Episode 66 -- Gifts and Hospitality Compliance and Best Practices
Day 11 of One Month to More Effective Internal Controls-Internal Controls for Gifts, Travel and Entertainment
FCPA Compliance and Ethics Report-Episode 165-BHP FCPA Enforcement and Lessons Learned for the Compliance Practitioner
A key analysis is whether there are controls in place to enforce the policies and whether those controls are documented. To help to answer this query, there are four issues to evaluate...more
China continues to be a high-risk location for US companies to do business. While the current administration has laid numerous tariffs on Chinese goods, the fact that it holds 6 billion potential consumers will continue to...more
The Microsoft FCPA settlement, while not significant in the total penalty of approximately $25 million, provides some important instructions concerning distributor and re-seller risks and mitigation strategies. ...more
“Microsoft’s subsidiary in Hungary provided discounts on software licenses to its resellers, distributors and other third parties. Instead of passing on the discounts to Microsoft’s government customers, the discounts were...more
As the old adage provides – better late than never. (Same applies for my somewhat tardy posting on this case). Telefônica Brasil settled FCPA violations with the SEC for a pretty penny — $4.125 million in civil penalties...more
It is reasonable to expect that internal controls over gifts, travel and entertainment (GTE) be designed to ensure that all satisfy the criteria as defined in company policies. Generally speaking, these are fairly narrow,...more
Some business people are “bad,” meaning they engage in misconduct and either feel no remorse or rationalize why their conduct is acceptable. In a company that embraces bad acting, breaking rules or cutting corners, bad actors...more
Rock and roll heaven got another power player this week as Greg Lake died on December 7th. He was one-third of the greatest prog rock trio Emerson, Lake & Palmer (aka ELP). With apologies to Patrick Hays and all you...more
Sometimes I get inspired when writing blog posts and sometimes I get on a roll. It is a bit of both this week and today, as previously this week, I have focused on Department of Justice (DOJ) pronouncements on their view of...more
On March 1, 2016, the SEC announced that Qualcomm Incorporated, a San Diego-based wireless telecommunication product company, agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle charges that its actions violated the Foreign Corrupt...more
PTC, a Massachusetts software company, reached settlements with the SEC and DOJ last week for FCPA violations for a total of $28 million. Interestingly, the SEC announced a DPA with a PTC official who assisted in the...more
I have been exploring the PTC Inc. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) settlement this week. It included a Non-Prosecution Agreement (NPA) from the Department of Justice (DOJ) with two Chinese subsidiaries and a Cease and...more
Travel, entertainment and gifts tied to inadequate controls are recurrent themes in FCPA cases. Many of these cases involve the use of agents and center in China. Each of these recurrent items appear in the most recent FCPA...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission continues its steady march as the prominent FCPA enforcement agency against corporations. The Justice Department has not brought any enforcement actions this year and continues to...more
Corruption risks follow the money. If a company has effective controls over money, then the company has a good chance of mitigating corruption risks. A key indicator of a company’s internal controls is to ask if the...more
FCPA procedures, internal controls and travel, entertainment and gifts were at the center of the SEC’s latest FCPA action. The action names as a Respondent Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and focuses on its efforts to sell...more
In June 2015, the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published revisions to their jointly issued A Resource Guide to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The Resource Guide, initially...more
Intuitively, Israeli companies and their directors would likely assume that their businesses are immune to investigation and the assessment of penalties by US regulators that are separated by a vast ocean and located more...more
In this episode I review the BHP Billiton FCPA enforcement action brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission. I review the underlying facts and provide some lessons learned for the compliance practitioner. The key...more
On May 20, BHP Billiton Ltd. and BHP Billiton Plc (BHPB), a global resources company that sponsored the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games, settled Securities and Exchange Commission charges of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act...more
The SEC is on a mission – companies that engage in egregious payment schemes for gifts, hospitality and travel are going to get prosecuted for civil FCPA violations. Recent SEC enforcement actions against companies continue,...more