Governance, Fraud, & Corporate Culture: Sorting Through a Complicated Relationship

I recall being asked to perform a cultural risk assessment in late 2004 because certain members of a client company’s board of directors were concerned about communication and information flow. Specifically, they wanted to know if issues were being raised timely and appropriately and not extinguished by mid-level managers. The board and senior management were not concerned about fraud or ethical violations, even though some events should have caused concern.

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Internal Controls - A Process to Help Ensure Internal Controls are Designed Consistently and Appropriately

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FCPA - The Role of The Board and More!

One of the FCPA themes for 2020 has been hiding in plain sight all along. The FCPA requirement that “reporting companies to devise and maintain a system of internal accounting controls sufficient to provide reasonable assurances that, among other things, transactions are executed following management’s general or specific authorizations, and access to assets is permitted only in accordance with management’s general or specific authorization.” But what if the violation of this requirement occurs in a non-foreign (IE., the U.S.) and in a non-bribery situation.

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Common Pitfalls - Fraud Risk Assessment

Risk assessments are part of the discipline of risk management, where enhanced frameworks and techniques have emerged. Risk management comprises the identification, assessment, and prioritization of risks followed by the coordinated and efficient use of resources to monitor, minimize, and otherwise control the organization's risks.
Risks arise in many forms and range from uncertainty in financial markets, operational failures, natural disasters, and pandemics to legal liabilities and reputational harms.

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Red Flags That May Indicate You Might be at Risk of Violating FCPA

In 2020, the DOJ and SEC brought FCPA enforcement actions against 12 companies and imposed financial penalties totaling a record $6.4 billion. For a comparison, in 2019, 14 companies paid a (then) record $2.9 billion to resolve FCPA cases.Are you exposed?

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First Civil Settlement for Fraud on Cares Act Paycheck Protection Program

On January 12, 2021, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California announced the first civil settlement with a borrower for allegedly committing fraud in obtaining a Paycheck Protection Program ("PPP") loan, in violation of the False Claims Act ("FCA") and the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act ("FIRREA").The FCA allows the government to recover damages and penalties for presenting false claims for payment to the United States. FIRREA allows the government to impose civil penalties for violations of enumerated federal criminal statutes, including those that affect federally-insured financial

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SEC’s Enforcement Powers Increase!

In summary, The Amendments double the SEC’s statute of limitations for disgorgement to 10 years in intentional fraud cases, grant the SEC 10 years to seek equitable relief in all cases, codify the SEC’s ability to obtain disgorgement in federal court proceedings, and make other changes that expand the SEC’s enforcement authority.

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Still time to join us on February 23-25! Baker Tilly’s 1st Annual Virtual Fraud and Compliance Summit

We are introducing our first annual virtual Baker Tilly Fraud and Compliance Summit, hosted by Jonathan T. Marks, who leads Baker Tilly’s Global Forensic, Compliance, and Integrity Services Practice.

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Transparency! The New Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA)

On December 11, 2020, the Senate passed the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (“AMLA” or the “Act”) - DIVISION F of the National Defense Authorization Act for the fiscal year 2021 (the “NDAA”). The House of Representatives had previously passed the measure on December 8, 2020.

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2020 Top 10 Articles on Fraud, Compliance, and Risk Management

Happy New Year, and thank you to the more than 100,000 people that visited Board and Fraud in 2020!
With everything that happened last year, fraud, compliance, and risk management have arguably become more important than ever.

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Congress Approves Anti-Money-Laundering (AML) Measure

Money laundering issues have haunted many over the years.  To promote greater transparency, the U.S. Sen­ate has ap­proved leg­is­la­tion re­quir­ing com­pa­nies in the U.S. to reg­is­ter their true owners. This change would help com­bat money laun­der­ing and the fi­nanc­ing of ter­ror­ism.

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Fraud and Forensic Inv... Jonathan T. Marks Fraud and Forensic Inv... Jonathan T. Marks

SEC Punishes Broker-Dealer for Conducting Business over Text Messages or on Personal Devices

The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) entered an "Order" on September 23, 2020, against JonesTrading Institutional Services LLC ("firm"), a broker-dealer located in California, for failing to retain text messages relating to the firm’s business. The SEC fined JonesTrading $100,000. Read more!

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The Properly Designed Exit Interview a Necessary Step in Uncovering Ethical Violations

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