All articles by Jaclyn Jaeger – Page 109
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Blog
Schlumberger Subsidiary Fined $232.7 Million for Sanctions Violations
Schlumberger Oilfield Holdings, a subsidiary of oilfield services giant Schlumberger, has entered into a guilty plea and will pay a record $232.7 million criminal fine for economic sanctions violations. The amount is the largest criminal fine in connection with an International Emergency Economic Powers Act prosecution. Details inside.
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Managing Data Security and Privacy Risks 2.0
Image: Modern technology allows powerful employee monitoring ability to sharpen business performance and even support compliance efforts. The bad news: Those technologies also spawn a new set of data security risks to keep compliance officers busy. “The key is trying to strike a balance between the employee’s personal privacy interests ...
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Article
Human Trafficking Compliance Arrives for Federal Contractors
Image: Starting this month, government contractors must ensure that their supply chain is free of human-trafficking activities. The thicket of new requirements isn’t too different conceptually from other compliance obligations, but the nuances of human-trafficking risk will pose some tricky policy challenges. Companies previously might not have thought much about ...
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Blog
Bilfinger Probe Uncovers Bribery Related to World Cup
German-based engineering company Bilfinger said that an internal investigation has uncovered potential bribery payments made to government officials in Brazil for contracts related to the 2014 World Cup. After launching an internal investigation into the allegations last year, “suspicions have now been substantiated,” Bilfinger said. Details inside.
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Blog
OECD: Greece Must Focus More on Foreign Bribery
The risk of Greek companies bribing foreign officials is substantial, and yet Greece has not given the same priority to fighting foreign bribery as it has to domestic corruption, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's Phase 3bis Report on Greece." The repor examines issues that the Working ...
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Blog
Swiss AG Freezes $400 Million in Petrobras-Related Assets
The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) is currently conducting nine investigations in the Petrobras case and has issued an order freezing USD$400 million in assets deposited in Switzerland in connection with the
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Blog
Successor to ECOA Will Launch Certification Effort
More news from the groups formerly known as the Ethics & Compliance Officer Association and the Ethics Resource Center: The two have been subsumed into a new “Ethics & Compliance Initiative,” which has spawned a third wing, the Ethics & Compliance Certification Institute, to certify compliance professionals. More inside.
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Blog
Justice Department Extends Biomet DPA
The Department of Justice will extend for an additional year a deferred-prosecution agreement reached in 2012 with Biomet, after the medical device maker self-reported additional potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The three-year DPA, which would have expired March 26, 2015, will now expire on March 26, 2016. ...
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Article
Mitigating FCPA Risks in Pharma, Med Device Sectors
Image: SEC Enforcement Director Andrew Ceresney recently dropped new hints on FCPA risks for pharma and medical devices, plus suggestions on how to avoid those risks. “Our FCPA focus obviously covers many industries,” he said. “But the pharma industry is one on which we have been particularly focused in recent ...
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Blog
FinCEN Advisory Addresses Jurisdictions With AML Deficiencies
The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network this week issued guidance in response to the Financial Action Task Force’s updated list of jurisdictions with Anti–Money Laundering and Counter–Terrorist Financing (AML/CFT) deficiencies. “Financial institutions should consider these changes when reviewing their enhanced due diligence obligations and risk–based policies, procedures, and practices ...
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Article
Petrobras Probe Portends Brazil Enforcement Crackdown
Image: Suddenly anti-corruption enforcement seems to be serious in Brazil—to the point that businesses working there might want to pay more heed to enforcement risks from Brazilian regulators themselves. The catalyst is the sweeping investigation into state-owned oil company Petrobras, riveting Brazil this month. “We can expect much more enforcement ...
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Blog
$1.45B Commerzbank Settlement Hits AML Controls
Germany-based Commerzbank and its U.S. branch, Commerz New York, will pay a total of $1.45 billion in penalties to resolve criminal charges for violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Bank Secrecy Act. The settlement provides a litany of lessons on the importance of implementing proper anti-money ...
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Blog
Hotline Benchmark Report Shows Improvements
A new report from NAVEX Global says the “substantiation rates” for employee hotline calls—that is, the number of complaints found to be worth investigating—more than doubled from 12 percent in 2013 to 27 percent in 2014. “This significant increase may be a sign that ethics and compliance program leaders are ...
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Article
Case Study: UCLA, Apps, and HIPAA Compliance
Companies that handle health information are subject to data privacy rules under HIPAA—rules that have grown more complex with the proliferation of mobile health applications (mHealth apps). Those that want to develop mHealth apps in a compliant manner have two options: Build a HIPAA-compliant application of your own, or buy ...
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Article
e-Discovery Missteps From the Judge’s Point of View
Image: If you fear that your e-Discovery processes are not strong, take heart: Lots of federal judges agree with you. A recent survey of judges and a follow-up webcast spotlight the mistakes in e-Discovery as seen from the bench, and methods to avoid them. “The whole point is to come ...
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Blog
Sanctions Imposed on Venezuelan Officials
President Barack Obama signed an executive order today imposing sanctions on seven Venezuelan government officials for committing human rights violations, and declared a national emergency with respect to Venezuela. The executive order implements and expands on the Venezuela Defense of Human Rights and Civil Society Act, signed by the president ...
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Blog
SEC’s Ceresney: Common FCPA Violations in Pharma Industry
Image: From remarks last week at a conference in Washington D.C., SEC Director of Enforcement Andrew Ceresney highlighted three types of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act misconduct that most often arise in the pharmaceutical industry: pay-to-prescribe, formulary drugs, and charitable contributions. More of Ceresney’s observations are inside.
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Blog
Akamai Self-Reports FCPA Probe
Akamai Technologies disclosed in its annual report with the SEC that it is conducting an internal investigation related to potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The cloud services provider said it voluntarily reported the internal investigation to the SEC and Department of Justice last month. Details inside.
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Article
Insurers Feel Fresh Heat on Cyber-Security Practices
Image: New York plan to bolster cyber-security oversight in the insurance sector, including regular, targeted assessments of cyber-security as part of its exam process. “Recent cyber-security breaches should serve as a stern wake-up call for insurers and other financial institutions to strengthen their cyber-defenses,” said New York Department of Financial ...
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Article
Canada Gets Serious on Enforcement
Canadian securities regulators for the first time are proposing a whistleblower rewards program, modeled after the SEC’s program created by the Dodd-Frank Act. The proposed initiative is the latest move by Canadian authorities toward a U.S.-style enforcement regime—and in some instances an even harsher one. “Canadian enforcement is going to ...