All Compliance Week articles in Web Issue – Page 645
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Blog
Walgreens Boots Alliance Names Global Controller and Chief Accounting Officer
Walgreens Boots Alliance, the first global pharmacy-led, health and wellbeing enterprise in the world, has named Kimberly Scardino as global controller and chief accounting officer. She reports to George Fairweather, executive vice president and global chief financial officer. Details inside.
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Blog
SEC Prevails in First Appellate Decision on Challenges to APs
Recently, respondents challenging the SEC’s ability to bring administrative proceedings have had success in two cases in federal district court. Last week, the Seventh Circuit became the first appellate court to weigh in on this issue and found in favor of the SEC. The Seventh Circuit held in Bebo ...
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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
Cooper Standard Names Corporate Controller and Chief Accounting Officer
Cooper-Standard Holdings, a global supplier of systems and components for the automotive industry, has appointed Jonathan Banas to corporate controller and chief accounting officer, effective Sept. 14. Details inside.
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Blog
UBS to Pay $1.7 Million for Sanctions Violations
Swiss bank UBS yesterday reached a $1.7 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to resolve allegations that it violated global terrorism sanctions regulations. Lessons learned from the bank’s compliance failures, as well as the mitigating factors that reduced the penalty amount, are inside.
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Blog
Audit Fee Data Reveals New Departure from Non-Audit Services
According to a recent Audit Analytics study of fees paid in 2014 by 2,300 accelerated filers, 80.3 percent were focused on the integrated financial statement internal control audit; fees for non-audit services dipped to 19.7 percent of the total bill from the audit firm, a drop from 20 percent during ...
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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
Globestar Industries Names Chief Compliance Officer
Globestar Industries, a company engaged in cannabis industry consulting, has named Christopher Plummer as chief compliance officer. Plummer's appointment comes at a time when the company is in the process of changing its name to Pineapple Express, with the intent to create a nationally branded chain of cannabis retail stores. ...
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Blog
Plan B? Feds Pursue Insider Trading Charges Under SOX
An unusual insider trading prosecution brought under a provision of SOX (rather than Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act) suggests that prosecutors are seeking a "Plan B" in the wake of the Second Circuit's disruptive decision in U.S. v. Newman.
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Blog
Podcast: Conducting Internal Investigations in Europe
Image: In light of increased enforcement activities across Europe, particularly increased enforcement cooperation among foreign jurisdictions and around the world, European corporations are subjected to overlapping and often similar—but not identical—regulatory requirements. In our latest podcast, we talk to Tiffany Moseley, partner in Kaye Scholer’s litigation practice, about internal investigations ...
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Blog
Banks Are Concerned Over New EU Bonus Rules
Image: New EU legislation covering banker pay that will be applied across all member states is causing some rift in the industry. Wim Mijs, chief executive of the European Banking Federation, said the rules may lead to a “heavy administrative burden.” He is calling on the European commissioner responsible for ...
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Blog
Study Shows Better Audit Reports Lead to Better Audits
Expanded audit reports and audit committee reports have led to better audits in the United Kingdom, according to new research, perhaps because expanded reporting has given auditors more leverage over financial statement assertions. The authors of the study said the new U.K. reporting requirements led to better-quality audits, as measured ...
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Article
Don’t Let Bad Culture Short-Circuit Your Training
A compliance training program is only as effective as the corporate culture it stands upon—which means employee cynicism and fear of retaliation need to be addressed first if you ever hope your training program will matter. Inside we look at how CCOs can combat cynicism, even when it takes a ...
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Blog
Holy Orders: Vatican Picks Up Pace in AML Fight
Image: In recent years money laundering has engulfed numerous international institutions, such as the Vatican, which has been roundly criticized by Italian prosecutors for both its failure to carry out appropriate due diligence over its customers and its inability to track suspicious transactions. Those criticisms have led to some dramatic ...
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Article
More Questions, and Evidence, on Undisclosed Control Weaknesses
Image: Fresh data from the PCAOB is raising awkward questions about whether companies and audit firms really are disclosing all the weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires. PCAOB board member Jeanette Franzel presented the data in a recent speech that should prompt some soul-searching ...
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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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Blog
Gleaning Enforcement Insights From Accounting Missteps
A confession from Compliance Week columnist Robert Herz: He spends time each summer reading Accounting & Auditing Enforcement Releases the SEC publishes as part of its enforcement against corporate misconduct. This week, Herz looks over the various AAERs of the last 12 months to pluck out common themes: more enforcement ...
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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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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 ...