Appointment Blogs | Compliance Week – Page 288
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Applying the Three Lines of Defense Model
Compliance Week columnist Jose Tabuena continues his look at the Three Lines of Defense model this month by examining how a company can parcel out all its oversight functions across the three lines. Can compliance report to the risk-management function? (Yes.) Can internal audit and compliance be combined? (Only if ...
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OCC Names Chief Risk Officer
OCC, an equity derivatives clearing organization, has appointed John Grace as chief risk officer. He will be responsible for driving and implementing OCC's risk management strategy. Details inside.
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SEC Riding Lengthy Unbeaten Streak in Administrative Proceedings
As I observed here last week, there has been a recent flurry of cases filed by respondents in SEC administrative proceedings claiming that the SEC's use of these "APs" is unconstitutional for various reasons. Indeed, on Friday of last week, one such constitutional challenge was brought by a person who ...
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SEC Retreats on Proxy Access No-Action Letters
The SEC has reversed course on an earlier no-action letter that let Whole Foods thwart a shareholder proposal for greater proxy access, which essentially paves the way for many more such shareholder proposals to come this proxy season—including 75 filed by New York City’s pension fund. The SEC will now ...
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Daiichi Sankyo to Pay $39 Million for FCA Violations
Japanese pharmaceutical company Daiichi Sankyo this month agreed to pay $39 million to the government to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by paying kickbacks to induce physicians to prescribe Daiichi drugs. “Settlements like this one show that the government will continue to pursue health care companies ...
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Nortek Launches FCPA Probe
Nortek disclosed last week in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it has launched an internal investigation into potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act concerning potential improper payments made by its Chinese manufacturing unit. Details inside.
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More Misconduct Tales to Tell Your Company
Image: As we move into 2015 and the good economic times that seem to be carrying the United States along, it’s time for a refresher course in Why Ethics & Compliance Matter. We have two new examples of misconduct—one from Brazil, the other from New York—that can go straight into ...
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Editor’s Note: Our Holiday Schedule
Compliance Week will publish one day late this week to observe the Martin Luther King Day holiday. Our next newsletter will arrive on Wednesday, Jan. 21.
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Former S&P Official Seeks to Pull Plug on 'Imminent' AP Against Her
In recent months, defendants in multiple SEC cases that the agency has brought as administrative proceedings have shot back as plaintiffs in federal court claiming that the SEC's use of these "APs" is unconstitutional. On December 11, 2014, the SEC prevailed in the first of these challenges to be decided ...
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Merck Appoints Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer
Pharmaceutical giant Merck confirmed that it has appointed Ashley Watson as chief ethics and compliance officer, effective April 1. She will report to Chief Executive Kenneth Frazier. Details inside.
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Treasury Issues Amendments to Cuba Sanctions
The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and the Department of Commerce today published amendments to the Cuban Assets Control Regulations to implement policy changes announced by the President last month. The newly revised regulations, in part, allow a number of activities related to telecommunications, financial services, ...
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UBS Dark Pool Operation Leads to SEC Charges
The Securities and Exchange Commission this week charged a UBS subsidiary with disclosure failures and other securities law violations related to the operation and marketing of its dark pool. UBS Securities agreed to pay more than $14.4 million, including a $12 million penalty—the SEC’s largest against an alternative trading system. ...
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COSO Relates Frameworks to Cyber Risks
COSO is urging companies to look at its framework with not just financial controls in mind, but cyber-security as well. A paper from the Committee details how the five components of internal control apply to the assessment of cyber-risks, with discussion on how the principles underlying the risk assessment, control ...
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'Digital Currency Working Group' Helped SEC Bring Bitcoin Case
On December 8, 2014, the SEC announced that it had filed an administrative proceeding against a computer programmer for "operating two online venues that traded securities using virtual currencies Bitcoin or Litecoin without registering the venues as broker-dealers or stock exchanges." The programmer, Ethan Burnside, agreed to settle the case ...
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Petrobras Names First Governance, Risk and Compliance Officer
Petrobras this week appointed João Adalberto Elek as its first governance, risk and compliance officer. His appointment comes at a time when the Brazilian state-owned oil giant faces an investigation over allegations that certain of its executives engaged in a money-laundering and bribery scheme whereby billions of dollars were shaved ...
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3D Systems Names Chief Accounting Officer
3D Systems, a provider of three-dimensional (3D) printing centric design-to-manufacturing solutions, has appointed David Styka as chief accounting officer. He will serve as the company’s principal accounting officer. Details inside.
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Houses Passes XBRL Exemption as Survey Reveals Costs
The House of Representatives passed legislation that includes an exemption for 60 percent of all public companies from the SEC requirement to submit interactive financial statement data using XBRL. Meanwhile, an American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and XBRL U.S. study showed that nearly 75 percent of the smallest public ...
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SEC Adopts Swaps Rules; Piwowar Slams CCO Changes
The SEC has adopted new rules that will require security-based swap data repositories to register with the Commission and adhere to new recordkeeping and data transparency requirements. Commissioner Michael Piwowar was a dissenting vote over what he says were last-minute changes intended to crack down on individuals who lie to ...
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Republicans Move on Volcker Rule, XBRL
The new Republican majority in Congress launched its first strike against the Dodd-Frank Act last Wednesday, passing a bill that offers banks a semi-reprieve from the Volcker Rule and exempts small companies from filing financial statements tagged in XBRL. The legislation now moves to a Senate vote and is likely ...
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SEC Enforcement – An Analysis of Key Developments in 2014
2014 was another eventful year in the world of SEC enforcement, with a number of "first-ever" cases and other key developments in areas including insider trading, whistleblowers, admissions, trials, administrative proceedings and the SEC's use of new technologies.In a webcast I moderated yesterday, a panel consisting of four former senior ...