Category: Articles

Conducting an ethics investigation

How to Conduct an Ethics Investigation from Beginning to End

Ethics investigations can be challenging for just about any organization. If done right, an ethics investigation can help you identify wrongdoing and unethical behavior and put a stop to it before your organization pays the price for not maintaining a conducive and compliant work environment. A poorly executed ethics investigation, Read More

false claims act violation

Teva to Pay Record $225M for Role in Antitrust Cartel; Glenmark to Pay $30M

Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, a U.S. affiliate of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, will pay a $225 million criminal penalty—the largest to date for a domestic antitrust cartel—while Glenmark Pharmaceuticals USA will pay a $30 million criminal penalty to resolve similar criminal antitrust charges, the Department of Justice announced Aug. 21. Both Teva Read More

Financial reporting

FINRA Fines Cantor Fitzgerald $100,000 Over Disclosure, Supervisory Failures

Cantor Fitzgerald has agreed to a censure and a $100,000 sanction in a settlement with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) relating to alleged compliance failures for which the financial services firm had previously been warned. From January 2020 to August 2020, Cantor published public quarterly reports on its handling Read More

FINRA Fines Goldman Sachs $425,000 for OTC Option Reporting Failures

Goldman Sachs has agreed to a censure and a $425,000 fine in a settlement with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) to resolve allegations that it failed to report, or inaccurately reported, over-the-counter (OTC) options positions to the Large Options Positions Reporting (LOPR) system. According to the FINRA order, between Read More

Crowe UK

Crowe U.K., CEO, Senior Auditor to Pay $785K Over ‘Deficient’ Akazoo Audit

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged London-based audit firm Crowe U.K., its CEO, and senior auditor for the firm’s deficient 2018 audit of music-streaming company Akazoo. According to the SEC order, Crowe U.K. “issued a clean audit report of Akazoo’s 2018 financial statements,” but after Akazoo went public in Read More

DoJ: UBS to Pay $1.4B Settlement for Its Role in 2008 Financial Crisis

UBS and several of its U.S.-based affiliates have reached a $1.4 billion settlement to resolve all civil claims brought against it by the Department of Justice (DoJ) relating to UBS’s legacy residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) business in the United States. “With this resolution, UBS will pay for its conduct related Read More

Grupo Aval, Bank Subsidiary to Pay $80.8M in Landmark FCPA Resolution

Colombian conglomerate Grupo Aval and its bank subsidiary, Corporación Financiera Colombiana (Corficolombiana), will pay $80.8 million in a resolution with U.S. and Colombian authorities for the company’s role in a widespread bribery scheme with Columbian government officials in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. It is a landmark FCPA Read More

CFTC Logo image

SEC, CFTC Order Firms to Pay $555M in Penalties for Recordkeeping Failures

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced combined penalties of $555 million in the latest enforcement sweep to hit the financial services industry for widespread recordkeeping failures. On Aug. 8, the SEC announced combined penalties of $289 million against 10 broker-dealers, including one dually Read More

FASB Proposal on expense accounting

FASB Wants More Transparency in Disclosure of Corporate Expenses

A new proposal issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) will explore ways for companies to provide investors with more “decision-useful” information about corporate expenses. FASB is encouraging stakeholders to review and provide comment on the proposal by Oct. 30. In a statement, FASB Chairman Rich Jones said investors Read More

NatWest Logo

NatWest Compliance Executive Awarded $112,000 for ‘Unfair’ Dismissal

A London employment tribunal has awarded a former senior risk and compliance professional at National Westminster Bank (NatWest) approximately 88,000 pounds (US$112,000) for being “unfairly dismissed and discriminated against” while she was undergoing cancer treatment. The employment tribunal’s latest decision, published Aug. 2, focused on what remedies Adeline Willis should Read More