All Compliance Week articles in Web Issue – Page 727
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Blog
Parker Drilling Unit Pays $267,000 for Bribery
Scotland-based oil and gas services company International Tubular Services, a subsidiary of Parker Drilling, last week agreed to pay a £170,000 ($267,000) fine to Scotland’s Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service’s civil recovery unit to resolve charges that a former Kazakhstan-based employee paid bribes to secure contract work from a ...
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Blog
Bruker to Pay $2.4 Million for FCPA Violations
Scientific instruments manufacturer Bruker will pay a $2.4 million penalty to the Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve charges of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by providing non-business related travel and improper payments to various Chinese government officials in an effort to win business. Details inside.
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Blog
FASB Releases XBRL Taxonomy for 2015
For companies looking to get a head start on their XBRL filings, the Financial Accounting Standards Board has released its 2015 GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy, pending approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Blog
Former Rite Aid VP Charged in Kickback Scheme
A former Rite Aid vice president, Timothy Foster of Oregon, has been charged in connection with a $14.6 million, surplus inventory sales/kickback scheme, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. As the company’s vice president for quality assurance, Foster’s took advantage of his oversight of surplus inventory liquidation to benefit himself ...
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Blog
Fed Extends Deadlines for Volcker Rule Compliance
The Federal Reserve Board is giving financial insitutions more time to comply with the Volcker rule’s demand that they extricate themselves from investments in hedge funds and private equity funds and wind down speculative positions held on their own behalf, rather than for clients. Banks will until 2017 to unwind ...
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Blog
Desite Protestations, MetLife Deemed Systemically Important
To the surprise of no one, including the company itself, the Financial Stability Oversight Council has designated Metlife, the nation’s largest insurance company, as a Systemically Important Financial Institution, subjecting it to new regulatory, disclosure, and capital demands. MetLife has 30 days to decide whether to ask a federal judge ...
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Blog
Former MoneyGram CCO Fined $1 Million
Image: MoneyGram International’s former chief compliance officer, Thomas Haider, has been fined $1 million by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network for failing to ensure that his company abided by the anti-money laundering provisions of the Bank Secrecy Act. Concurrently, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of ...
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Podcast
Podcast: Segregation of Duties, Sensitive Access Controls
Segregation of duties controls—and their close cousin, sensitive access controls—are at the heart of a robust internal control system. They are also among the most difficult controls to understand, develop, and deploy. In this week's podcast we talk with Larry Carter, author of the new e-book Segregation of Duties and ...
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Blog
Haywood Gilliam, Jr. Confirmed as Federal Judge in California
Yesterday, the U.S. Senate confirmed Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr. to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Gilliam is currently a partner and and vice-chair of Covinton & Burling's White Collar Defense and Investigations practice group. President Obama nominated Gilliam in August 2014 to fill ...
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Blog
OECD Has ‘Grave Concerns’ with Argentina’s Anti-Bribery Efforts
A report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Working Group on Bribery says it has "grave concerns" about Argentina’s commitment to fight foreign bribery. Argentina has no law to punish companies for foreign bribery or prosecute individuals who commit the crime abroad, the report says. Delays plague economic ...
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Blog
PCAOB Disciplines Grant Thornton Auditor in Japan
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has disciplined a Grant Thornton auditor in Japan for failing to address numerous red flags that revenue could be overstated in the 2010 audit of Baldwin-Japan Ltd.
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Blog
Avon Pays $135 Million To Resolve FCPA Charges
Image: The SEC has charged Avon with Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations by failing to prevent payments and gifts to Chinese government officials from employees at a subsidiary, resulting in a $135 million penalty. “Avon missed an opportunity to correct potential FCPA problems at its subsidiary, resulting in years of ...
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Blog
FDIC Posts New Requirements for Bank Resolution Plans
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has issued new guidance and requirements for the resolution plans federally insured banks with more than $50 billion in assets must submit. The guidance, which applies to 2015 submissions, provides direction regarding what must be discussed in a fully developed resolution strategy and an accompanying ...
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Blog
CFPB Sues Sprint Over Third-Party Charges
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has filed a lawsuit against Sprint, alleging that the wireless communications provider illegally billed its customers tens of millions of dollars in unauthorized third-party charges. The Bureau’s complaint alleges that Sprint allowed third parties to “cram” unauthorized charges on customers’ mobile-phone accounts and ignored ...
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Blog
Sanctions Rewrite Will Open Cuba to U.S. Companies
Seeking to normalize relations between the United States and Cuba, President Barack Obama has announced an easing of decades-old sanctions. Authorizing the export of goods for private sector Cuban companies "essentially throws the market open to U.S. companies,” Judith Lee, chair of the law firm Gibson Dunn's International Trade Regulation ...
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Blog
Bank CEOs, Boards Get Another Batch of Cyber-Security Help
Bank CEOs and boards have a fresh batch of cyber-security guidance to evaluate. On Wednesday, The Conference of State Bank Supervisors released “Cybersecurity 101: A Resource Guide for Bank Executives,” a document that collects industry-recognized standards and best practices that are currently used within the financial services industry.
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Blog
U.K. Stress Tests Show Few Capital Hiccups, Improved Resiliency
Image: Dec. 17—Three of eight major U.K. banks reviewed by regulators need to bolster their capital positions, but overall the banking system’s resiliency has improved, according to results of Bank of England stress tests meant to test banks’ ability to withstand a housing shock. “The results show that the core ...
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Blog
Swiss ‘FIFA Law’ Turns Sports Execs Into Politically Exposed Persons
Image: Dec. 17—After years of grappling with corruption allegations against international sports federations based within their borders, Swiss lawmakers have passed a measure to criminalize corruption in sports and add sports federation heads to the definition of politically exposed persons facing enhanced scrutiny from banks. Swiss legislator Roland Büchel, who ...
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Blog
Senators Demand SEC Action on Pay-Ratio Rule
A coalition of senators, among them Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), penned a letter to Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White demanding that the SEC finalize its long-lingering pay-ratio rule. The rule, requiring public companies to disclose a ratio of CEO pay to that of their ...
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Blog
SEC Cautions Companies on Consolidation Analyses
Image: The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking closely at who consolidates a variable interest entity, noticing variations in how companies apply existing guidance. Professional Accounting Fellow Christopher Rogers said at a recent conference that staff is looking into issues surrounding the application of shared power, determining when a decision ...