Doug Cornelius .com » Compliance Building

Compliance Building Roundup

Doug — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 17:00:44 +0000

Here are the past week’s posts from my Compliance Building blog on compliance and business ethics:

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Compliance Bits and Pieces for February 19

February 19, 2010
Here are some interesting compliance related stories from the past two weeks. (I reserved last week for my blogoversary.) Details Emerge on SEC Office of Market Intelligence by Bruce Carton in Compliance Week One of the first tools that the Securities Exchange Commission launched after it ushered itself into the Internet era in the mid-1990s…
Read more »

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New York City Enacts New Rules for Its Pension Fund Investments

February 18, 2010
New York City Comptroller John C. Liu announced sweeping changes in the way New York City pension funds make investment decisions. Following the lead of New York state and several other states, New York City is changing how it deals with gifts, campaign contributions and placement agents. Ban on Campaign Contributions Comptroller Liu declines any campaign…Read more »

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Securities Class Actions in Canada

February 18, 2010
With the winter Olympics going full swing in Canada, I thought I would look to how that country is dealing with securities class actions. NERA Economic Consulting just released their 2009 Update on Trends in Canadian Securities Class Actions. Some tidbits: Eight securities class actions were filed in 2009, compared with the 10 filings in 2008. There…Read more »

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Media Leak is not Protected as a SOX Whistleblower

February 17, 2010
Leaking information to the media about bad financial controls is not protected by SOX whistleblower retaliation clause. Nicholas P. Tides and Matthew C. Neumann were working as “Audit IT SOX auditors” at The Boeing Company. They made several complaints about auditing deficiencies to their supervisors. They claimed “that Boeing’s auditing culture was unethical and that…Read more »

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The Economist: Special Report on Financial Risk

February 16, 2010
The Economist: Special Report on Financial Risk" width="80" />This week’s The Economist has an excellent special report: The Gods Strike Back. The title comes from Peter Bernstein’s Against the Gods: “The revolutionary idea that defines the boundary between modern times and the past is the mastery of risk: the notion that the future is more than a whim of the gods and that men…Read more »

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President’s Day

February 15, 2010
Washington’s Birthday, the federal holiday was originally implemented by the United States Congress in 1880 for government offices in the District of Columbia (20 Stat. 277) and expanded in 1885 to include all federal offices (23 Stat. 516). As the first federal holiday to honor an American citizen, the holiday was celebrated on Washington’s…Read more »

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Weekend Book Review: In Fed We Trust

February 14, 2010
In Fed We Trust" width="80" />It is only fitting that I am writing this book review on a Sunday. In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke’s War on the Great Panic starts off by telling about the importance of a few Sundays in 2008. In March, there was the Sunday when the Federal Reserve announced an unprecedented action to lend…Read more »

Compliance Building Round Up

Doug — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 13:00:51 +0000

Here is a collection of posts from my professional blog: Compliance Building.

Compliance Bits and Pieces for January 29

January 29, 2010

Here are some interesting stories from the past week: French Supreme Court Limits the Scope of the Whistleblowing Process by Cecile Martin in the Privacy law Blog For the first time the French Supreme Court addressed the issue of the validity of a Code of conducts that had been implemented by a listed company. Read more »

Governing Social Media: How to Monitor, Manage and Make the Most of Employee Use of Social Media

January 28, 2010

Join me, Kathleen Edmond, Chief Ethics Officer, Best Buy, and Janice Innis-Thompson, SVP & Chief Compliance Officer, TIAA-CREF, as we discuss compliance and governance issues of web 2.0 and social networking. “Corporate Communication takes on a whole new meaning in a world of social media, where employees can freely post their views and spread documents,… Read more »

The Economist Special Report on Social Networking.

January 28, 2010

The Economist Special Report on Social Networking." width="80" />“An astonishing amount of time is being wasted on investigating the amount of time being wasted on social networks.” I love reading The Economist because of lines like that. The January 28 issue has a special report on social networking. (The cover image is Steve Jobs dressed like Moses with his new tablet) “Another , by… Read more »

Tax on Carried Interest? Maybe Not.

January 28, 2010

Tucked into the Tax Extenders Act of 2009 (H.R. 4213) was a provision targeted at partnership interests held by partners providing services. H.R. 4213 flew through the legislative process of the House of Representatives. It was introduced on December 7, 2009 and passed by the House on December 9, mostly along party lines. Read more »

More on Data Privacy Day

January 28, 2010

Today is International Data Privacy Day. Massachusetts Recognizes Data Privacy Day 2010 and touts the the new data security regulations. Disney has enlisted Phineas and Ferb to help guide your kids through cyberspace and teach them about the rules of the road on the internet. Google published their guiding privacy principles and published a video discussing them:… Read more »

Data Privacy Day is January 28

January 28, 2010

Data Privacy Day is an annual international celebration to raise awareness and generate discussion about information privacy. Last year, both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives recognized January 28th, 2009 as National Data Privacy Day. Intel, Microsoft, Google, AT&T, LexisNexis and The Privacy Projects are sponsoring Data Privacy Day efforts, with assistance from… Read more »

