Appointment Blogs | Compliance Week – Page 293
-
Blog
Ocwen Financial to Pay $150 Million Over Wrongful Foreclosures
Ocwen Financial this week agreed to pay a total of $150 million in “hard-dollar” assistance to current and former New York borrowers to resolve numerous and significant abuses in violation of a previous settlement agreement with the New York Department of Financial Services. As part of the settlement, founder William ...
-
Blog
NLRB Issues Labor Violation Complaints Against McDonald's
The National Labor Relations Board Office last week issued 13 complaints involving 78 charges against fast-food giant McDonald’s USA and McDonald’s franchisees, as joint employers. The complaints could have far-reaching effects for McDonald’s, and others that rely on a franchise model, in that it opens the door to unionization and ...
-
Blog
Podcast: Navigating the Pitfalls of Geolocation Data
Uber, Snapchat, and Golden Technologies are the latest companies to come under fire for how they use the geolocation data they collect from their customers. In this week’s podcast, we talk to Fernando Bohorquez, a partner at the law firm BakerHostetler who specializes in privacy and data security issues, about ...
-
Blog
The Ingredients for Good Non-Financial Reporting
Good disclosure begins with good standards. That has been challenging enough for financial reporting, and now investors want even more disclosure about important non-financial information. This week, Compliance Week columnist Robert Herz talks about the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (disclosure: he sits on SASB’s board), its effort to develop disclosure ...
-
Blog
JP Morgan Outlines Compliance Overhaul
JP Morgan, the Wall Street bank that has racked up more than $23 billion in regulatory fines since the financial crisis, has released a 100-page report detailing its efforts to improve compliance, culture, and internal controls. The report, “How We Do Business,” was in response to pressure from shareholder activists ...
-
Blog
Sustainability Standards for Services Industries Released
The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board issued its latest set of standards, this time for companies in the services sector to help them improve disclosure of environmental, social, and governance risks. The standards represent the sixth set in a planned industry-focused series of sustainability standards. More details inside.
-
Blog
Unum Group Appoints New General Counsel
Unum Group has appointed Lisa Iglesias as general counsel. She will assume this role from Liston Bishop, who has announced his intention to retire from the company at the end of March 2015. Details inside.
-
Blog
Sony, Lesson 1: Communication Breakdown
Image: The lessons from Sony’s surrender to North Korean hackers last week are too many to count right now, so let’s start with an immediate one: understand the risks your company creates with its communication habits, and enforce smarter business practices to change them. Easy enough to say, Compliance Week ...
-
Blog
Alstom to Pay Record $772 Million for FCPA Violations
Image: French power and transportation giant Alstom SA agreed Monday to pay $772 million to settle criminal violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, setting a record for largest FCPA settlement ever. Deputy Attorney General James Cole called Alstom’s misconduct "astounding in its breadth, its brazenness and its worldwide consequences," ...
-
Blog
Actavis Names Global Chief Compliance Officer
Pharmaceutical company Actavis has appointed Jonathon Kellerman as global chief compliance officer. Kellerman is a member of the Actavis Executive Leadership Team and will report directly to Chief Executive Officer Brent Saunders. Details inside.
-
Blog
Parker Drilling Unit Pays $267,000 for Bribery
Scotland-based oil and gas services company International Tubular Services, a subsidiary of Parker Drilling, last week agreed to pay a £170,000 ($267,000) fine to Scotland’s Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service’s civil recovery unit to resolve charges that a former Kazakhstan-based employee paid bribes to secure contract work from a ...
-
Blog
Bruker to Pay $2.4 Million for FCPA Violations
Scientific instruments manufacturer Bruker will pay a $2.4 million penalty to the Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve charges of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by providing non-business related travel and improper payments to various Chinese government officials in an effort to win business. Details inside.
-
Blog
FASB Releases XBRL Taxonomy for 2015
For companies looking to get a head start on their XBRL filings, the Financial Accounting Standards Board has released its 2015 GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy, pending approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
-
Blog
Former Rite Aid VP Charged in Kickback Scheme
A former Rite Aid vice president, Timothy Foster of Oregon, has been charged in connection with a $14.6 million, surplus inventory sales/kickback scheme, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. As the company’s vice president for quality assurance, Foster’s took advantage of his oversight of surplus inventory liquidation to benefit himself ...
-
Blog
Fed Extends Deadlines for Volcker Rule Compliance
The Federal Reserve Board is giving financial insitutions more time to comply with the Volcker rule’s demand that they extricate themselves from investments in hedge funds and private equity funds and wind down speculative positions held on their own behalf, rather than for clients. Banks will until 2017 to unwind ...
-
Blog
Desite Protestations, MetLife Deemed Systemically Important
To the surprise of no one, including the company itself, the Financial Stability Oversight Council has designated Metlife, the nation’s largest insurance company, as a Systemically Important Financial Institution, subjecting it to new regulatory, disclosure, and capital demands. MetLife has 30 days to decide whether to ask a federal judge ...
-
Blog
Former MoneyGram CCO Fined $1 Million
Image: MoneyGram International’s former chief compliance officer, Thomas Haider, has been fined $1 million by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network for failing to ensure that his company abided by the anti-money laundering provisions of the Bank Secrecy Act. Concurrently, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of ...
-
Blog
Haywood Gilliam, Jr. Confirmed as Federal Judge in California
Yesterday, the U.S. Senate confirmed Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr. to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Gilliam is currently a partner and and vice-chair of Covinton & Burling's White Collar Defense and Investigations practice group. President Obama nominated Gilliam in August 2014 to fill ...
-
Blog
OECD Has ‘Grave Concerns’ with Argentina’s Anti-Bribery Efforts
A report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Working Group on Bribery says it has "grave concerns" about Argentina’s commitment to fight foreign bribery. Argentina has no law to punish companies for foreign bribery or prosecute individuals who commit the crime abroad, the report says. Delays plague economic ...
-
Blog
PCAOB Disciplines Grant Thornton Auditor in Japan
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has disciplined a Grant Thornton auditor in Japan for failing to address numerous red flags that revenue could be overstated in the 2010 audit of Baldwin-Japan Ltd.