All Compliance Week articles in Web Issue – Page 663
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Blog
SEC.gov's Top 10 News Stories, Search Terms in 2015
As it similarly did at the end of 2014, the SEC announced "Top 10" lists this week for the most popular search terms and news releases on the SEC website (SEC.gov) in 2015.
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Blog
New OFAC Sanctions Rules Target Cyber-Attacks
The Treasury Department has implemented new rules that execute an executive order issued in April by President Barack Obama authorizing sanctions against countries and foreign nationals involved in cyber-attacks against U.S. citizens, companies, or government agencies. The rules formalize a strategy used to increase sanctions against North Korea in response ...
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Blog
Second Circuit Denies Rajat Gupta's Last Gasp Effort to Vacate Conviction
His imminent release from prison has not stopped former McKinsey & Company CEO and Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta from aggressively seeking to get his conviction vacated under the Second Circuit's landmark Newman decision. This week, the Second Circuit rejected Gupta's last gasp appeal in the case.
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SEC Seeks Comment on Transfer Agent Rules
The SEC has issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking and a concept release for new rules governing transfer agents. The Commission intends to propose new rules for transfer agents similar to those recently adopted for registered broker-dealers regarding amended annual reporting, independent audit, and notification requirements. The intent is ...
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SEC Issues Annual Reports on Credit Rating Agencies
The SEC has issued annual staff reports on credit rating agencies registered as nationally recognized statistical rating organizations (NRSROs). The news in the annual report, summarizing examinations of each NRSRO as required by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, is cautiously good. It shows that NRSROs have made operational improvements and have ...
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CFPB Releases Latest Data From Complaint Database
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has concluded its most recent review of complaints filed with the agency. As of Dec. 1, 2015, the CFPB handled 770,100 complaints nationally and the report notes that, in a year-to-year comparison of data from September to November, complaints about prepaid products rose 215 percent. ...
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The Mast Brothers Meltdown
For years, Mast Brothers, a brand of high-end, artisanal bean-to-bar chocolate, has proven to be an unlikely success story, making small batches of expensive chocolate bars from its humble operation in the heart of the hipster world—the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. But when Dallas-based food writer Scott Craig ...
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Is That Disposal a Discontinued Operation? SEC Staff Offer Views
SEC Associate Chief Accountant Barry Kanczuker says FASB’s new standard on when a particular disposal should be characterized as a discontinued operation isn’t always clear cut. Kanczuker says companies will have to apply judgment to what constitutes a relevant financial result; look at financial results that might be relevant to ...
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Some Costs of Corruption
Image: A recent Financial Times article says that non-U.S. corruption scandals have outpaced those which are U.S.-centric and, FT points out, the companies at the heart of these scandals fared pretty badly from their own transgressions. Inside, FCPA blogger Tom Fox examines the cases of Volkswagen, whose emissions fraud has ...
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Succession Planning: A Priority for Bank Chiefs in 2016
Standard Chartered has scored big by hiring HSBC veteran Simon Cooper to serve as the London-based company’s corporate and institutional banking head but, according to the Financial Times, Cooper’s departure from HSBC may be a sign the exec has grown impatient waiting to take over the British bank’s reigns. Cooper, ...
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New European Regulations Mean More Competition Between ‘Big Four’
New European regulations requiring companies to change auditors every 20 years have led to intense competition between the Big Four audit firms. Barclays, for instance has cut a 120-year relationship with PwC, and KPMG has been picked up as auditor for the British bank. The audit firm rotation continued at ...
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Using Social Media to Defend an FCPA Criminal Charge
Image: Social media has certainly changed the way we communicate. Just look at federal securities fraudster Martin Shkreli, known for his extreme social media use, who has continued the practice (not surprisingly) post-arrest. According to the New York Times, Shkreli posts selfie videos “as if the possibility of going to ...
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Article
It’s Time to Stop Thinking of Whistleblowers as “Nut Jobs”
A recent comment about whistleblowers largely being crank cases has raised the ugly notion that those who report wrongdoing are more often venting a personal grudge or prosecuting a baseless case, than actually raising a legitimate issue. But in this age of heightened governance concern, can such a cavalier attitude ...
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Bill Requires Disclosure of Board’s Cyber-Security Expertise
Security experts have long pressured companies to bring cyber-security expertise onto their boards. U.S. Senators Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) have introduced legislation known as the Cyber-security Disclosure Act of 2015 that could apply even more pressure. If passed, publicly traded companies would be required to disclose to ...
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SEC Offers View on Pension Measurement Considerations
Image: The SEC is open to the new methods some companies are considering to revise their approach to certain pension accounting assumptions. The Commission recently consulted with companies and accounting firms on two different approaches—single weighted-average and disaggregated or “spot rate.” “After considering their specific facts and circumstances, we have ...
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CPAs Launch Research to Push Data Analytics in Audit
Image: The AICPA and Rutgers Business School haved formed a data analytics research initiative to demonstrate how the use of data analytics can advance the public accounting profession. According to Rutgers professor Miklos Vasarhelyi, the initiative’s two shared goals are “to examine how audit objectives might be achieved more effectively ...
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Steven Cohen Preparing Latest Constitutional Challenge to SEC's APs
The next constitutional challenge to the SEC's administrative proceedings process may be the most high-profile one to date. Lawyers for Steven A. Cohen confirmed that the SAC Capital founder intends to mount such a challenge if ongoing settlement talks are not successful.
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Revised Ofcom Guidelines Could Mean Higher Penalties
Ofcom, the independent regulator and competition authority for the U.K. communications industry, this month published updated penalty guidelines, which were last revised in 2011. The new guidelines give Ofcom greater flexibility to impose higher penalties for non-compliance. “Companies should therefore take immediate steps to assess and reduce such potential exposure ...
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Marsh Risk Consulting Names Cyber-Security Expert
Marsh, an insurance brokerage and risk management firm, has appointed Jim Holtzclaw as senior vice president of cyber-security consulting and advisory services at Marsh Risk Consulting (MRC). In his new role, Holtzclaw will work with a team of experts to implement MRC’s cyber-security consulting strategy, capabilities, and services in North ...
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SEC Settles Insider Case Based on Credit Card Sales Data
The SEC announced a partial settlement today in an unusual insider trading case that it brought earlier this year against Bonan Huang and Nan Huang -- two former employees in the fraud department at Capital One Financial Corp. The SEC alleges that the men made over $2.8 million in illegal ...