Hayek vs. Keynes Rap Anthem “Fear the Boom and Bust”

January 27, 2010

For you economics geeks, how about a rap duel between John Maynard Keynes and F. A. Hayek? In Fear the Boom and Bust, John Maynard Keynes and F. A. Hayek, two of the great economists of the 20th century, come back to life to attend an economics conference on the economic crisis. Before the conference… Read more »

Blue Collar or White Collar

January 27, 2010

Undercover agents, wire taps and search warrants. For a criminal case it sounds like your typical organized crime investigation. You would expect the indictment to have charges for drug dealing, racketeering, murder or something similar. But last week we heard that these were the techniques used to catch the 22 people indicted for violations of… Read more »

FINRA Issues Guidance on Social Networking Sites

January 26, 2010

Securities firms and brokers have been looking for guidance on how they can use social networking sites. Actually most industries have been trying to figure out what they can and cannot do with these sites. The difference is that the FINRA limitations on communicating with the public make it very difficult to use the… Read more »

Global Ethics Summit Update

January 25, 2010

Dow Jones and Ethisphere Institute are teaming up to present the 2010 Global Ethics Summit on February 23-24, 2010 at the Grand Hyatt New York City. I will be attending, thanks to an offer from the event’s organizers. If you are interested in attending I can offer you a 15% discount on regular conference fees,… Read more »

But Everyone Else is Doing it

January 25, 2010

In my hasty post on last week’s FCPA sting operation my focus was on the aggressive use of an undercover operation to catch violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. That was big news. It’s the first time that’s happened. The indictments did not disclose the companies involved. It’s now clear that this sting operation… Read more »

Compliance Building Round Up

Doug — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 13:12:20 +0000

Here are my posts on Compliance Building this week.

House Passes Far-Reaching Bill Tightening Financial Rules

Today, the House passed the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009 (H.R. 4173 ), a week after it was introduced. It looks it is a mashup of other bills that were being tossed around in the House to regulate the financial industry.

Compliance Bits and Pieces for December 11

Here are some interesting stories from the past week.

Carried Interest Tax Legislation Suddenly Appears and Moves Forward

December 10, 2009

Tucked into the Tax Extenders Act of 2009 (H.R. 4213), is a provision targeted at partnership interests held by partners providing services. This proposal seems to be the same proposal offered by Congressman Sandy Levin from the 12th District of Michigan in H.R. 1935 which has been sitting in Committee

Data Accountability and Trust Act Passed by House

December 10, 2009

The Data Accountability and Trust Act (H.R. 2221) was passed by the House on Tuesday. This act would requires the Federal Trade Commission to promulgate regulations requiring each person engaged in interstate commerce that owns or possesses electronic data containing personal information to establish security policies and procedures.

SEC Goes After Sub-Prime Lender

December 10, 2009

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged three former top officers of New Century Financial Corporation with securities fraud for misleading investors as New Century’s subprime mortgage business was collapsing in 2006. At the time of the fraud, New Century was one of the largest subprime lenders in the nation.

International Anti-Corruption Day

December 9, 2009

The theme of this year’s observance of the International Anti-Corruption Day is “Don’t let corruption kill development.” “When public money is stolen for private gain, it means fewer resources to build schools, hospitals, roads and water treatment facilities. When foreign aid is diverted into private bank accounts, major infrastructure projects come to a halt.

Positioning yourself for Tomorrow’s Social Media Today: Practical Approaches for Legal Professionals

December 8, 2009

Join Compliance Building’s Doug Cornelius for a 60-minute Webinar at 11:00 am Eastern time on Wednesday, December 9. It’s free, sponsored by Martindale-Hubbell Connected. The webinar will give you examples of social media web-based tools helping legal professionals become more efficient and productive. Will we soon say goodbye to email? Panel

Tuesday Morning Quaterback of Free Enterprise v. PCAOB

December 8, 2009

Free Enterprise v. PCAOB" width="80" />On Monday, the Supreme Court listened to the oral arguments in Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (08-861). For me in the compliance world, the case is about the viability of PCAOB under Sarbanes-Oxley. For the constitutional scholars it is an important separation of powers case. Responding to concerns about accounting that…

Global Ethics Summit

December 8, 2009

Dow Jones and Ethisphere Institute are teaming up to present the 2010 Global Ethics Summit on February 23-24, 2010 at the Grand Hyatt New York City. I just confirmed that I will be attending, thanks to an offer from the event’s organizers. “In an effort to help companies deal with anti-corruption compliance and other significant issues,..

An Effective Workplace Investigation

December 7, 2009

The California Supreme Court in Cotran v. Rollins Hudig Hall International, Inc. found that for an employer to have “good cause” to terminate an employee, the employer does not have to prove that allegations of misconduct are true, just that the employer fairly formed a reasonable belief that they were true.

