By Scott Moritz, CFE and Carmen Oveissi Field White-Collar Crime Fighter, September 2008
In far too many organizations the management of electronic data is a hot potato that nobody wants responsibility for. Management says it’s IT’s job; IT says its Compliance’s or Legal’s job; Legal says it’s HR’s job and so on. Sound familiar? Read More.
OFAC Update
Ellen Zimiles and Carmina Hughes OFAC Update, October 27, 2008
Ellen Zimiles and Carmina Hughes AML Alert, August 2008
SEC Takes Enforcement Action Against Broker-Dealer for Failure to Comply with the Customer Identification Program Rule. As part of Daylight’s continuing efforts to keep financial institutions informed of regulatory developments relating to anti-money laundering compliance, the following sets forth a summary ofrecent activity by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Read More.
FCPA Alert
Joseph Spinelli and Scott Moritz FCPA Alert, July 2008
As part of Daylight’s continuing efforts to apprise companies of regulatory developments relating to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”), the following sets forth a summary of recent activity by the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”). Read More.
MIP On the Radar, The New Drive to End Medicaid Fraud
By John Fusto Healthcare Financial Management, June 2008
A significant date in the government’s quest to stop Medicaid fraud may well have been July 18, 2005, when The New York Times published the first installment in a series highlighting egregious examples of Medicaid providers who purportedly abused the system. Read More.
MSBs, Take Note: Guidance to be Gleaned from Sigue Case
Sigue Corporation (“Sigue”), a leading money service business operating through more than 7,000 agents throughout the country, has recently entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) for having significant deficiencies in its anti-money laundering (“AML”) program. Read More.
Preparing Your Company's Electronically Stored Information for Impending Litigation
By Joe Bartling CPA Practice Management Forum, January 2008
Many companies have absolutely no idea how much electronically stored information (ESI) is resident in their fi rm at any given point in time, much less how much of it might be subject to, or relevant to, a particular investigation or litigation. Read More.
How To Prepare For an Anti-Money Laundering Review
By Maria M. Yip and Gina Masi South Florida Legal Guide, Feb 22,2008
Anti-money-laundering (AML) regulators have started hitting banks harder during the past year, giving increasingly rigorous scrutiny to AML programs at a growing number of smaller financial institutions.Read More.
Worried About Your Global Partners?
By Scott Moritz and Maximillian Block Directors & Boards, Winter 2008
If implemented properly, investigative due diligence is unsurpassed as a low-cost, high-value tool in learning about company’s overseas connections -particularly in light of stepped-up enforcement of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Read More.
Combating Risk in Today's New Mortgage World
By Andrea L. Felesky and Jeffrey B. Locke Investment Dealers' Digest, January 7, 2008
As the value of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) continues to deteriorate, investors must now shift their focus from investing in these types of securities to minimizing earnings exposure, the magnitude of writedowns and mitigation of future losses from current investment vehicles. Read More.
Closing the Gap: Quality of Care Under the Microscope
By Babita Chodha Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics, December 2007
We are entering a new era of thinking about health care quality compliance. New criteria to measure quality of care are being released every day. Major initatives from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS/OIG) are in full swing. Read More.
FCPA Pitfalls in Beijing
By Joseph Spinelli, Babita Chodha and Jay Perlman Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics, December 2007
August 2008 is the advent of the Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, thus offering potentially substantial business opportunities for U.S. companies. From hospitality companies like Marriott International, Inc., which, in anticipation of the Olympics, recently announced that it will double the number of hotels it currently has in Beijing, to Visa, which is hoping to use the Olympics to expand its business to China where only 5% of the Chinese population have a credit card, to construction supply contractors, food and beverage vendors, and technology providers, numerous U.S. firms will be besieging Beijing in hopes if landing lucrative contracts. Read More.
Securing Executive Sponsorship and Investment
By James Allen MiddleGround, October 2007
The cost of fraud to the UK private and public sectors has risen dramatically in recent years with some estimates exceeding £30 billion per annum. The proliferation of technology and expansion of European economic trade zones has introduced new threats including increasingly sophisticated attacks and infiltration by organised crime groups designed to bypass traditional preventative measures. Read More.
Old Ways Hamper AML Efforts in Middle East
By Daniel Gill American Banker, October 12, 2007
Combating money laundering is difficult for any bank, but in the Middle East cultural customs, terrorism, and smuggling combine to make the detection of improper cash transfers especially challenging. This means banks and other financial firms operating in the region must be more vigilant in monitoring customer activities and knowing who their customers are. Read More.
Olympic Fraud: Steering Clear of FCPA Traps When Seeking Business in Beijing
By Ellen Zimiles and Joseph Spinelli White-Collar Crime Fighter, September 2007
The summer Olympics-coming up in Beijing starting in August 2008-offers potentially huge business opportunities for US companies of virtually all kinds. Read More.
Compliance Effectiveness: Are Our Investments Paying Off?
By Ellen Zimiles and Michael Bowman 20 Rising Stars-Compliance, August 2007
The Demand for effective compliance programs at financial services firms continues to grow.
The blitz of new laws and regulations implemented over recent years—Sarbanes-Oxley, the USA PATRIOT Act, Basel II, and Regulation NMS, to name a few—have caused compliance officers to kick into overdrive.
In addition, many board members and senior managers are operating under a “fear factor” inspired by the onslaught of recent regulatory enforcement actions covering areas as diverse as anti-money laundering compliance, market timing and manipulation, back-dating of stock options, and accounting fraud. Read More.
The Clearing House & The Wolfsberg Group On Enhancing Payment Transparency
By Daylight Forensic & Advisory Press Release Article, April 25, 2007
As part of Daylight’s continuing efforts to keep financial institutions appraised of developments relating to anti-money laundering compliance, the following sets forth a summary of a recent joint press release and statement by The Wolfsberg Group and The Clearing House Association L.L.C. regarding international payment standards.
