EU Hits Google with Record Fine

The Internet giant has been ordered to change its practices or face further financial penalties.Google has been hit with a record fine of $2.7 billion after the European Commission found it violated antitrust regulations by manipulating search results.The company must change its behavior within 9...

By William Sprouse • June 27, 2017

Why Cybersecurity Is Financially Undervalued

Like the way in which the Enron fraud scandal led to the development of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, recent cyber scandals (e.g., Target, Sony, Home Depot), which resulted in huge financial losses, may motivate the development of a new cybersecurity-focused corporate accountability movement and/or con...

By Kevin Magee • June 23, 2017

Cybersecurity Demands a Military Mindset

American corporations have a high degree of cybersecurity risk awareness, and yet many enterprises, especially in non-regulated sectors, fall short in their cybersecurity stance.  This is mainly because executives see security as an ROI-less investment mandated by regulation.Even worse, executive...

By Gilad Peleg • June 21, 2017

High Court Limits Scope of SEC Disgorgement

In a major victory for Wall Street firms, the U.S. Supreme Court has narrowed the reach of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s “disgorgement” remedy, its principal enforcement tool.The high court on Monday sided with a New Mexico-based investment adviser in ruling that disgorgement is subjec...

By Matthew Heller • June 5, 2017

WannaCry’s Lessons: Patch Windows, Be Real About Risk

The recent WannaCry cyber attack is one of the most widespread we’ve ever seen, and one of the most preventable.In this case, having Windows up to date was enough to thwart the hackers. Updating Windows is not an expensive or difficult thing to do. Thus the fact that organizations around the worl...

By Jonathan Stone • May 30, 2017

Hedge Funders Charged With Insider Trading

Two analysts at Deerfield Capital Management have been charged with generating nearly $4 million in illicit profits for the hedge fund by trading on nonpublic information in advance of market-moving government announcements on Medicare reimbursement rates.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissi...

By Matthew Heller • May 24, 2017

Target to Pay States $18.5M Over Data Breach

Taking another step to put a massive data breach in 2013 behind it, Target has agreed to pay $18.5 million to 47 states and the District of Columbia.The settlement resolves the states’ investigation into the breach, which affected more than 41 million customer payment card accounts and exposed co...

By Matthew Heller • May 23, 2017

Man Accused of Making Phony Bid for Fitbit

A Virginia-based mechanical engineer has been charged with manipulating Fitbit’s share price by filing a phony tender offer for the company on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s EDGAR system.The SEC said Robert W. Murray, 24, purchased Fitbit call options on Nov. 10, 2016 minutes befor...

By Matthew Heller • May 22, 2017

OSHA Delays Workplace Injury Reporting Rule

The Trump administration has suspended an Obama-era rule requiring companies to post their worker injury and illness data on a government website, fueling concerns that it is trying to ignore the regulation.The Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced earlier this week that it is “...

By Matthew Heller • May 19, 2017

Ex-Nomura Traders Accused of CMBS Fraud

Two former head traders at Nomura Securities International have been charged with generating more than $750,000 in illicit profits for the firm from trading commercial mortgage-backed securities on the secondary market.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said James Im and Kee Chan — both ...

By Matthew Heller • May 16, 2017

Advice to Cyber Insurance Buyers: You Are Not Alone

The cyber insurance market continues to evolve, and the number of companies buying cyber insurance continues to expand. What’s more, that expanding cyber market offers a wide variety of coverage terms at different price points.But companies interested in securing cyber insurance should know that ...

By Lynda Bennett • May 9, 2017

High Court Clears Way for Suits Against GM

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear General Motor’s appeal of a lower court decision that would allow hundreds of customer lawsuits over a deadly ignition-switch defect to proceed.GM’s petition for Supreme Court review focused on the issue of whether the automaker was shielded from liabili...

By Matthew Heller • April 25, 2017

SEC Keeps up High Rate of Enforcement Activity

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement activity continued at a strong pace during the first half of fiscal 2017 despite the uncertainty hanging over the agency since President Donald Trump took office.Between Oct. 1 and March 31, the SEC filed 334 total enforcement actions, compared ...

