Crime Doesn’t Pay, Says Harvard Bribery Study

After a year in which Department of Justice prosecutions for foreign corrupt business practices fell to their lowest level in nearly a decade, the department is vowing to step up the pace in 2016. And corporate managers who take that pledge seriously have additional reason to intensify anticorrup...

By David McCann • March 1, 2016

A Tool to Build a Cyber Defense

Corporate leadership must be involved in managing and guiding the direction of a company’s defense against cyber threats. Cybersecurity is not just an information technology responsibility, and finance chiefs should be prepared to partner with the chief information officer in the planning and ove...

By Patrick Morin • Feb. 24, 2016

Special Report: Managing Cyber Risk

When President Obama signed the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 late last year, the outlines of a new, highly complex relationship among corporations and federal and state governments began to emerge around the issue of how the public and private sectors would interact to manage cyb...

By David Katz • Feb. 24, 2016

Apple, FBI Face off Over Access to Killer’s iPhone

Apple said Wednesday that a court order requiring it to help the FBI break into the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino mass shooters represents an “unprecedented” threat to the security of its customers.Syed Farook’s iPhone is protected by a feature that automatically wipes it clean of all its d...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 17, 2016

Harman Tax Exec Accused of Insider Trading

A senior tax executive at Harman International Industries has been charged with making more than $130,000 in illicit profits by trading on his advance knowledge of the electronics company’s earnings.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Dennis Hamilton, Harman’s vice president of tax, ...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 8, 2016

Cyber Ratings Services Can Help Thwart Hackers

We learn about data breaches almost every day, and the first-line victims range from large, seemingly sophisticated companies to the local dentist’s office. Our ability to assess and understand a company’s cyber hygiene has been fairly limited, so knowing who’s safe has been a guessing game — unt...

By Craig Callé • Feb. 8, 2016

Barclays, Credit Suisse Fined $154M Over Dark Pools

Barclays and Credit Suisse have agreed to pay a combined $154 million to settle charges that they failed to exclude high-frequency traders from their “dark pool” alternative trading systems.The settlements are with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York attorney general’s of...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 2, 2016

SAP Fined $3.7M Over Panama Bribery Scheme

Software vendor SAP SE has agreed to pay $3.7 million to settle charges relating to the bribery of a Panamanian government official to obtain government sales contracts.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Monday that deficiencies in SAP’s internal controls enabled Vicente Garcia, its...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 1, 2016

U.S. Opens up Cuba to Export Financing

In the latest round of measures to open doors to trade between the U.S. and Canada, the Obama administration has lifted restrictions on American financing of exports to the island nation.The revised rules, which took effect on Wednesday, allow U.S. banks to provide direct financing for the export...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 27, 2016

Currency Exchange Risks Worry Treasurers

Although currency exchange volatility jumped onto the list of their most worrisome risks last year, many treasury and finance professionals are only just starting to put together plans to hedge those exposures, according to the Association for Finance Professionals’ annual risk survey released ea...

By David Katz • Jan. 21, 2016

Supreme Court to Hear Insider Trading Case

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a California case that could clarify the legal standard for proving liability for insider trading.Attorneys for Bassam Salman are hoping to convince the court he was wrongfully convicted for an insider trading scheme involving members of his extended fami...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 20, 2016

SEC Issues Milestone Whistleblower Award

In a milestone for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s whistleblower award program, the agency on Friday announced a $700,000 award to an industry expert who provided it with “high-quality analysis” in an enforcement action.The award is the first the SEC has issued to someone outside a ...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 18, 2016

Goldman Fined $15M Over Short-Sale Reviews

Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay $15 million to settle charges it failed to perform adequate review of securities that customers had asked it to “locate” for short sales.Federal regulations bar brokerages from accepting short sale orders unless they have borrowed the security, entered into a bona ...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 18, 2016

Fraud Analyst Found Liable for Insider Trading

A former Capital One Financial analyst has been found liable for insider trading in a case that hinged on whether the non-public sales data he used to trade in retail stocks was “material.”A Philadelphia jury agreed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that Nan Huang enjoyed a “signif...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 13, 2016

Feds Move to Curb Real Estate Secrecy

In a move to curb money laundering, the U.S. government will temporarily bar buyers of high-end properties in New York City and Miami from hiding behind shell companies.The Treasury Department’s financial crimes enforcement network, FinCEN, on Wednesday issued geographic targeting orders (GTOs) r...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Jan. 13, 2016

Using Captives For Cyber Risk Management

Mary A. Chaput Imagine owning an insurance company that you can control, that reduces the cost of your insurance by eliminating underwriting expenses, and that tailors the cost to your own identified risks and risk appetite. And that’s all while reducing your tax burden by allowing the write-off ...

By Mary A. Chaput • Jan. 11, 2016

Appeals Slowing Down SEC’s ‘Fast-Track’ Process

While the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is referring more enforcement cases to its in-house court, that may be adding to a logjam of appeals before commissioners.Mary Jo White Using enhanced powers granted under the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, the SEC has stepped up its use of the ...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 22, 2015

Are You Prepared for a Downturn?

Economic cycles are a given, so it is inevitable that an economic slowdown is approaching. Be warned: it could pose serious problems for companies that have allowed their financial strategies to become too lax.John Cryan Capital structureThere are several fundamental warning signs. For one, the m...

By Allison Cavasino and John Cryan • Dec. 16, 2015

FAA Launches Online Drone Registration

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has launched a “streamlined and user-friendly” online registration system for drone operators.The program is intended to help operators comply with federal law effective Dec. 21 that requires registration of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). Drone operators...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Dec. 14, 2015

SEC Fines Research Firm $375K Over Compliance

Political research firm Marwood Group has agreed to pay $375,000 to settle charges that it failed to take sufficient steps to prevent misuse of nonpublic information obtained from government agencies.Marwood provides hedge funds and other clients with regulatory updates and analysis about future ...

By Matthew Heller • Nov. 30, 2015

Special Report: Supply Chain Update

The notion of “globalization” as it applies to commerce is old hat now. But as multinational companies continue to grow, their global supply chains necessarily continue to grow more complex in tandem. That such firms have an ever-more-compelling motivation to keep a close eye on their overseas su...

By David McCann • Nov. 23, 2015

Supplier Audits Rise to the Fore — At Least, They Should

As a company’s supply chain grows, so does its exposure to risk. Experts recommend that companies periodically audit their supply chains to identify vulnerable links, but the value that such audits actually deliver is up for debate, for a variety of reasons.For one thing, an expanding list of ris...

By David McCann • Nov. 23, 2015

Novartis Settles Kickback Charges for $370M

A judge on Friday approved a $370 million settlement against Novartis over fraud charges that the Swiss drug maker paid kickbacks to specialty pharmacies in return for recommending two of its medications.The case originated with whistleblower allegations from a former Novartis sales manager invol...

By Matthew Heller • Nov. 20, 2015

Chinese Citizens Accused of Insider Trading

A former TPG Capital employee and his cousin have been charged with generating more than $300,000 in illicit profits by trading on inside information about health care takeovers involving the private-equity firm.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said in a civil complaint there was “stro...

By Matthew Heller • Nov. 11, 2015

New York Cracks Down on Fantasy Sports Sites

In a significant setback for the fantasy sports industry, New York’s attorney general has ordered DraftKings and FanDuel to stop accepting bets from New York residents, saying their operations amount to illegal gambling.Fantasy sports companies argue that their games are not gambling because they...

By Matthew Heller • Nov. 11, 2015