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In this Great Women in Compliance episode, Hemma interviews Shruti Shah, a Senior Policy Advisor for Anti-Corruption in the Office of the Coordinator on Global Anti-Corruption at the U.S. Department of State. Shruti and Hemma explore how the US government builds partnerships with the private sector and civil society globally to implement the US Strategy on Countering Corruption. Highlights include personal stories about the unstoppable power of informed and passionate individuals, the acknowledgment that corporate executives working in compliance are part of a global community, and the recognition that persistence pays off. Learn more about the benefits of a public-private partnership and collaboration, including some key initiatives run by the Department of State, USAID, and several multilateral organizations, and discover how you can learn more or get involved. Shruti is a beacon of inspiration who reminds us all to take pride in the part we can play in a movement toward eradicating global corruption. Key Resources mentioned in the episode: Compliance without borders: https://www.oecd.org/en/about/projects/compliance-without-borders.html Blue Dot Network: https://www.state.gov/blue-dot-network/ USAID's Grand Challenges: https://www.usaid.gov/anti-corruption/countering-transnational-corruption-grand-challenge USAID's EDGE Fund: https://www.usaid.gov/work-usaid/private-sector-engagement/edge-fund About Shruti: Shruti is a Senior Policy Advisor for Anti-Corruption in the Office of the Coordinator on Global Anti-Corruption at the U.S. Department of State. In this role, she plays a key part in implementing the U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption, helping to integrate anti-corruption measures into U.S. foreign policy and global engagement. She also coordinates initiatives to build partnerships with the private sector and civil society, enhancing collaborative efforts to combat corruption on a global scale. As a representative of the State Department, Ms. Shah frequently speaks at international conferences focused on anti-corruption, ethics, and integrity, promoting U.S. Government objectives and fostering global collaboration #GWIC is proud to announce that it has been nominated for the #WomenInPodcastAwards. This is a people's choice award and whether you vote for #GWIC or other nominees we ask that you send the elevator back down by voting. Voting opens August 1, 2024, and details can be found on the #GWIC Linkedin page at http://www.linkedin.com/groups/12156164 Resources Join the Great Women in Compliance community on LinkedIn here.
Richard Nephew, the US Department of State's Coordinator on Global Anti-Corruption, speaks to Liz Dávid-Barrett (Centre for the Study of Corruption) about the US strategy on countering corruption. The episode explores some of the aims and practicalities involved in implementing different pillars of the strategy, including attempts to strengthen the multilateral anti-corruption architecture. Richard and Liz also talk about the key outcomes to emerge from the recent UN Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), hosted in the US. Below are links to some of the key documents discussed in the episode. US Strategy on Countering Corruption: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/United-States-Strategy-on-Countering-Corruption.pdf Strategy Implementation Plan: https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/U.S.-Strategy-on-Countering-Corruption-Implementation-Plan-9.5.2023-FINAL.pdf Fact Sheet on the Strategy: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/12/06/fact-sheet-u-s-strategy-on-countering-corruption/
In this episode Gretta Fenner (Managing Director, Basel Institute on Governance) and Daniel Eriksson (CEO, Transparency International) talk to Liz Dávid-Barrett (Centre for the Study of Corruption) about the links between corruption and national security issues. The episode follows from the Munich Security Conference where Daniel and Gretta raised the issue of corruption as a key policy concern. The group discuss the new global context of heightened insecurity and the implications this has for those working to counter corruption. Liz also asks Daniel and Gretta about "strategic corruption", defined in the US Strategy on Countering Corruption as "when a government weaponizes corrupt practices as a tenet of its foreign policy". This is a term which has gained significant policy attention. It however raises questions as to whether using the term involves anti-corruption campaigners "picking sides" in this new context of global insecurity .
The US Department of State has issued its Implementation Plan for the US Strategy on Countering Corruption. The five-pillar Plan outlines actions for the department, its agencies, and its domestic and international partners. John and Elliot discuss the plan and its impact on global anti-corruption efforts.
Footage includes: soundbites from Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the anti-corruption conference, vox pops from the streets of Kabul and various shots of troops interacting with the ANSF and local Afghans.Produced by Mel Green.
This week on Breaking Battlegrounds, we are joined by Congressman Eric Burlison of Missouri's 7th Congressional District. He is a sixth-generation Missourian with 20 years of private sector experience as an investment advisor and software consultant. -Congressman Burlison is a sixth-generation Missourian with 20 years of private sector experience as an investment advisor and software consultant. He is a 1995 graduate from Parkview High School in Springfield, and he received a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and a Master of Business Administration from Missouri State University. He was elected to represent Missouri's 7th Congressional District in 2022.He previously represented the 20th Senatorial District, comprising of Christian County and part of Greene County, from 2019 to 2023. Before his election to the Missouri Senate, he represented the 133rd District in the Missouri House of Representatives. In his free time, Sen. Burlison enjoys hunting and fishing in the Ozarks. He and his wife, Angie, are active members of their church and passionate about supporting campus ministries. They live in Battlefield with their two daughters, Reese and Aubrey.-David Catanese is a Washington-based political writer ready to feed your political appetite but also challenge you on some of life's larger quandaries. He's written for McClatchy, The Atlantic, U.S. News & World Report & Politico.-Jon Levine is a political reporter for the Sunday New York Post. His work covers city, state and national politics. He has worked on significant continuing stories and investigations, including Hunter Biden and the 2020 presidential election. A native New Yorker, he previously worked as a media reporter for TheWrap and Mediaite. His work has been featured on CNN.com, The Atlantic, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. When he's not working, he's thinking about work.-Connect with us:www.breakingbattlegrounds.voteTwitter: www.twitter.com/Breaking_BattleFacebook: www.facebook.com/breakingbattlegroundsInstagram: www.instagram.com/breakingbattlegroundsLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/breakingbattlegroundsAre you getting ready for retirement? Invest in a portfolio with a high, fixed rate of return, that's not correlated to the stock market. Visit investyrefy.com or call CALL 888-YREFY-24. Make sure you tell our friends at Yrefy that Chuck and Sam sent you. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit breakingbattlegrounds.substack.com
