Companies spend huge sums on audit, risk management, and compliance to alert them about potential legal issues before they escalate into serious corporate governance failings. There’s only one problem, however–they often misread their own early warning signs or ignore them altogether.

There are countless examples of situations where organizations have detected “red flags” that indicate possible noncompliance and even serious criminal activity, but then fail to follow up, investigate, or report the problem. In worst case scenarios, companies simply do not act on their own evidence.

In just the past month, Canada-based TD Bank was penalized nearly $3.1 billion by U.S. regulators over countless AML failures caused by the bank improperly funding its compliance programs. Just a few weeks earlier, McDonalds was accused of failing to spot slavery victims who worked at some of its restaurants in the U.K. despite several obvious warning signs: victims worked excessive overtime and sometimes shifts of 30-hours straight, while their wages were paid into bank accounts of people with different names.