By Matthew Heller • April 21, 2017

Raymond James to Pay $150M Over Resort Fraud

Raymond James has agreed to pay $150 million to settle allegations that it helped the owner and president of a failed Vermont ski resort misuse hundreds of millions of dollars raised through the federal EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa Program.The case of the Jay Peak resort is the largest EB-5 fraud...

By Matthew Heller • April 14, 2017

SEC Alleges Insider Trading on Telecom Deal

One or more unknown traders made more than $1 million in illicit profits by trading in General Communication Inc. call option contracts in advance of its acquisition by Liberty Interactive, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has alleged.The identity of the traders was not disclosed in a ...

By Matthew Heller • April 14, 2017

Two Accused of Insider Trading on Mobileye Deal

In the second insider trading case arising from the $15.3 billion takeover of Mobileye NV by Intel, two Virginia men have been charged with making $925,000 in illicit profits based on nonpublic information about the pending deal.The U.S. Securities and Exchanges Commission accused Lawrence Cluff ...

By Matthew Heller • April 7, 2017

KPIs: The Key to Corporate Compliance

While some industries, particularly those that are intensely regulated, have well-developed risk and compliance functions, the newly released Justice Department guidance, “Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs,” is essential reading for all businesses. Specifically, the guidance focuses on ...

By Steven Neuman • April 4, 2017

How Analytics Is Helping to Curb Insurance Losses

When it comes to risk management, CFOs are in a bind: They’re expected to aggressively tackle serious business risks – while spending reluctantly. You sometimes feel damned if you do and damned if you don’t.Addressing glaring risks is easy. Quietly simmering risks, however, are also likely to dis...

By Gary Love • April 3, 2017

When One Insurance Claim Is Better than Many

“Copycat” lawsuits are a common problem for corporations. For example, multiple lawsuits often are filed after the price of a company’s stock drops, each claiming that alleged misconduct or neglect of management contributed to the loss.When they’re faced with multiple claims or lawsuits that seem...

By Eric Jesse and Catherine Serafin • April 3, 2017

Disaster Losses Hit Five-Year High of $175B

Total economic losses from natural catastrophes and man-made disasters nearly doubled in 2016, with Asia being hit worst, while insurance payouts increased 42% from a year earlier, according to a report by Swiss Re.Globally, there were 327 disaster events in 2016, the reinsurer said, resulting in...

By Matthew Heller • March 29, 2017

Neiman Agrees to Pay $1.6M Over Data Breach

After three years of litigation, Neiman Marcus has agreed to pay $1.6 million to settle a class action over a security breach that exposed the credit card information of about 350,000 customers.Settlement papers were filed with a federal judge Friday in a case that alleged Neiman was liable for t...

By Matthew Heller • March 21, 2017

ZTE Fined $900M for Iran Sanctions Busting

Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE Corp. has agreed to pay nearly $900 million to settle U.S. allegations that it evaded sanctions against Iran by shipping about $32 million of sensitive U.S.-made technology to the country.ZTE purchases about $2.6 billion worth of components a year from U.S. fir...

By Matthew Heller • March 8, 2017

Dodd-Frank: Benefits Among the Burdens

It’s well known that repealing or replacing the Dodd-Frank Act is a top priority on the new presidential administration’s regulatory “to-do” list. But even though the law’s ultimate fate is uncertain, the need to comply with its requirements led financial institutions to make changes in their tec...

By Mallinath Sengupta • March 7, 2017

How CFOs Can Strengthen Technology Controls

The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission, better known as COSO, is akin to the high priests of internal controls. In 2013, COSO updated their Internal Control Integrated Framework to put an emphasis on technology controls. Since data breaches suggest weak controls, CFO...

By Craig Callé • March 6, 2017

Labor Dept. Seeks Delay in ‘Fiduciary’ Rule

The Labor Department is proposing a 60-day delay in implementation of an Obama-era rule on retirement advisers so it can have more time to evaluate whether it harms consumers by limiting their investment options.President Trump had asked the department to review the so-called fiduciary rule, whic...

By Matthew Heller • March 3, 2017