In this episode of the Principled Podcast, host Susan Divers continues her conversation from Episode 11 with Tom Fox, the founder of the Compliance Podcast Network, on the changing geopolitical landscape and its impact on E&C. Listen in as the two discuss how anti-corruption is a key component of ESG, the consequences of compliance in cybersecurity, and the growing interconnectedness of risks. You can listen to Episode 11 here. To learn more, download a copy of Tom Fox's white paper Never the Same: Five Key Areas in Which Business Will Never Be the Same After the Russian Invasion. Featured guest: Tom Fox Tom Fox is literally the guy who wrote the book on compliance with the international compliance best-seller The Compliance Handbook, 3rd edition, which was released by LexisNexis in May 2022. Tom has authored 23 other books on business leadership, compliance and ethics, and corporate governance, including the international best-sellers Lessons Learned on Compliance and Ethics and Best Practices Under the FCPA and Bribery Act, as well as his award-winning series "Fox on Compliance." Tom leads the social media discussion on compliance with his award-winning blog, and is the Voice of Compliance, having founded the award-winning Compliance Podcast Network and hosting or producing multiple award-winning podcasts. He is an executive leader at the C-Suite Network, the world's most trusted network of C-Suite leaders. He can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com. Featured host: Susan Divers Susan Divers is the director of thought leadership and best practices with LRN Corporation. She brings 30+ years' accomplishments and experience in the ethics and compliance arena to LRN clients and colleagues. This expertise includes building state-of-the-art compliance programs infused with values, designing user-friendly means of engaging and informing employees, fostering an embedded culture of compliance, and sharing substantial subject matter expertise in anti-corruption, export controls, sanctions, and other key areas of compliance. Prior to joining LRN, Mrs. Divers served as AECOM's Assistant General for Global Ethics & Compliance and Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer. Under her leadership, AECOM's ethics and compliance program garnered six external awards in recognition of its effectiveness and Mrs. Divers' thought leadership in the ethics field. In 2011, Mrs. Divers received the AECOM CEO Award of Excellence, which recognized her work in advancing the company's ethics and compliance program. Before joining AECOM, she worked at SAIC and Lockheed Martin in the international compliance area. Prior to that, she was a partner with the DC office of Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal. She also spent four years in London and is qualified as a Solicitor to the High Court of England and Wales, practicing in the international arena with the law firms of Theodore Goddard & Co. and Herbert Smith & Co. She also served as an attorney in the Office of the Legal Advisor at the Department of State and was a member of the U.S. delegation to the UN working on the first anti-corruption multilateral treaty initiative. Mrs. Divers is a member of the DC Bar and a graduate of Trinity College, Washington D.C. and of the National Law Center of George Washington University. In 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 Ethisphere Magazine listed her as one the “Attorneys Who Matter” in the ethics & compliance area. She is a member of the Advisory Boards of the Rutgers University Center for Ethical Behavior and served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Institute for Practical Training from 2005-2008. She resides in Northern Virginia and is a frequent speaker, writer and commentator on ethics and compliance topics. Principled Podcast Transcript Intro: Welcome to the Principled Podcast, brought to you by LRN. The Principled Podcast brings together the collective wisdom on ethics, business and compliance, transformative stories of leadership, and inspiring workplace culture. Listen in to discover valuable strategies from our community of business leaders and workplace change makers. Susan Divers: Hello and welcome to another episode of LRN's Principled Podcast. I'm your host, Susan Divers, Director of Thought Leadership and Best Practices at LRN. Today, I'm continuing my conversation from episode 11 with Tom Fox on the changing geopolitical landscape and its impact on ethics and compliance. If you haven't listened to that episode yet, we highly encourage you to do so. Tom is the founder of the Compliance Podcast Network and the author of the award-Winning FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog, as well as the Complete Compliance Handbook, which is in its third edition. Tom, welcome back to Principled Podcast. Tom Fox: Thank you, Susan. Susan Divers: Tom, in our last episode, we talked about the impact of the war in the Ukraine on compliance and ethics. And specifically on the challenges that's imposed or brought to the fore for companies and specifically for their compliance teams who hopefully have a real seat at the table in terms of dealing with those challenges and mitigating those risks. But one of the topics that underlies what we were talking about is that of conducting your business in a fair, transparent, and sustainable manner. And I'm really struck by some of the things you were saying about the need to be transparent and the need to walk the walk and talk the talk. Because if you fail to do so, we live in an age of radical transparency and easy access to social media, and moreover, it's the right thing to do. So with that as the background, anti-corruption has long been a focus for regulators. I mean, it's probably defined yours and my careers in a lot of regards. But only recently have some people started talking about it, and you're one and I'm one, as a major component of ESG. Could you explain for our listeners how that works and the role of anti-corruption in ESG? Tom Fox: Sure. So ESG, in my mind, Susan, the power of ESG is that it has brought together disparate strands that have existed in every corporation for some lengthy period of time. But brought them together in a way that someone is looking at them holistically. So, I'll pick on E because that perhaps is the easiest. As a compliance officer, I never looked at environmental issues in our company. That was somebody else's responsibility. Susan Divers: Me either. Right. Tom Fox: Didn't mean there wasn't environmental compliance, but it meant that I wasn't looking at that from the compliance perspective. Now, whether it's the Chief Sustainability Officer, whether it's the Board of Directors, whether there's