Lee Surrenders and Hanson Wade’s Oil & Gas Supply Chain Compliance Conference

Today we celebrate one of the most momentous anniversary’s in the history of the United States, for it was on this day in 1865, 150 years ago, that Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Union Commanding General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, effectively ending the American Civil War. Fighting continued for several more weeks to come, however with Lee’s surrender the Civil War had, in all intents and purposes, ended.

Lee and his troops were forced to abandon the Confederate capital of Richmond, they were blocked from joining the surviving Confederate force in North Carolina, and were harassed and outrun by Union cavalry, who took 6,000 prisoners at Sayler’s Creek. With desertions mounting daily the Confederates were surrounded with no possibility of escape. On April 9, Lee sent a message to Grant announcing his willingness to surrender and in the afternoon they met at the home of Wilmer McLean and agreed to the terms of surrender.

Although politicians would later change these terms quite dramatically, Grant is said to have told his officers, “The war is over. The Rebels are our countrymen again.”

Later this month, from April 28-30, Hanson Wade is putting on its annual conference in Houston. It is the “Oil and Gas Supply Chain Compliance” conference, now in its 5^th year, and once again the list of speakers is simply stunning. It includes the following Chief Compliance Officers (CCOs) and senior compliance folks: Dan Chapman, Cameron; Brian Moffatt, Ethos Energy, Jay Martin, Baker Hughes; Marcel De Chermont, Acteon Group, Jan Farley, Dresser-Rand; John Sardar, Noble Energy and a host of other luminaries in the field of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) compliance. Even if you live outside of Houston, the FCPA compliance talent at this event will rival any other event in the US and for such an event not held in Washington DC or New York City, it is simply outstanding.

Some of the panels and topics for discussion include: Applying Culturally Sensitive Approaches To Deliver A Core Compliance Methodology For A Variety Of Countries And Risks; How to Meaningfully Engage Your Business Operations in Taking Greater Compliance Ownership; Avoid The Risk Of Cavalier Behaviour Across The Supply Chain In The Face Of A Challenging Economic Climate; How To Deliver Cost-Effective, Risk Based, Function Specific Compliance Training; several in-depth presentations on Supply Chain and Third Party due diligence. These are but some of the sessions and there are many other excellent panels, sessions and speakers which I have not mentioned.

Recently the Event’s Chairperson, Dan Chapman, Vice President, Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer for Cameron, talked about some of the issues that will be discussed in this year’s conference. Chapman said, “Supply chain is, in my mind, a critical part of compliance and creating awareness throughout the business as to when and where you should apply compliance principles is a key focus. For me the industry has evolved in recent years, and our organizations tend to now have strong legal teams who understand anti-bribery and corruption legislation. Not only this, they now have the ‘tone from the top’. Where I feel that work needs to be done is practically embedding compliance into operational processes, and becoming a true and valuable partner to the business. With the current state of the oil price, we’re likely set for reduced budgets and increased risk, which makes it more important now than ever to share stories, materials and solutions to effectively mitigate compliance risk while enabling business delivery.”

I will be speaking at the conference on internal controls but I am extremely pleased to be co-leading an in-depth workshop on the third day of the event, with Joe Oringel, guest blogger and Managing Director at VisualRisk IQ. In our workshop, you will learn how to implement a system of data-driven monitoring controls and documents to measure the effectiveness of your compliance program and get you through a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation. During our 3 hour session we will go into the weeds on the following:

• Understanding what internal controls are required under a best practices compliance program;
• Recognizing what FCPA enforcement actions tell us about internal controls in an anti-corruption compliance program;
• Getting to grips with what the SEC expects you to have in place;
• Competently documenting the effectiveness of your internal controls;
• Understanding best practices and a methodology for the use of data analytics in compliance and ethics organization;
• Prioritizing business and compliance questions that can be answered with analysis of digital data; and
• Identifying a learning plan and resources to enhance your team’s data analytics expertise

I hope that you can attend this most excellent FCPA conference with the two-day sessions on April 28 and 29 and the workshop day on April 30. Very few FCPA conferences focus on Supply Chain and the information that you will receive at this one will be first rate. Finally, Hanson Wade has allowed me to offer a 20% discount to readers of my blog. You can obtain it by entering the code TFLaw20 when you register online. For the conference brochure and full details regarding the agenda and registration, click here.

This publication contains general information only and is based on the experiences and research of the author. The author is not, by means of this publication, rendering business, legal advice, or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such legal advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified legal advisor. The author, his affiliates, and related entities shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person or entity that relies on this publication. The Author gives his permission to link, post, distribute, or reference this article for any lawful purpose, provided attribution is made to the author. The author can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com.

© Thomas R. Fox, 2015

Lessons from GSK in China – Internal Controls, Auditing and Monitoring

One of the great things about writing your own blog is that sometimes you can get going on a subject and just explore it. While I think I might sometimes get carried away when I delve into a topic, I certainly learn much while doing so. This week appears to be such a situation where in studying and researching the GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK); I find that the case has much more to inform the compliance practitioner. So I am going to try and tie together some of the major lessons learned from the GSK Chinese enforcement action for the remainder of the week and present to you how such lessons might assist you in designing, implementing or upgrading a best practices compliance program. Today I want to look at internal controls, auditing and monitoring.

