All articles by Joe Mont – Page 65
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Blog
Former Gov. Contractor in Afghanistan Charged With Bribery
A former employee with International Relief and Development Inc., a government contractor, has pleaded guilty to charges of bribery in connection with a federal program and attempting to avoid currency transaction reporting requirements. The announcement was made this week by Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal ...
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Human Trafficking Lawsuits Expose Companies to Greater Supply Chain Risk
Image: While you were worrying about conflict minerals, class-action lawsuits over cat food and shrimp cocktail have emerged as the new compliance risk. Suits against Nestlé and Costco both claim the companies used shrimp produced using slave labor in Thailand. What’s more, plaintiffs are using required supply chain disclosures from ...
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Blog
SEC Charges BDO USA, Partners for Misleading Audit Opinions
The SEC has charged audit firm BDO USA with issuing false and misleading unqualified audit opinions about the financial statements of staffing services company General Employment Enterprises. BDO agreed to admit wrongdoing, pay disgorgement of its audit fees and interest totaling approximately $600,000, and pay a $1.5 million penalty. Details ...
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Investment Advisers Next to Feel AML Scrutiny
Investment advisers have never had to face formal anti-money laundering requirements. That is about to change. A proposed rule by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network adds them to the definition of “financial institutions” and demands comprehensive anti-money laundering programs. That has raised concerns of cost and redundancy and ...
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Blog
FDIC Hits Comenity Banks Over Deceptive Credit Card Add-Ons
The FDIC has settled with Delaware-based Comenity Bank and Comenity Capital Bank of Salt Lake City for deceptive practices relating to the marketing of credit card add-on products. Comenity Bank will pay a civil money penalty of $2 million and provide $53 million in restitution to harmed consumers. ...
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Blog
Oh Craps: Caesar’s Palace Fined $8M for Lax AML Controls
Caesar’s Palace will pay an $8 million penalty for poor money laundering controls that apparently let wealthy clienete gamble millions of dollars in a single visit, according to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. The AML compliance holes let the high-rollers use front money instead of their own, thwarting recordkeeping and ...
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Blog
SEC’s Gallagher Plans Oct. 2 Departure
Image: Title: GallagherDaniel Gallagher will step down from the SEC on Oct. 2, putting renewed pressure on the Obama Administration to send a nominee to the Senate for confirmation. Still undecided as well is who the White House will nominate to replace Commissioner Luis Aguilar. Early trial balloons for a ...
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Blog
The Week That Was: Problems With Disclosure-Based Activism
Image: The SEC this week was ordered by a court ruling to expedite delayed rulemaking that forces oil and gas companies to disclose payments to governments. But is a rule of this sort worthwhile if, as a separate lawsuit demanded, public disclosure isn’t required? And, what’s the point of demanding ...
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Blog
Court Gives SEC Deadline to Act on Extractive Payments Rule
A federal district court has ordered the SEC to get moving with its long-delayed requirement to adopt a rule for oil, gas, and mining companies to disclose payments made to foreign governments. Ruling on a lawsuit brought against the SEC by Oxfam America, the judge concluded that the SEC “unlawfully ...
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Article
How Bad Is SEC Politicking? Pretty Bad
Image: That the SEC endures its share of politics is not exactly news—but the amount of politics, and the sheer partisan in-fighting at the agency? That’s rising. Split votes are more common, published dissents from commissioners more frequent. “Sometimes when I see what’s going on now, I’m sorry I ever ...
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Blog
Candidates Hit SEC Over Revolving Door, Political Spending
The SEC found itself in the crosshairs of two 2016 presidential candidates this week. On Monday, Hillary Clinton co-authored a Huffington Post article supporting a bill intended to curb the “revolving door,” a career path where financial industry personnel join regulatory agencies and later return to the industry. Clinton’s ...
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Article
FTC Speaks on Antitrust; Leaves Many Confused
Image: The Federal Trade Commission has finally spoken (for the first time in 100 years) about how it defines the scope of its enforcement authority for anti-competitive business practices. The bad news: Its guidance is short reading and slim on specifics. The lack of detail “may have opened the floodgates ...
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Blog
Blockbuster Mergers Prompt 'Tweet' Disclosures
“Safe, not sorry” is the approach companies currently involved in multi-billion dollar mergers are taking to their disclosures of social media communications to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Insurance giants Aetna and Humana, in the midst of a $37 billion deal, and Charter Communications(merging with Time Warner Cable), have disclosed ...
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Blog
Aguilar: SEC Should Consider Conditional Waivers, Online Database
Image: SEC Commissioner Luis Aguilar wants the agency to bring more clarity to its process for issuing waivers to companies sanctioned for misconduct, including a new “conditional waiver” process and an online database to shed more light on who asks for waivers and how often they are granted or declined. ...
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Blog
For Third Consecutive Year, SEC Reduces Filing Fees
For the third year in a row, the Securities and Exchange Commission will reduce the filing fees public companies and other issuers pay to register their securities. In fiscal year 2016 fees will be set at $100.70 per million dollars, a drop from the current filing fee for registration statements ...
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Blog
Trade Group Pushes Guidelines for CCO Enforcement Actions
Image: The National Society of Compliance Professionals has written to Andrew Ceresney, director of enforcement at the SEC, urging that compliance officers not be subject to enforcement actions except in cases where a CCO exhibited reckless conduct or knowingly assisted the primary violator. The letter is the latest salvo ...
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Blog
FinCEN Proposes AML Regulations for Investment Advisers
The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is proposing a rule that would require investment advisers to establish anti-money laundering programs, file Currency Transaction Reports, and report suspicious activity. While the Bank Secrecy Act does not expressly include “investment adviser” among its list of entities defined as a financial institution, ...
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Article
How Can Compliance Manage Chat Risks? That’s Tough
Image: As the financial sector embraces the speed and efficiency of instant messaging services, compliance officers have a new challenge: how to detect misconduct in real time, not in e-discovery after the fact. Vendors are rushing in with new products; the bad news is that regulators are looking into “chat ...
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Blog
Court Upholds SEC's 'Pay to Play' Rule
The SEC’s 2010 “pay to play” rule , which places limitations on investment advisers whose political contributions could lead to government work, has survived an attempt by Republican groups to brand the requirements as unconstitutional. A recent court decision set aside First Amendment issues and focused on how the ...
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Article
Undermined! Court Ruling Chisels Away at Conflict Minerals Rule
Corporate America has won a bit of a reprieve (emphasis on “a bit”) in conflict minerals compliance, thanks to the Aug. 18 court decision barring the SEC from requiring companies to disclose whether they are conflict mineral-free. But the duty to analyze your supply chain remains and, thankfully, this year’s ...