All Compliance Week articles in Web Issue – Page 633
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Blog
SFO Speeds Up Tesco’s Accounting Probe
The Serious Fraud Office has accelerated its probe into the accounting irregularities at Tesco, hoping to resolve the criminal investigation by year-end. The supermarket chain’s former chief executive Philip Clarke is one of many former Tesco executives being scrutinized by the agency in its investigation; Laurie McIlwee, former finance ...
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Blog
EU Pushes for More Tax Transparency Among Member States
The European Union passed a new law that will put an end to sweetened tax deals between member states and multinationals. Under the new legislation, member states will be required to swap information about special corporate tax deals twice per year with national tax authorities over an encrypted e-mail ...
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Blog
OECD Measures Would Tie Off International Tax Loopholes
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has offered the G-20 nations measures intended to plug the holes that let companies engage in offshore tax planning that reduces the total global tax base. The package includes minimum standards to thwart the use of conduit companies to channel investments. It also ...
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Article
SEC Reform of In-House Trials Gets Lukewarm Reception
Image: Facing lawsuits and other complaints that its administrative proceedings are stacked against defendants, the SEC is mulling changes to give the accused more ability to defend themselves. The proposals have received lukewarm reception at best. “The proposed amendments do not come close to addressing all the issues that administrative ...
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Article
Volkswagen Scandal Puts Yates Memo to the Test
If ever a case of corporate misconduct could drive the Justice Department to follow through on its new promises to prosecute individuals more vigorously, the emissions scandal at Volkswagen is it. Still, finding individual culpability in the case will be difficult, given its focus on surreptitious software. “Figuring out who ...
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Article
SEC Faces New Obstacles in e-Discovery Efforts
As the SEC ferrets out inside traders and Ponzi schemers of the Internet Age, more voices are saying the agency has too much leeway to gather electronic records against investigation targets. Congress is mulling legislation to curb SEC power to get e-mail from Internet service providers; federal judges are applying ...
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Blog
U.K. FCA: Senior Managers To Be ‘Whistleblower Champions’
Image: The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority is calling on senior managers to serve as “Whistleblower Champions” and to play a lead role in protecting employees who come forward with critical information about misconduct. The rules are part of the Senior Managers Regime, which is slated to go into effect ...
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Blog
With Safe Harbor Squashed, What's Next for European Data Transfers?
As anticipated, on Tuesday the European Court of Justice ruled the Safe Harbor program for international data transfers between the United States and European Union is invalid. While U.S. officials fret that the ruling will “undercut the ability of other countries, businesses, and citizens to rely upon negotiated arrangements with ...
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Article
Data Security Impasse Overturns Safe Harbor Program
An Austrian student’s displeasure with Facebook has invalidated the longstanding trans-Atlantic Safe Harbor program for international data transfers. That complaint, originally about Facebook’s alleged cooperation in U.S. government spying, has reached the highest court and Europe and overturned 15 years of data privacy rules. Companies are left with few viable ...
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Blog
Titan International Appoints Chief Accounting Officer
Titan International announced this week that it has appointed Christopher Bohnert as chief accounting officer, effective as of Sept. 29. Bohnert will oversee the company’s accounting matters and serve as Titan’s principal accounting officer. More inside.
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Article
Frustrating Risk With the Right Internal Control Framework
Image: As cyber-security and IT controls rise up the priority list in corporate audits, a new wrinkle is emerging: numerous frameworks (COSO, NIST, CoBIT) used by numerous parties, all trying to build effective control systems. That could lead to painful detours in mapping controls, if compliance executives don’t plan carefully. ...
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Blog
A Smarter Way to Address Disclosure Overload
That companies are besieged with requests to disclose information is not news; nor is the awkward truth that most disclosures (think MD&A in your annual report) are not, ahem, brimming with specifics. This week, columnists Stephen Davis and Jon Lukomnik consider new ways to make your disclosure more manageable. One ...
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Blog
Lincoln Financial Group Chief Accounting Officer to Retire
Lincoln Financial Group announced this week that Douglas Miller, senior vice president and chief accounting officer, will retire on March 31, 2016, after more than 30 years with the company. Christine Janofsky, currently vice president and assistant controller, will succeed Miller when he formally leaves the organization. Details inside.
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Blog
Companies Meet Their Match in Cyber-Security, IT Survey Shows
Image: A recent survey from Protiviti found that only 28 percent of 700 senior IT managers saw a high level of engagement and understanding of cyber-security risks by the board of directors. According to the company, board members are trying to understand complex technical issues, the investments necessary to address ...
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Resource
GRC Illustrated Series: Align Your Business for Principled Performance
Principled performance is all about being able to reliably achieve objectives while addressing uncertainty and acting with integrity. That means you need to develop objectives based on a full understanding of the context in which your organization operates and design strategies for operations, risk management, and compliance that are effective ...
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Blog
Bristol-Myers Squibb Settles FCPA Case for $14 Million
Pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb has reached a $14 million settlement with the SEC for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. According to the Commission, the company’s joint venture in China made cash payments and provided other benefits to healthcare providers at state-owned and state-controlled hospitals in exchange for prescription ...
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Blog
Scottish Prosecutors Resolve Bribery Case With Brand-Rex for £200,000
Scotland-based company Brand-Rex, a developer of cabling solutions for network infrastructure and industrial applications, last month reached a £212,800 civil settlement with Scottish prosecutors for failing to prevent bribery by a third party in violation of Section 7 of the U.K. Bribery Act. Details inside.
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Blog
BP to Pay $20.8 Billion for Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
BP today reached an historic $20.8 billion settlement with the government and five Gulf states to resolve civil claims arising from the 2010 Macondo well blowout and the massive oil spill that followed in the Gulf of Mexico. It is the largest settlement with a single entity in the Department’s ...
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Blog
Sponsors Turn Up the Heat on FIFA Corruption
Image: Four of FIFA’s largest sponsors have called on the group’s president, Sepp Blatter, to resign immediately given his role in possible misconduct at the soccer organization. (Blatter is now under criminal investigation by Swiss prosecutors.) That business-driven pressure, Compliance Week blogger Tom Fox (left) says, might be the first ...