversight issue are essential to this Objective beca...

One Month to More Effective Internal Controls- the COSO 2013 Internal Controls Framework

17 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

COSO was adopted in 1992 as a framework for basis to design and then test the effectiveness of internal controls. In 2010, it was deemed necessary to ...

One Month to More Effective Internal Controls-Code of Conduct as an Internal Control

16 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2016, one of the most interesting non-international-focused FCPA enforcement actions was announced by the SEC. It involved a clear quid pro quo b...

One Month to a More Effective Internal Controls - Board of Directors as an Internal Control

15 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Is a Board of Directors a compliance internal control? The clear answer is yes. In the 2020 FCPA Resource Guide, Hallmarks of an Effective Compliance ...

One Month to More Effective Internal Controls - Internal Controls for Gifts, Travel and Entertainment

14 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

While many compliance practitioners believe that employee expense reports are a sufficient internal control of gifts because there are other ways in w...

One Month to More Effective Internal Control - Internal Control for 3rd Parties

13 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Bribery built into the fabric of Chinese healthcare system”, reporters Jamil Anderlini and Tom Mitchell wrote about the ‘nuts and bolts of how bri...

One Month to More Effective Internal Controls - Mapping Internal Controls

10 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The SEC has continued to emphasize the accounting provisions of the FCPA, specifically the internal controls provisions. The reason is straightforward...

One Month to More Effective Internal Controls - Implementing internal controls

09 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today, I consider some ways in which a compliance professional can work to implement internal controls in a multi-national organization. The first ste...

One Month to More Effective Internal Controls - Risk Assessments and Internal Controls

08 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today, I will review how to use the risk assessment you have performed as a tool to provide a structured approach to establishing effective internal c...

One Month to More Effective Internal Controls-Assessing for Internal Controls in International Operations

07 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How should you assess your internal controls regime for international operations? It is incumbent that you need to review as much information as you c...

One Month to More Effective Internal Controls-Internal Controls in International Locations

06 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

While a CCO should expect (or at least hope) that internal controls at locations outside the U.S. are of the same effectiveness as internal controls ...

One Month to More Effective Internal Controls- Four Key Internal Controls for Compliance

03 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There are four significant controls that every compliance program should have in it. They are: 1) DOA; 2) maintenance of the vendor master file; 3) co...

One Month to More Effective Internal Controls- Discipline and Rigor in Your Internal Controls

02 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

New York Times columnist David Brooks’ thoughts on building and maintaining order inform the discussion on rigor in your internal controls. In inte...

One Month to More Effective Compliance on Business Ventures: Introduction

01 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For the month of March, we will be considering how to create a more effective compliance program involving business ventures. This will include the ro...

One Month to More Effective Internal Controls- What Are Internal Controls?

01 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What specifically are internal controls in a compliance program? Internal controls are not only the foundation of a company but are also the foundatio...

Day 31 - Using a root cause analysis for remediation

31 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The 2020 Update re-emphasized the need for both performing a root cause analysis but equally importantly using it to remediate your compliance program...

Day 30 - What is a root cause analysis?

30 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One of the biggest changes in the 2020 FCPA Resource Guide, 2nd edition was the addition of a new Hallmark, entitled “Investigation, Analysis, and R...

Day 29 - Post-acquisition integration plan

29 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Your company has just made its largest acquisition ever and your CEO says they want you to have a compliance post-acquisition integration plan on thei...

Day 28 - Pre-acquisition due diligence in mergers and acquisitions

28 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A company that does not perform adequate due diligence prior to a merger or acquisition may face both legal and business risks. Perhaps most commonly,...

Day 27- Operationalizing Compliance Through Payroll

27 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One of the areas articulated in the 2020 Update was around payments and payroll. For the both the compliance professional and the corporate payroll fu...

Day 26 - Compliance function in an organization

26 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The role of the compliance professional and the compliance function in a corporation has steadily grown in stature and prestige over the years. When i...

Day 25 - CCO authority and independence

25 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The role of the CCO has steadily grown in stature and prestige over the years. In the 2020 FCPA Resource Guide, under the Hallmarks of an Effective Co...