Compliance into the Weeds - SOX Compliance, PCAOB Inspections and Audits
Compliance into the Weeds-Episode 57-SOX Reform or Not?
Compliance into the Weeds-Episode 51, the PCAOB and Compliance
Compliance into the Weeds-Espiode 47
Everything Compliance-Episode 12
Day 5 of One Month to Better Investigations and Reporting-the Board’s Investigation Protocol
Compliance into the Weeds-Episode 30-SOX 404(b)
FCPA Compliance and Ethics Report-Episode 145-SEC Enforcement of the FCPA, Part II
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) protects employees of public corporations who report alleged financial misconduct from retaliation by their employers. Last week, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that an employee’s...more
On April 5, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board levied a $100,000 fine against Scott Marcello, the former Vice Chair of Audit at KPMG. The penalty is noteworthy for two reasons: (1) it’s the largest monetary...more
On July 21, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York held that the whistleblower protections established in SOX are not restricted to employee whistleblowers, but also extend to shareholders. SEC...more
On July 16, 2020, the Third Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a former IT analyst’s whistleblower retaliation claim, holding that he lacked an objectively reasonable belief that his complaints implicated one of the enumerated...more
When an employee reports a concern regarding fraudulent or illegal behavior, an employer’s immediate response is likely to open an investigation, stop any wrongdoing, and take appropriate corrective action. In the race to...more
On July 18, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania granted a defendant-employer’s motion for summary judgment on a SOX whistleblower retaliation claim, holding that the Plaintiff did not have...more
I recently interviewed Dr. Kyle Welch, Assistant Professor at George Washington University (GWU), on his recently released paper, co-authored with Stephen Stubben, Associate Professor from The University of Utah, entitled...more
Today I conclude my three-part series on internal investigations with Jonathan Marks, a partner at Marcum LLP and a well-known internal investigation expert, by considering some of the challenges you may well face during an...more
Many companies have an investigation protocol in place when a potential Foreign Corruption Practices Act (FCPA) or other legal issue arises? However, many Boards of Directors do not have the same rigor when it comes to an...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 September 27, 2016, Proskauer Partner Steven J. Pearlman, co-head of the Whistleblowing & Retaliation Practice Group, participated in a Bloomberg webinar with Jane Norberg, Acting Chief of the SEC Office of the...more
The Business Law Section’s Director and Officer Liability Committee conducted a program at the Section’s Spring Meeting in Montréal. The program focused on the recent Yates memorandum of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ),...more
BK Medical, a subsidiary of the Denmark company, Analogic settled an FCPA enforcement action last week with the Justice Department and the SEC for approximately $14 million. Analogic agreed to pay $3.4 million to the Justice...more
SEC Awards Bounty to Whistleblower, But Offsets Award for a Judgment Against the Whistleblower - The extent to which the SEC would reward whistleblowers, who themselves engaged in wrongdoing, has been the subject of...more
On March 3, 2016, the BakerHostetler Financial Services industry team held its inaugural Financial Services Risk Summit. The speakers and panels addressed several key areas affecting the financial services sector: regulatory...more
On February 2, 2016, the Third Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the SOX whistleblower retaliation claim in the closely watched case of Weist v. Tyco Electronics Corp., No. 15-2034. We have posted on key events during the...more
On August 26, 2015, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted summary judgment on a whistleblower retaliation claim under Section 806 of SOX, holding that Plaintiff Ivor Hill failed to establish a...more
SEC Awards Another Whistleblowing Compliance Officer - On April 22, 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced an award between $1.4 and $1.6 million to a compliance officer who provided information...more
Employers in the financial services industry are faced with a growing number of employment law challenges. Whistleblower complaints are on the rise as regulatory agencies become more aggressive in their efforts to encourage...more
Think of a U.S.-headquartered multinational when it receives an allegation of serious misconduct at one of its overseas operations. Maybe the company whistleblower hotline just got a tip that a secretary in the Buenos Aires...more
As the SEC takes aim at whistleblower “pretaliation” (attempts to muzzle whistleblowers via confidentiality and other employment agreements—overt or otherwise) ethics and compliance officers need to take practical steps to...more
In This Issue - Welcome to the final issue of International News for 2014. As regulatory oversight of companies—from Sarbanes Oxley and the Dodd-Frank Act to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the UK Bribery...more
In March, the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia ordered defense contractors Kellogg Brown and Root Inc. and Halliburton’s (“KBR”) legal department to produce internal investigative reports that KBR contended...more
Yesterday I began an exploration of a recent article in the Corporate Board magazine, entitled “Successful Board Investigations” by David Bayless and Tammy Albarrán, partners in the law firm of Covington & Burling LLP. In...more