a Board ESG Committee, somebody's connecting compliance to environmental. And so that in and of itself is, to me, the most powerful reason to have a robust ESG program. But anti-corruption in ESG, in my opinion, Susan, I've always seen it directly in the G. Susan Divers: Me too. Tom Fox: Number one, it's a good governance issue. Number two, it is a Board of Director's issue. Number three, it's illegal and regulatory issue. But now Susan, I'm beginning to see it and have tried to articulate, that I see it in the S component as well as sustainability. Part of it is around one of the topics we touched on our last podcast of radical transparency, that if you do business ethically and in compliance, and if there's a question raised about a supplier, a customer, a distributor, a someone you've done business with in today's era of modern social media, that you can respond to that in a way that won't hurt your business from the public perception perspective. Leaving completely aside the regulatory perspective. So, I see ABC or anti-corruption compliance now, Susan, as directly within the S of ESG as well. And I also see it in the E. So to me, it sort of bleeds across all aspects of ESG and is a key component of a best practices ESG program. Susan Divers: Yeah, and I'm glad you articulated it so clearly for people, because I think there's a tendency perhaps, to silo ethics and compliance and sustainability. And they really are part and parcel of the same thing. And I'm going to quote from your recent white paper in support of that. "As a fundamental threat to the rule of law, corruption hollows out institutions, corrodes public trust, and fuels popular cynicism towards effective accountable governance." And that's, I think, a quote from the U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption. Can you talk for us and link together how anti-corruption, anti-money laundering, and sanctions all are part and parcel of the same thing and relate to ESG? I think that'd be helpful for our listeners? Tom Fox: So Susan, the statement you read interests me for a couple of reasons. That came out of the U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption, and it was aimed at national governments, so national governance. And I think it's absolutely correct that corruption, money laundering, all fuel cynicisms towards effective, accountable national governance. But Susan, as you were reading that, it struck me, that is equally true about corporate governance, or the G in ESG. Because violations of the rule of law, corruption, money laundering, they all corroded trust in our corporations, and indeed fuel cynicism towards effective accountable corporate governance. The United Nations estimates that $3 trillion is lost to the global economy annually because of bribery and corruption. The United States Department of Treasury estimates that $2 trillion is lost annually because of money laundry. That's $5 trillion taken out of the global economy that could be used for a wide variety of other ways, reasons to help countries and people that's not available to them. So having an effective anti-corruption and anti-money laundering strategy as well as trade sanctions, I think, are directly a part of ESG. They're certainly all in the G. We've talked about how they relate to sustainability. But money laundering and trade sanctions are as invidious, in my mind, as corruption is. After 9/11, we saw a spike in the first real spike in FCPA cases starting sort of circa '04. And it was said that corruption led to crime, which led to terrorism. And there was really a belief that corruption had a direct line to the terrorism that impacted the United States directly on 9/11. And now we see how corruption leads to erosion of trust in governance. But governance is not just corporate governance, it's democratic governance and democratic institutions. And certainly the Russian invasion of Ukraine put another exclamation mark on that. Whatever Russia is, it's not a democracy. And it is, if you want to see evidence of the invidiousness of corruption, you only need to look at a Russian army, their failures in Ukraine, how they've treated the people of Ukraine all wrapped up in an anti-democratic form. And that all speaks to the G. And when you read that line or that quote from my white paper, it struck me, that really works on multiple levels of governance. Susan Divers: Well, and you raise a good point too, that it's in the corporate governance area because if you... I've said this so many times, but it's worth repeating. If you have a code of conduct and you have training and you have policies, and you have an E&C team, that doesn't mean you have an ethical company, particularly if your leadership is engaging in sexual harassment or they're dealing with people who are banned because they're under sanction or they're violating anti-money laundering controls because it's a big account and they want the commission. That just means that your program is basically window dressing. So for corporations and for E&C professionals, it seems to me that making sure that you're doing business in an ethical, compliant way is part of and parcel of being sustainable. And part of demonstrating that trust that is essential, if you're going to do business effectively, as we've talked about. We talked last time a little bit about how the Biden administration has basically shifted the view of anti-corruption enforcement. And I think that bears reemphasizing, 'cause I thought that was such an interesting point that you raised about that in the last podcast. Do you mind repeating that? Tom Fox: Sure. So in December, 2021, the Biden administration release our U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption. Once again, this did not come about because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but it occurred during the run up to it. And it's one of the things that I think the Russian invasion have put an exclamation point on as to why business will never be the same in certain areas. You and I have been in the anti-corruption field for a long time. As of December, 2021, our fight is now a national security fight. And they elevated anti-corruption and the fight against corruption to a national security issue. When something becomes a national security issue of the United States, that means resources are made available for that fight. The strategy released by the Biden administration was the internal U.S. Government Strategy. It didn't impact our former employers or us today directly. But what it did was say, "The U.S. is going to enhance the global fight against corruption. They're going to work with foreign partners, foreign prosecutors, foreign departments of justice or ministries of justice to bring to justice people who engage in bribery and corruption, people engage in money laundering in a way they haven't done before." Interestingly, there was a section on journalists and the fourth state and a specific acknowledgement that exposes, business exposes by journalists all the way from blood money of the story of Theranos to the Paradise Papers, to the Panama Papers, to the Paradise Papers, all exposed bribery and corruption, all exposed money