Read More.
SEC Takes Enforcement Action Against Broker-Dealer for Failure to File
Suspicious Activity Report
By Daylight Forensic & Advisory Press Release Article, April 20, 2007
On April 11, 2007, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) filed its first case ever against a registered broker-dealer, Park Financial Group, Inc. (“Park”), for failure to file Suspicious Activity Reports (“SARs”) as required by the USA PATRIOT Act (“PATRIOT Act”). Additionally, on April 16, 2007, the SEC published the “AML Source Tool” on its website which
provides guidelines to assist broker-dealers address compliance rules and laws related to anti-money
laundering.
Read More.
Digital Discovery & E-Evidence: Industry Insight, Best Practices
By Carmen Oveissi Field and Kevin Brady http://www.bna.com Reproduced with permission from Digital Discovery & e-Evidence Vol. 7, No. 3 (Mar. 01, 2007) pp. 47-49. Copyright 2007 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. (800-372-1033)
Is there a backup tape "Catch-22" hiding in the shadows of new Rule 26 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure? Can the changes to the rules operate to require that a company produce information from backup tapes that it had no duty to preserve in the first place? Read More.
Sweeping the Capital Clean
By Joseph Spinelli The New York Times, February 4, 2007
CHANGE is afoot in Albany. Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo have swept into office promising to attack corruption and restore integrity and credibility in New York. Some of their early actions and rhetoric seem encouraging.
For instance, Mr. Cuomo has reached out to officials like David Grandeau, executive director of the state lobbying commission, and the Albany County district attorney, David Soares, who are actively investigating cases of possible wrongdoing. And last month, Governor Spitzer reached agreement with the Legislature on an ethics reform package aiming at some egregious trouble spots in campaign finance, lobbying and election law and combining the lobbying and ethics commissions. Furthermore, a budget reform agreement should ensure more scrutiny of ''member items,'' the opaque process by which state legislators can steer spending to specific contractors. Read More.
FROM THE EXPERTS - Institutions faced with a "look-back"
should look for the upside
Here Are Some Dos and Don'ts
You just received formal notification that U.S. bank examiners have asked your financial
institution to perform a transaction "look-back." You break out in a cold sweat because you
know a look-back can consume many institutional resources in dollars and time spent by
already overworked compliance, audit, legal, operational and business line personnel. Read More.
Contemplating an Internal Investigation?
Here Are Some Dos and Don'ts
By Ellen Zimiles and Scott Moritz Directors and Boards E-Briefing, October 2006
Permissible tactics, PR concerns, safeguards, and other
considerations for boards in authorizing an investigation.
The
scandal embroiling the Hewlett-Packard board of directors has brought
the subject of corporate internal investigations to the fore in the
media and in corporate governance circles. Indeed these recent events
are enough to have made some management and directors somewhat reticent
about using outside investigators. Yet one thing remains undeniably
clear: Companies will continue to be obligated to conduct internal
investigations when they are in receipt of allegations of fraud or
misconduct. At the same time, board members have become increasingly
aware that they must uphold the highest level of integrity and ethical
standards as they exercise their responsibilities to the company and
their shareholders. What the H-P case has brought into focus for many
is the importance of achieving a better understanding of the methods
typically utilized by investigators working on behalf of the board. Read more
The AML Compliance Officer: Hero or Goat
By Ellen Zimiles and Ana Alonso
The Compliance Reporter. 2006 Compliance Careers:
The 20 Rising Stars, September 11, 2006
The
Hero and the Goat are metaphors often used when referring to sporting
events. These terms can apply equally to anti-money laundering
compliance. The Goat is the player who may have worked hard and
supported his team throughout the game, but at the end is blamed for
the team loss. The Hero is the player who helped bring the team to
victory. This article sets forth how a well-meaning, hard working AML
officer can be trapped into becoming a Goat and how to avoid the "Goat
traps." Read more
The 2006 FFIEC Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money
Laundering Examination Manual
Knowing the Risks - Is It Possible to
Keep Pace and Manage Them All?
On
July 28, 2006, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council
("FFIEC"), comprised of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
System, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, National Credit Union
Administration, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and Office
of Thrift Supervision released the revised Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money
Laundering ("BSA/AML") Examination Manual, updating and retiring the
June 2005 Manual. In its continuing efforts to provide guidance to
financial institutions to facilitate compliance with the Bank Secrecy
Act, the FFIEC has endeavored to incorporate additional information,
regulatory updates, and feedback from both the financial services
industry as well as its examiners. There are some significant changes
to the revised Manual, and the regulatory expectations are clear –
financial institutions must be able to identify and manage the
potential risks of money laundering, terrorist financing and evasion of
sanctions of the Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC"). But are
financial institutions truly able to manage these potential risks, and
are the expectations realistic? Are the tools and technology available,
and how can institutions keep pace in an environment of new and
evolving risks? Read more
Mitigating Customer Risk: Important Considerations
When Implementing a Know Your Customer ("KYC") Remediation Project
IntroductionSection 326 of the USA PATRIOT Act requires financial institutions to
have a Customer Identification Program ("CIP") to verify customer
identification in connection with the opening of accounts and to apply
a "risk based approach" when seeking to verify customer-provided
information. Increasingly, U.S. and foreign financial services
regulators have been meting out severe penalties for deficiencies
related to customer identification, risk scoring and enhanced due
diligence. Many of these regulatory actions required institutions to
"remediate" their customer identification files to ensure adherence
with the bank's CIP and Section 326. While it has been a requirement
since October 1, 2003, many financial institutions still struggle with
Customer Identification, Risk Scoring and Enhanced Due Diligence. Read more
