Appointment Blogs | Compliance Week – Page 230
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Justice Department Ends Bristol-Myers Squibb FCPA Probe
The Department of Justice has ended its investigation into allegations that pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Earlier this month the company reached a $14 million settlement with the SEC for FCPA violations relating to certain sales and marketing practices in China. More inside.
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FASB Plans to Drop Step 2 of Goodwill Impairment Test
Image: FASB plans to drop the second step in the current two-part test to determine goodwill impairment, a nod to public companies eager for a simpler approach to deciding writedowns. Greg Franceschi, managing director at valuation firm Duff & Phelps, says, “By removing the second step of the test when ...
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Where Valeant, and Corporate America, Went Wrong
Image: The big political story this week was the Republican presidential debate, and candidates’ usual complaints that too many Americans are falling behind economically. The big corporate governance story, meanwhile, has been the unraveling of Valeant Pharmaceuticals. The two are tied, Compliance Week editor Matt Kelly writes—since Valeant’s misplaced corporate ...
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Justice Department Names GM Monitor
The Department of Justice announced this week that it has approved the appointment of Bart Schwartz to serve as the monitor for General Motors. The monitor appointment is part of a deferred prosecution agreement GM reached with the Justice Department last month to resolve criminal charges for wire fraud and ...
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BrandProtect Unveils threatSMART Cyber-Security Solution
BrandProtect, a provider of cyber-threat detection and risk mitigation solutions, this week unveiled threatSMART, the latest generation of its comprehensive suite of enterprise cyber-security services. threatSMART combines comprehensive, automated external cyber-threat monitoring, advanced analysis by the BrandProtect team of military-grade threat analysts, powerful new reporting, and numerous other usability and ...
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Exiger Adds Two New Anti-Corruption Experts
Exiger, a global regulatory and financial crime, risk and compliance firm this week announced the appointments of two new associate managing directors, Eunice Lee and Anna Friedberg, to be based in the firm's New York office. Both women bring extensive anti-corruption expertise to the firm. More inside.
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Warner Chilcott to Pay $125 Million in False Claims Act Case
Warner Chilcott U.S. Sales, a subsidiary of pharmaceutical maker Warner Chilcott, today reached a $125 million settlement with the Department of Justice to resolve charges of healthcare fraud. The company pleaded guilty to criminal charges that the company paid kickbacks to physicians throughout the United States to induce them to ...
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CST Hires Chief Compliance Officer
Canada-based CST Trust Company announced that Mark Mulima has joined the company as senior Canadian counsel, chief compliance officer, and corporate secretary. As chief compliance officer, Mulima will be responsible for ensuring that all areas of the company meet compliance responsibilities and applicable laws and regulations. More inside.
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SEC Expects Year-End Disclosures on Revenue Rule Plans
Image: SEC Chief Accountant Jim Schnurr has advised audit committees to get involved in overseeing implementation of the new revenue standard, which takes effect in 2018. Schnurr said that should include disclosures about how the standard will affect financial statements. “We expect the level of these disclosures to increase and ...
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SEC Expects Year-End Disclosures on Revenue Rule Plans
Image: SEC Chief Accountant Jim Schnurr has advised audit committees to get involved in overseeing implementation of the new revenue standard, which takes effect in 2018. Schnurr said that should include disclosures about how the standard will affect financial statements. “We expect the level of these disclosures to increase and ...
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White: As Securities Offerings Change, SEC Adapts
Recent years have seen significant changes in terms of how securities offerings are conducted, with many of the recent regulatory reforms for public offerings the result of the JOBS ACT. At a conference in New York City on Wednesday, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Jo White spoke about ...
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ISS Details Proposed Policy Changes, Seeks Feedback
Institutional Shareholder Services has launched its 2016 benchmark voting policy consultation period. Policy topics for the U.S. market include unilateral amendments made by boards to company charters and bylaws without shareholder approval, director overboarding, and compensation at externally managed issuers. More inside.
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SEC’s Financial Reporting Cases, Overall Activity Surge in FY 2015
SEC Fiscal Year 2015 enforcement results revealed that for the year ended Sept. 30, 2015, the Commission filed a record-high 807 enforcement actions and obtained orders totaling approximately $4.2 billion in disgorgement and penalties. Of these 807 enforcement actions, 507 were “independent actions,” with the other 300 actions being either ...
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CW Europe: A View From the U.K. Serious Fraud Office
Image: The general counsel of Britain’s Serious Fraud Office, speaking at the Compliance Week Europe conference in Brussels this week, said the SFO hopes to have several deferred-prosecution agreements in place by the end of this year for companies the agency has been investigating for misconduct. Alun Milford provided no ...
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Companies Lag in Assessing New Revenue Rules, Survey Shows
Image: A recent survey of 335 finance executives by PwC and Financial Executives Research Foundation found that 27 percent of executives said their companies had not yet started an initial impact assessment of the new revenue standard as of summer 2015, and 48 percent had started but not completed it ...
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SEC Offers Proxy 'Unbundling' Guidance for M&A Deals
The Security and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance has released new guidance, in the form of two Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations, concerning proxy bundling in the context of mergers and acquisitions. The Exchange Act requires proxies to clearly and impartially identify each “separate matter” to be acted upon, ...
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Compliance and the Zeitgeist in Germany
I have always been fascinated with the zeitgeist. In the world of anti-bribery and anti-corruption compliance, one rarely has the chance to observe the zeitgeist in action. However I think we are now seeing it play out in Germany in a public way. It all involves the Made in Germany ...
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New Database Tracks SEC Enforcement Actions Against Public Cos.
A new, publicly-available database known as "SEED" tracks SEC enforcement actions against public companies. The database, from NYU and Cornerstone Research, will also provide the basis for ongoing academic analysis of trends in SEC enforcement.
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The U.S. Financial Reporting System, Circa 2015: Are We OK?
Not long ago a foreign student in financial reporting put a question to columnist Robert Herz: Why is the United States falling behind in financial reporting? The questioner cited three points—accounting standards, expanded audit reports, and sustainability reporting—as reason for his position. This week, Herz re-examines U.S. performance on those ...
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SEC Readies Crowdfunding Rule for Friday Vote
The wait is over. On Oct. 30, the Securities and Exchange Commission will vote on long-delayed rulemaking, mandated by the JOBS Act,that will allow for the offer and sale of securities. A proposed rule, dating back to October 2013, established guidelines for investors and rules for issuers that want ...