laundering, all exposed sham corporations, all exposed fraud. And for the first time, we have the U.S. Government saying, "We're going to work to try to encourage good journalism to help expose these, because we can't do all of this on our own." And newspapers have a vital role to play, and reporters have a vital role to play. So, we have the fourth estate now being openly discussed by the United States. We have government agencies that had never concerned themselves with anti-corruption, now being tasked with anti corruption. And I would point you to NATO. NATO's been around most of our lives. No, well, I guess all of our lives. Susan Divers: Yeah. Tom Fox: It's a key component of what I see as U.S. Security interests. But I've never heard NATO and anti-corruption in the same breath before. Well, now NATO is charged with enforcing anti-corruption statutes for its suppliers. It's suppliers are not all U.S. companies. NATO's a 23 member, I think, organization. So any country can have suppliers to NATO. Well, now they have to comply with U.S. anti-corruption laws probably in the form of the FCPA. So, we have a greater scope, a greater reach, we have greater resources in the form of prosecutors or investigators. But the U.S. is acknowledging and saying, "This is part of our overall fight." And in part one of our episodes, Susan and I talked about the Department of Treasury saying that U.S. corporations are a part of the fight against money laundering. Well, I think the Department of Justice has come pretty close to saying that U.S. corporations are a part of the fight against bribery and corruption. And because it's a national security issue, we want you to come to us. We will incentivize you to come in and self-disclose, once again, even if it's within your organization. I think that this means more funds, a wider remit for government agencies that have not had this remit before. And when you start talking about the press as a key part or a key whistleblower within the context of overall whistle blowing programs, I think that's an acknowledgement that is long overdue. Susan Divers: I totally agree with you. And I think it also sort of ups the ante, because when you couple that with DOJ's recent re-emphasis and added emphasis on personal responsibility and liability for misconduct, it's in a sense saying, "If you go out and you bribe or you violate anti-money laundering or you do business with people on the sanctioned list, or you help oligarchs move their yachts, you're not just committing an economic crime. You're doing something that violates the U.S. National Security interests." And I think that's something for boards and executives to really think about, especially in light of the recent absolutely horrible Lafarge cement case where they were bribing ISIS in order to keep their Syrian cement factory open. It's an interesting dynamic. Let's leave that and let's talk about cybersecurity, because that's another major risk area for companies. And it directly plays into the area of sanctions in AML as well as others. What are you seeing in that space as a result of the war in the Ukraine and the risks that's created? Tom Fox: So once again, Susan, cybersecurity, cyber attacks, cyber hacks have been with us for some period of time. I think Target was probably the first one that got the attention of most of us in the compliance community. But certainly within the cyber community, this was well known. But what the Russian invasion of Ukraine has done is, here I have to cite to Brandon Daniels, CEO of Exiger who said, "We are now under permanent non-kinetic warfare.", meaning we are permanently under attack by our enemies in the cyberspace. Every company is subject to attack. It can be a state actor or it could be rogue groups. It could be criminal groups. So, that's sort of point one. We are all under attack now and we have to harden our defenses. But point number two is that what you sort of raise at the end, Susan, you're attacked, you're hacked. You want to get the key so you can unlock your documents. You make a payment. Who are you making that payment to? They're probably not going to say, "My name is Thomas Robert Fox. My bank account at Chase is..." They're going to give you a false name and some sort of drop account that you don't know, or you may not know who the end user is. Well, in 18 months or 24 months, when you get a little knock at the door from the Department of Treasury, which says, "You've just paid ISIS." Or, "You've just paid Russia. We'd like to ask you some questions under oath." The point being that if you don't know who you're paying, you may be paying someone who's on the sanctions list. You may be paying rogue agents or agents rather from Cuba, from North Korea. You may be paying agents from China. And so, cybersecurity is tied to money laundering and trade sanctions because of the potential payments. As a business, you're in an extraordinarily difficult position because you may have not had hardened defenses. And you may be at risk for losing your data or having it put out on the dark web. And that's not going to be an easy choice. But if you make a payment and it's to someone on the sanction list, the U.S. government has made clear, you will be punished for violations of those U.S. laws. And this fall, it's not effective yet, effective March, 2023, Lloyd's of London has announced that they will not honor cyber insurance obligations where the attack was made by a state actor. And typically what companies will do after they're hacked and they have to announce publicly is, they will say, "Well, we were a hacked by the Russian government and there's nothing we can do for it because it was a top military hacking unit in Russia. And whatever defenses we had in place, we couldn't defend us." Well, if you say that trying to cover your backside, you've just lost your insurance coverage. And if you make payments, you're not going to be able to get indemnity and that money back. So, you have to be very careful about what you publicly say now, if you want to have full cyber insurance. It's, here I'm less certain about the answer, Susan. I just know that the questions have become much more important, much more difficult. But you've got to have these conversations in your corporation. You've got to practice hack drill. It's like you and I did fire drills or bomb drills in elementary school. You've got to have a drill, you've got to have a plan in place. You've got to be ready, if you're hacked. You've got to have experts who you can call, trusted advisors, whether they be legal, whether it be technical, whether they be compliance, whether they be cyber, to come in and help you get through such an attack. But we're under... make no illusions that this Russian invasion has unleashed corporate attacks in a way we have never seen before. It's here to stay. And you as a U.S. corporation and U.S. compliance practitioner are going to have to deal with it. Susan Divers: Well, and what you're saying too is a perfect illustration of the interconnectedness, which I don't think we thought in those terms too much in the past. We had FCPA compliance and we had sanctions compliance and trade compliance and AML. We didn't