Voting is Open for the ABA’s Blawg 100

December 6, 2009

The American Bar Association is running its third annual Blawg 100 contest. They winnowed a list of nominees down to 100 and divided them into 10 categories: News, Legal Theory, IMHO, Geo, Practice Specific, Business, Careers, Tech, Justice, and Lighter Fare. I decided to throw my support behind those blogs that I read and enjoy…

CLawBie Nominations

December 6, 2009

The Canadian Law Blog Awards, a.k.a. the Clawbies, are a project started back in 2006 with the goal of highlighting great blogs published by the Canadian legal industry. Steve Matthews and his team at Stem Legal have been working to advance Canadian legal blogging.

Recent Compliance Building Posts

Doug — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 13:00:30 +0000

Here is a list of my recent Compliance Building posts:

Happy Thanksgiving

That means an extra long weekend for me.

Engage with Grace

With the Thanksgiving holiday this weekend, I’m turning the blog over to public service.

Real Estate and OFAC Compliance

The tale of 650 Fifth Avenue is one that should be closely watched by compliance professionals dealing with real estate. Last year, the Department of Justice filed a forfeiture proceeding against a 40% interest in the property held by the Assa Corporation.

The Four Areas of Risk and Knowledge

When thinking about risk, I break things into four quadrants. There are things we know and there are things we don’t know as individuals. I then slice slice that further again with the things we know and the things we don’t know as part of the larger organization or conscious state.

Positioning yourself for tomorrow’s social media today: Practical approaches for legal professionals

Join me for a 60-minute Webinar at 11:00 am Eastern time on Wednesday, December 9. It’s free, sponsored by Martindale-Hubbell Connected.

Compliance Bits and Pieces for Nov. 20

Here are some interesting stories from the past week:

Review of SEC’s Process for Selecting Adviser Examination Targets

To continue the Madoff dogpile on the SEC, the SEC’s Office of Inspector General released a report criticizing the SEC’s process for selecting investment advisers and investment companies for examination.

Private Fund Investment Advisers Registration Act Status

OpenCongress allows you to create custom widgets for the status of bills in Congress.

New Workplace Posters – EEO is the Law

Starting November 21, 2009, you need a new workplace poster: EEO is the Law.
There are two new federal workplace laws the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act and the ADA Amendments Act. Federal law requires all employers covered by the federal anti-discrimination laws (those with 15 or more employees) to post multilingual notices describing the federal laws

Federal Regulators Issue Final Model Privacy Notice Form

Eight federal regulatory agencies today released the final model privacy notice form. It’s supposed to make it easier for consumers to understand how financial institutions collect and share information about consumers.

Fund Registration Act Will Cost the SEC $140 Million

The Congressional Budge Office released a cost estimate of H.R. 3818, the Private Fund Investment Advisers Registration Act of 2009. Obviously, there will be an additional cost to fund managers that need to register with the SEC and operate under the SEC rules and oversight.

New Anti-Bribery Compendium

Trace International has launched an online, fully-searchable database containing summaries and analyses of international anti-bribery enforcement actions and investigations in the U.S. and throughout the world. The Trace Compendium summaries are searchable by name or by numerous other criteria, including year, substantive criteria, enforcement authority, and enforcement result.

Criticism and Praise

Do criticism and praise work to affect performance?

Leonard Mlodinow briefly addressed this topic in The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives. He explores the studies of Daniel Kahneman who was lecturing the Israeli air force flight instructors on behavior modification.

The First CMBS Eligbile for TALF

Developers Diversified Realty Corp. sold $400 million worth of of debt backed by shopping centers backed by 28 malls in 19 states. The offering is the first to use the Federal Reserve’s Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility since it was opened to the debt in June.

It’s Tough Being Green… And Charged With Fraud

Mantria Corporation is a “diversified and progressive business enterprise that seeks out emerging sectors with a passionate focus on sustainability and the commercialization of socially responsible products and services.” At least that’s what their website says.
The SEC says: “In reality, the only green these promoters seemed interested in was investors’ money.”

Is PCAOB Constitutional?

Now that Jones v. Harris has been argued, we have to sit and wait for the decision. But there is another compliance case coming up for argument in front of the Supreme Court: Free Enterprise Fund v. PCAOB.

PBWorks and Real Time Collaboration

PBWorks has announced a “Real-time Collaboration Update” which brings integrated Instant Messaging collaboration, Live Notifications (activity streams), Live Editing (rather than standard wiki asynchronous editing) and integrated Voice Collaboration with on-demand voice conferencing.

The SEC is Going After the Geeks

First, Bernie the boss turned himself in, saying he did it all by himself. Nobody believed that, including the SEC. So the SEC went after Madoff’s right-hand man, DiPascali, and Madoff’s accountant, Friehling. Now the SEC is going after the geeks.

Round-up of Blog Posts from Compliance Building

Doug — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:07:34 +0000

Here is a list of posts from my Compliance Building blog on compliance and business ethics for the week: