In a rare move, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued whistleblower awards to three individuals who held compliance roles at an unnamed company. In a statement, the SEC said that it had awarded more than $1 million to three individuals whose information and assistance led to a successful enforcement action. Read More
MRetail giant Walmart has tapped a former Department of Justice official and prosecutor to lead its compliance department. It appointed Matt Miner to the role of global chief ethics and compliance officer. Miner will lead Walmart’s global compliance program and will report to Rachel Brand, the company’s executive vice president Read More
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued a notice last week warning member firms of their obligation to maintain a supervisory system for business activities outsourced to third-party vendors. Financial firms are increasingly using third-party vendors to carry out their business and regulatory oversight functions, FINRA said in its notice. Read More
The U.S. Justice Department has appointed David Last as head of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act unit, a high-profile division that investigates and prosecutes bribery cases. Last had served as acting chief of the FCPA unit since April 2020 and will now hold the position on a permanent basis. The Read More
Educational publishing and software company Pearson has agreed to pay $1 million to settle charges that it misled investors on the details of a 2018 data breach, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced yesterday. According to the SEC, London-based Pearson made misleading statements and omissions to investors about a cyber-attack Read More
A new survey of compliance professionals indicates that strong, supportive communication with the board of directors can strengthens ethics and compliance programs, especially in navigating the tricky landscape of the pandemic. This year’s second Ethics & Compliance Program Effectiveness Report, published by compliance education firm LRN, examined the role and Read More
The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking to address regulatory roadblocks facing the Dodd-Frank Act’s whistleblower rewards program, with a focus on the related action rule. Gary Gensler said in a keynote address last month that the agency plans to address significant problems in the SEC’s whistleblower program that enable Read More
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it took another step in clamping down on the booming blockchain technology space, charging two Florida men and their Cayman Islands company for allegedly selling more than $30 million of securities to investors in fraudulent offerings over the course of a year. The Read More
A new survey found that compliance professionals who possess a law degree receive, on average, a significantly higher salary than their non-J.D. counterparts. The survey, conducted by legal recruiting firm BarkerGilmore between February to March 2021 from a random sample of U.S. compliance professionals, also found that the average annual Read More
Zoom Video Communications agreed to pay $85 million and bolster its security practices to settle a lawsuit claiming it violated users’ privacy rights by sharing personal data with Facebook, Google and LinkedIn, and letting hackers disrupt Zoom meetings in a practice called Zoombombing. A preliminary settlement filed on Saturday afternoon Read More