really, at least, I didn't, to confess, sort of think about it as all connected. But if you're basically being held to ransom and it's a Russian or an ISIS hacker, then not only could you violate the sanctions laws, but you could violate anti-bribery laws too, inadvertently. To use a great expression, it's sort of a dog's breakfast in some ways, what compliance officers are faced with. So, what's your advice, because it's a new risk environment and the risks are really big? They're national security risks, they're not just good governance and good business risks. What should compliance officers do? Let's end on a practical note of, how do you actually deal with the situation going forward? Tom Fox: No, I wonder if I should open my door, bring my three dogs back in, and say, "Hey guys, what do you do when I put a dog's breakfast down in front of you?" And they look up at me and say, "Well, we eat it, Tom." It's here to stay. And that means you have to deal with it. It all goes back to risk. What are your risks? Assess your risks. Yes, I understand you have a robust cyber defense protocol. You have a program, you have tested that program, you've run drills on that program. Now, have you done that same with your prime supplier? Have you done that with your Tom Fox vendor who has access to the vendor invoice system so that I can input my invoice into your system for work I do? Have you checked down to that level to make sure that my defenses are hardened, someone using my system can't get in? You have to go through the same exercise you do from a corruption compliance, any money laundering compliance, trade control, and trade sanction compliance. Assess your risk. How do you assess your risk? Where are you doing business? Who are you doing business with? How are you doing business? In all of those manners, are there any gaps in your defenses in those three areas? If you assess those risks and then if you find gaps, weaknesses, material deficiencies, whatever you choose to call them, remediate those. It is a process you have to go through. You can't do it... I'm going to look at our cyber defenses in our third party supply chain this afternoon. You can't do that. It is a process and you're going to have to put work into it. But that's where you get the real results. Because once again, as we found, I think in the supply chain discussion we had, Susan, once you look at those sub-suppliers, who you're doing business with, where they're doing business, and how you're doing business, you may find inefficiencies from the business operations perspective. And you can correct or improve those business efficiencies and make your company more efficient, and hopefully at the end of the day, more profitable, when you began as a program to assess risk based upon a DOJ pronouncement or a DOT pronouncement. But it all starts with recognizing what your risks are. And only you can assess your risks. Susan Divers: And I like too, the way you've mapped it out, because it really, again, comes full circle back to sustainability, that the way you do business is just as important as what business you do. And if you truly keep on top of your risks and really reinvigorate the risk function, that should be, as you've pointed out, a dialogue with the board and with the top management. It shouldn't be a dialogue that compliance and audit and legal are having because it involves the strategic direction of the company. And it also involves the way the company is governed. So with that takeaway, I think this is a conversation we could be having for at least another hour, if not more. But we're out of time. And so Tom, thank you so much for joining us. And your thoughts are so valuable, because I think it's easy in the ethics and compliance field to get fixated on, "How am my rolling out the training? What's my curriculum, how many hotline calls have I gotten?" And it's much more about, how do we actually live in this world? And how do we in fact, conduct business in a way that's ethical, compliant, and sustainable? So you've really taken us to that perspective. And I'm very grateful to you for doing that. Tom Fox: Susan, thank you, and I look forward to continuing this conversation. Susan Divers: Thank you, Tom. My name is Susan Divers and I want to thank you all for tuning into the Principled Podcast at LRN. Outro: We hope you enjoyed this episode. The Principled Podcast is brought to you by LRN. At LRN, our mission is to inspire principled performance in global organizations by helping them foster winning ethical cultures rooted in sustainable values. Please visit us at lrn.com to learn more. And if you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcast, or wherever you listen. And don't forget to leave us a review.
We welcome back Gary Kalman, director of Transparency International's United States Office, for the third time. Find out more about the coalition at us.transparency.org (00:40) - Progress the U.S. is making on the fight against global corruption, and the role of U.S. entities in facilitating corruption (05:19) - The White House Anti Corruption strategy document (“United States Strategy on Countering Corruption”: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/United-States-Strategy-on-Countering-Corruption.pdf) (10:43) - The influence of Transparency International on U.S. decisions and support for anti-corruption missions in other countries (14:14) - The Summit for Democracy (19:28) - Comparison to the 2016 Anti-Corruption Summit (24:00) - Maintaining and expanding bipartisan support for anti corruption and anti money laundering initiatives (31:00) - The ENABLERS Act (41:07) - The Foreign Extortion Prevention Act and The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Corrupt_Practices_Act) (47:32) - Global anti-bribery enforcement and the challenges the U.S has with information sharing (53:25) - FCPA violations and prosecutions (55:10) - The most important agenda items for Transparency International's U.S. office
The Biden administration plans to increase anti-corruption efforts in financial services with new anti-money laundering (AML) regulations in corporate banking and cryptocurrency. The threat of government action against banks and cybercriminals is significant, Daniel Hazel, head of customer lifecycle management at intelligent automation fintech WorkFusion, tells Bank Automation News in this episode of “The Buzz” podcast. The “United States Strategy on Countering Corruption,” released by the White House in December, outlined newly expanded tools for prosecuting money laundering offenses. The Department of Justice can now subpoena select overseas financial records and will also utilize the newly created National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team to investigate misuse of digital exchanges and assets. “The ability to subpoena banks who have a correspondent banking relationship in the U.S., and to have that threat hanging over their banking institution, is important,” Hazel tells BAN. “No matter what you say and no matter what any bank would say, the threat of a subpoena by a U.S. court is immense.” Listen as Hazel discusses the impact of the announcement in this episode of “The Buzz” podcast.
This week, ASPI released the report ‘Taking the low road: China's influence in Australian states and territories' which maps out the changing nature of China's engagement with Australian states and territories, local governments, city councils, universities, research organisations and non-government organisations. Peter Jennings is joined by report editor Emeritus Professor John Fitzgerald for a conversation on the report's findings. So far, 2022 has been full of strategic challenges; Covid-19 impacts are still being felt globally, tensions remain heightened between Russia and Ukraine, and a recent meeting between Presidents Putin and Xi has some analysts calling their relationship a de-facto alliance. Michael Shoebridge speaks to Arthur Snell about the latest developments, how the international world order is being challenged and why this is an important moment for democracies. In December last year, the White House released the first U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption. Anastasia Kapetas and Dr Teagan Westendorf discuss the different pillars of the strategy and whether it will be enough to counter corruption globally. Mentioned in this episode: + ASPI Report ‘Taking the low road: China's influence in Australian states and territories': https://www.aspi.org.au/report/taking-low-road-chinas-influence-australian-states-and-territories + ‘Doomsday Watch' podcast: https://apple.co/3gWSgg0 + U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption: https://bit.ly/3JDR4dI Guests (in order of appearance): Peter Jennings: https://www.aspi.org.au/bio/peter-jennings Professor John Fitzgerald: https://www.swinburne.edu.au/research/our-research/access-our-research/find-a-researcher-or-supervisor/researcher-profile/?id=johnfitzgerald Michael Shoebridge: https://www.aspi.org.au/bio/michael-shoebridge Arthur Snell: https://twitter.com/SnellArthur Anastasia Kapetas: https://www.aspi.org.au/bio/anastasia-kapetas Dr Teagan Westendorf: https://www.aspi.org.au/bio/teagan-westendorf Background Music: "Airflow" by Bio Unit, via the FreeMusicArchive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Bio_Unit
In this episode of the FCPA Compliance Report, I am joined by fan favorite Mike DeBernardis, partner at Hughes Hubbard. In this episode we look at compliance and temporal timeline developments from Q4 2021. Highlights of this podcast include: A deep dive into the Lisa Monaco speech, how it impacted the compliance temporal timeline whether it was a change or recalibration. Anti-Trust developments. The Biden Administration Strategy on Countering Corruption? Compliance in 2022 and moving forward. Resources Mike DeBernardis on HughesHubbard website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
As both of their teams are unceremoniously knocked out of the playoffs, Tom and Jay are back looking at some of the week's top compliance and ethics stories this week in the Activision Blizzard Sold edition. Stories Activision Blizzard was sold to Microsoft. Check out articles on how the NYT happened, the parameters of the deal in the WSJ, the compliance mess in Bloomberg, and legal issues in Reuters. Did the pandemic undo corruption risk models? Dick Cassin explores in the FCPA Blog. KPMG spanked yet again in the UK. Jaclyn Jaeger in Compliance Week (sub req'd). Person of the Year in Compliance? ESG. Mike Volkov in Corruption Crime and Compliance. Is Abby Normal next? Banks using behavioral science. Vera Cherepanova in FCPA Blog. Businesses and Strategy on Countering Corruption. Sara Paul, Andrea Gordon, and Dane Sowers in the CCI. Climate change compliance. Jeff Kaplan in Conflicts of Interest Blog. Trust has its moment. Stewart Levine in Forbes.com. Institutional investors on ESG voting. Lawrence Heim in PracticalESG. The virtual Board Room. Jeffrey Karpf and Fernando Martinez in Compliance and Enforcement. Podcasts and More Tom and Matt Kelly conclude a 2-part podcast series on issues they are following in 2022. On Compliance into the Weeds, Part 1 and Part 2. In January on The Compliance Life, I visited Valerie Charles, a partner at StoneTurn. Val has one of the most interesting journeys in compliance. In Part 1, she discussed her academic background and early professional career. In Part 2, she discusses her move to ComTech. In Part 3, Valerie moves into the consulting world. What is the intersection of Joel Coen's Macbeth and organizational issues in compliance? Tom explores in a 4-part blog series on the FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog. CCI releases a new e-book from Tom, “FCPA 2021 Year in Review”. Available free from CCI. Trial of the Century-the Enron Trial. On Monday, January 4, Tom premiers a 5-part podcast series on the Enron Trial with Loren Steffy, who covered the trial for the Houston Chronicle. You can check out the preview here. It will be available on the Compliance Podcast Network, Megaphone, iTunes, and other top podcast platforms. Check out 31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program returns, which runs from January 1 to January 31. Available on the Compliance Podcast Network, Megaphone, iTunes, and other top podcast platforms. Tom Fox is the Voice of Compliance and can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com. Jay Rosen is Mr. Monitor and can be reached at jrosen@affiliatedmonitors.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The college football season has ended with UGA finally defeating UA. Tom and Jay turn their full attention to the NFL playoffs now and also look at some of the week's top compliance and ethics stories this week in the Georgia Finally Beats Alabama edition. Stories 1. Carnival and Princess Cruise Lines violated DPA yet again. Matt Kelly in Radical Compliance. DOJ Press Release. 2. Prioritizing items from the Strategy on Countering Corruption. Worth McMurray in the FCPA Blog. 3. DOJ to look at short sellers. Jaclyn Jaeger in Compliance Week (sub req'd). 4. Proposed framework for CCO liability analysis. Mengqi Sun in WSJ Risk & Compliance Journal. 5. Manipulation on timing of FCPA enforcement action? Matthew Stephenson debunks a new article in GAB. 6. ComTech comes to financial institution compliance. Christian Wunderly in the FCPA Blog. 7. Phil Tetlock and Superforecasting come to risk management. Jim DeLoach in CCI. 8. Ethics and FCPA predictions for 2022. Mike Volkov with a double dose of Carnac the Magnificent. Ethics here. FCPA here. 9. Banks develop climate risk consortium. Aaron Nicodemus in Compliance Week. (sub req'd) 10. Liability of local representatives under GDPR. Kelly Hagedorn and Matthew Worby in Compliance and Enforcement. Podcasts 11. Tom and Matt Kelly conclude a 2-part podcast series on issues they are following in 2022. On Compliance into the Weeds, Part 1 and Part 2. 12. In January on The Compliance Life, I visit with Valerie Charles, partner at StoneTurn. Val has one of the most interesting journeys in compliance. In Part 1, she discussed her academic background and early professional career. In Part 2, she discusses her move to ComTech. 13. The Compliance Podcast Network welcomes Professor Karen Woody and her new podcast, Classroom Insider. In this most unique pod, Karen interviews some of her student to tell the history of insider trading. In Episode 4, Colin Manchester discusses the evolution of the disclose or abstain rule. 14. Mikhail Reider-Gordon returns in Lies, Spies & Corporate Crimes: The Wirecard Saga, with Season 2, Episode 3 Shell Games. 15. Check out 31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program returns, which runs for the month of January, from January 1 to January 31. Available on the Compliance Podcast Network, Megaphone, iTunes, and all other top podcast platforms. Tom Fox is the Voice of Compliance and can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com. Jay Rosen is Mr. Monitor and can be reached at jrosen@affiliatedmonitors.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode of the FCPA Compliance Report, I am joined by Mike Volkov to take a look back at FCPA enforcement and compliance from 2021 and prognosticate to where it may be going in 2022. Highlights of this podcast include: Three FCPA enforcement actions. DAG Lisa Monaco's October Speech to the ABA White Collar Defense Conference. The Biden Administration's Strategy on Countering Corruption. Where will FCPA enforcement head in 2022. Where will ABC compliance go in 2022? Resources Tom in the FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog FCPA Year in Review Compliance Year in Review Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Anti-Corruption author and Transparency International Co-Founder Frank Vogl joins the CIPE Anti-Corruption & Governance Center podcast this week to discuss his new book, The Enablers: How the West Supports Kleptocrats and Corruption. Vogl reviews the recommendations of his book, which shines a light on the Western financial institutions, lawyers, consultants, and other professionals who enable looting kleptocrats and other corrupt actors around the world. Vogl's timely book release accompanies a host of major global anti-corruption announcements by the US government in December 2021, including the publication of the U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption. Listen now to hear Vogl's analysis of these new announcements, what has inspired him to spend his career asking bold and difficult questions about corruption to global decision-makers, why citizens and citizen-led organizations are the most important global bulwark against corruption, and how to discern the wheat from the chaff after the lofty rhetoric of the Summit for Democracy.
Compliance into the Weeds is the only weekly podcast which takes a deep dive into a compliance related topic, literally going into the weeds to more fully explore a subject. This week, Matt and Tom begin a special two-part podcast series of several topics they will be following in 2022. Today in Part 1, we consider The Biden Administration's Strategy on Countering Corruption, specifically around FinCEN and AML enforcement and how it may impact FCPA enforcement. The PCAOB was long dysfunctional before the Trump Administration eviscerated it. How will it change under the Biden Administration? The SEC plans for the regulation of and reporting on ESG. FCPA enforcement for recidivist corporations after DAG Lisa Monaco's speech in October 2021. Resources Matt in Radical Compliance Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Welcome to a special podcast series on the Compliance Podcast Network, 31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program. Over these 31 days series in January 2021, I will post a key part a best practices compliance program each day. By the end of January, you will have enough information to create, design or enhancement a compliance program. Each podcast will be short, at 6-8 minutes with three key takeaways that you can implement at little or no cost to help update your compliance program. I hope you will plan to join each day in January for this exploration of best practices in compliance. 2021 was a very significant year for every compliance practitioner and compliance program. While there was a paucity of corporate FCPA enforcement actions, the three enforcement actions were significant with multiple lessons for the compliance professional. In Deutsche Bank, we learned about the costs of a corrupt culture and recidivism, in Amec Foster Wheeler, we saw happens to a company which pays bribes and then tries back out; the criminals they are dealing with have them in an untenable position that they must continue to pay the bribes and how catastrophic failure in pre- and post-acquisition due diligence can lead to massive FCPA violations. Finally, in WPP, we saw how accepted business incentives can become perverse, what happens when you ignore whistleblowers. However, there were two major policy announcements from the Biden Administration which every compliance professional needs to not simply be aware of but study and implement solutions based upon these announcements. In late October, Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco key changes in the DOJ approach to FCPA enforcement.: (1) “today I am directing the department to restore prior guidance making clear that to be eligible for any cooperation credit, companies must provide the department with all non-privileged information about individuals involved in or responsible for the misconduct at issue. To be clear, a company must identify all individuals involved in the misconduct, regardless of their position, status or seniority.” This portends a return to the strictures of the Yates Memo. (2) “The second change I am announcing today deals with the issue of a company's prior misconduct and how that affects our decisions about the appropriate corporate resolution. (3) The final change I am announcing today deals with the use of corporate monitors.” This final change is a rejection of the strictures laid out in the Benczkowski Memo regarding the DOJ use of corporate monitorships. In November, the Biden Administration released the United States Strategy on Countering Corruption (the “Strategy”); subtitled “Pursuant To The National Security Study Memorandum On Establishing The Fight Against Corruption as a Core United States National Security Interest”; in response to President Biden's prior declaration of corruption as a national security issue of the United States. While obviously focused on the US government's role in leading the fight against corruption, the entire document portends a major sea change in the approach of fighting bribery and corruption, literally on a worldwide basis. For this reason alone, it should be studied by all compliance professionals. Obviously, this more holistic approach is most welcomed. Corruption does more than simply steal money from the world economy. Three key takeaways: The Biden Administration released its Strategy on Countering Corruption. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco gave a speech refocusing the DOJ's efforts on FCPA and other white-collar crime. Even with a paucity of FCPA enforcement actions, there were multiple lessons for the compliance professional. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Compliance into the Weeds is the only weekly podcast which takes a deep dive into a compliance related topic, literally going into the weeds to more fully explore a subject. On Tuesday, Matt and Tom began a special two-part year-end review of six topics which they saw as significant in 2021 and believe will be so into 2022 as well. They looked at SPACs, the Robinhood/GameStop phenomena and the new hybrid working environment and what is means for the compliance professional. Today in Part 2 we consider the Biden Administration's Strategy on Countering Corruption, in conjunction with DAG Lisa Monaco's speech on the refocus of the Department of Justice on FCPA enforcement and other white collar prosecutions, the continuing evolution of ransomware attacks and ESG in 2021 and beyond. Resources Matt in Radical Compliance Tom in the FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Compliance into the Weeds is the only weekly podcast which takes a deep dive into a compliance related topic, literally going into the weeds to more fully explore a subject. Today, Matt and Tom begin a special two-part year-end review of six topics which they saw as significant in 2021 and believe will be so into 2022 as well. In this episode we discuss SPACs, the Robinhood/GameStop phenomena and the new hybrid working environment and what is means for the compliance professional. Join us on Thursday of this week as we post Part 2 and look at the Biden Administration's Strategy on Countering Corruption, the continuing evolution of ransomware attacks and ESG in 2021 and beyond. Resources Matt in Radical Compliance Tom in the FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Killer acquisitions are back on the agenda — and it's disrupting the European Union's review of an acquisition by Meta, the parent company of Facebook. Germany's competition regulator has decided to do its own review of this deal, creating a rift with the European Commission, which was well advanced in its own analysis. Why the differences? It's all about how best to catch killer acquisitions — that is, when an established tech company acquires a fledgling startup to neutralize a future competitor. Also on the podcast: the United States Strategy on Countering Corruption. The latest offering from the Biden Administration is laying out some nuts-and-bolts initiatives to fight corruption. But how new are these initiatives?
Tom takes a solo turn to look at some of the week's top compliance and ethics stories this week in the Bags of Cash edition. Stories 1. Why subcontractors continue to cause FCPA grief. Dick Cassin the FCPA Blog. 2. More on the Strategy on Countering Corruption. Tom takes a deep dive in a 5-part blog post series in the FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog. Mike Volkov in Corruption Crime and Compliance. 3. Neil Hodge says non-US companies should beware in Compliance Week. (sub req'd). 4. What next Brazilian President must do re: ABC. Marcelo Cerqueira in GAB. 5. Yet another son of ex-Panamanian President pleads guilty. Rick Vanderford in WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal. 6. NatWest took bags of cash for deposits. $341MM in fines later. Dylan Tokar in WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal. 7. How CCOs use guidance from DOJ? Matt Kelly in Radical Compliance. 8. Should you fall on your sword? Calvin London in CCI. 9. Sustainability not universal. Lawrence Heim in PracticalESG. 10. McDonalds claws back CEO severance. Heather Haddon in WSJ. Podcasts and Events 11. Are you exasperated? Then check, F*ing Argentina. In this podcast series co-hosts Tom Fox and Gregg Greenberg, author of F*ing Argentina explore the current American psyche of being overworked, over leveraged, overtired and overwhelmed. Find out about modern America's exasperation with well…exasperation. In our final episode, we wrap up what we learned from the series. 12. In November on The Compliance Life, I visit with Matt Silverman, Director of Trade Compliance at VIAVI. Matt is the first Trade Compliance Director I have hosted on TCL. In Part 1, Matt details his academic career and early professional life. In Part 2, Matt moves into trade compliance. 13. The Compliance Podcast Network welcomes Professor Karen Woody and her new podcast, Classroom Insider. In this most unique pod, Karen interviews some of her student to tell the history of insider trading. Check out Episode 2, the disclosure or abstain rule. 14. The Shout Outs and Rants of Everything Compliance gets its own iTunes show. Everything Compliance has its first-year end review episode. 15. On Hidden Traffic, Gwen Hassan hosts Andrew Wallis, head of Unseen UK. Tom Fox is the Voice of Compliance and can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com. Jay Rosen is Mr. Monitor and can be reached at jrosen@affiliatedmonitors.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Compliance into the Weeds is the only weekly podcast which takes a deep dive into a compliance related topic, literally going into the weeds to more fully explore a subject. Today, Matt and Tom take a deep dive into the recently released US Strategy on Countering Corruption. After beginning with a debate on whether the document is simply a nice to have or something more significant, some of the issues we consider are: What is the significance domestically v. internationally? What new data will be collected and analyzed? What new agencies and departments in the US government will be involved? What additional international NGOs will be involved? Enhanced whistleblower protections? New focus on government procurement and in the Department of Defense. Resources Matt in Radical Compliance Tom in the FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Introduction to Countering Corruption by Paul Hoffman
Countering Corruption Chapter 21 (The Role of Various Forms of Oversight in Countering Corruption) By Paul Hoffman
The Biden Administration announced a new, comprehensive anti-corruption initiative, the United States Strategy on Countering Corruption. The new anti-corruption initiative is the follow on to the earlier announcement elevating the global anti-corruption battle to a national security concern. After that announcement, the Biden Administration conducted a 200-day inter-agency examination to develop a comprehensive government-wide anti-corruption initiative. The 38-page plan released last week outlines steps for cracking down on criminal actors and their networks while improving cooperation among federal agencies and law enforcement. The Biden Administration announced plans to increase financial transparency and new regulations on U.S. real-estate purchases to prevent money laundering.In this Episode, Michael Volkov reviews the new initiative and the important issues raised.
Laith Marouf, international affairs analyst and media law consultant, joins us to discuss the White House's new U.S. Government Strategy on Countering Corruption, which has been billed as the first of its kind and a commitment to supporting good governance around the world. We talk about how these claims fall flat in the face of the reality of institutionalized corruption with the U.S. government itself, with the public service to private industry pipeline, which sees politicians enter lobbying firms once they quit Congress, the outsized influence of wealthy donors in elections after the Citizens United decision, gerrymandering, voter suppression, the way the U.S. supports and influences other governments that engage in corrupt practices, and how soft power institutions like the NED and USAID end up cementing U.S. corporate interests abroad with no regard to democratic practices. We also talk about the meeting between Biden and Putin, the growing tensions in Ukraine and threats of further sanctions on Russia.Ted Rall, award-winning political cartoonist, columnist, and author, his latest book is "The Stringer", and co-host of the DMZ America podcast, joins hosts Michelle Witte and Bob Schlehuber to talk about the “democratization” of drone use in conflict zones around the world, that has seen fighters and militants take advantage of the technology which is increasingly easier to acquire. We also talk about a United Kingdom senior desk officer at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office who is now being called a whistleblower after speaking out on the UK Foreign Office's handling of the Afghan evacuation, and reports of US officials using vaccine donations for political favors abroad after accusing other countries of engaging in similar practices.Justin Williams, co-host of Redspin Sports, talks to us about the Biden administration formally announcing that the US will enact a diplomatic boycott of the games as a protest against the alleged human rights violations of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang by the Chinese government, whether we will see a full boycott of the games, and what this means for increasing tensions between China and the U.S.
The new US Strategy on Countering Corruption was released hours before the Summit for Democracy and promises to rewrite the rulebook on global anticorruption efforts. Josh Rudolph of the German Marshall Fund joins Casey, Nate and Paul to discuss what's in it.