One of the questions that GSK will have to face during the next few years of bribery and corruption investigations is how an allegedly massive bribery and corruption scheme occurred in its Chinese operations? The numbers went upwards of $500MM, which coincidentally was the amount of the fine levied by the Chinese court on GSK. It is not as if the Chinese medical market is not well known for its propensity towards corruption, as prosecutions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) are littered with the names of US companies which came to corruption grief in China. GSK itself seemed to be aware of the corruption risks in China. In a Reuters article, entitled “How GlaxoSmithKline missed red flags in China”, Ben Hirschler reported that the company had “more compliance officers in China than in any country bar the United States”. Further, the company conducted “up to 20 internal audits in China a year, including an extensive 4-month probe earlier in 2013.” GSK even had PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as its outside auditor in China. Nevertheless, he noted, “GSK bosses were blindsided by police allegations of massive corruption involving travel agencies used to funnel bribes to doctors and officials.”

Internal Controls

Where were the appropriate internal controls? You might think that a company as large as GSK and one that had gone through the ringer of a prior Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation resulting in charges for off-label marketing and an attendant Corporate Integrity Agreement (CIA) might have such controls in place. It was not as if the types of bribery schemes in China were not well known. In an article in the Financial Times (FT), entitled “Bribery built into the fabric of Chinese healthcare system”, reporters Jamil Anderlini and Tom Mitchell wrote about the ‘nuts and bolts’ of how bribery occurs in the health care industry in China. The authors quoted Shaun Rein, a Shanghai-based consultant and author of “The End of Cheap China”, for the following “This is a systemic problem and foreign pharmaceutical companies are in a conundrum. If they want to grow in China they have to give bribes. It’s not a choice because officials in health ministry, hospital administrators and doctors demand it.”

Their article discussed the two primary methods of paying bribes in China: the direct incentives and indirect incentives method. Anderlini and Mitchell reported, “The 2012 annual reports of half a dozen listed Chinese pharmaceutical companies reveal the companies paid out enormous sums in “sales expenses”, including travel costs and fees for sales meetings, marketing “business development” and “other expenses”. Most of the largest expenses were “travel costs or meeting fees and the expenses of the companies’ sales teams were, in every case, several multiples of the net profits each company earned last year.””

It would be reasonable to expect that internal controls over gifts would be designed to ensure that all gifts satisfy the required criteria, as defined and interpreted in Company policies. It should fall to a Compliance Officer to finalize and approve a definition of permissible and non-permissible gifts, travel and entertainment and internal controls will follow from such definition or criteria set by the company. These criteria would include the amount of the spend, localized down into increased risk such the higher risk recognized in China. Within this context, noted internal controls expert Henry Mixon has suggested the following specific controls. (1) Is the correct level of person approving the payment / reimbursement? (2) Are there specific controls (and signoffs) that the gift had proper business purpose? (3) Are the controls regarding gifts sufficiently preventative, rather than relying on detect controls? (4) If controls are not followed, is that failure detected?

Auditing Lessons Learned

Following Mixon’s point 4 above, what can or should be a company’s response if one country’s gifts, travel and entertainment expenses were kept ‘off the books’? This is where internal audit or outside auditors are critical. Hirschler quoted an un-named source for the following, ““You’d look at invoices and expenses, and it would all look legitimate,” said a senior executive at one top accountancy firm. The problem with fraud – if it is good fraud – is it is well hidden, and when there is collusion high up then it is very difficult to detect.”” Jeremy Gordon, director of China Business Services was quoted as saying “There is a disconnect between the global decision makers and the guys running things on the ground. It’s about initially identifying red flags and then searching for specifics.”

There are legitimate reasons to hold medical conferences, such as to make physicians aware of products and the latest advances in medicine, however, this legitimate purpose can easily be corrupted. Hirschler quoted Paul Gillis, author of the China Accounting Blog, for the following “Travel agencies are used like ATMs in China to distribute out illegal payments. Any company that does not have their internal audit department all over travel agency spending is negligent.” Based on this, GSK’s auditors should have looked more closely on marketing expenses and more particularly, the monies spent on travel agencies. Hirschler wrote, “They [un-named auditing experts] say that one red flag was the number of checks being written to travel agencies for sending doctors to medical conferences, although this may have been blurred by the fact that CME accounts for a huge part of drug industry marketing.”

Another issue for auditing is materiality. If GSK’s internal auditors had not been trained that there is no materiality standard under the FCPA, they may have simply skipped past a large number of payments made that were under a company’s governance procedure for elevated review of expenses. Further, if more than one auditor was involved with more than one travel agency, they may not have been able to connect the dots regarding the totality of payments made to one travel agency.

Ongoing Monitoring

A final lesson learned for today is monitoring. As Stephen Martin often says, many compliance practitioners confuse auditing with monitoring. Monitoring is a commitment to reviewing and detecting compliance programs in real time and then reacting quickly to remediate them. A primary goal of monitoring is to identify and address gaps in your program on a regular and consistent basis. Auditing is a more limited review that targets a specific business component, region, or market sector during a particular timeframe in order to uncover and/or evaluate certain risks.

Here I want to focus on two types of ongoing monitoring. The first is relationship monitoring, performed by companies such Boston-based Catelas, through software products. It was reported in a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article, entitled “Glaxo Probes Tactics Used to Market Botox in China”, that internal GSK emails showed the company’s China sales staff were instructed by local managers to use their personal email addresses to discuss marketing strategies related to Botox. The Catelas software imports and analyzes communications data, like email, IM, telephony and SMTP log files from systems such as Microsoft Exchange Servers and Lotus Notes. The software then leverages social network analysis and behavioral science algorithms to analyze this communications data. These interactions are used to uncover and display the networks that exist within companies and between the employees of companies. Additionally, relationships between employees and external parties such as private webmail users, competitors and other parties can be uncovered.

The second type of monitoring is transaction monitoring. Generally speaking, transaction monitoring involves review of large amounts of data. The analysis can be compared against an established norm which is derived either against a businesses’ own standard or an accepted industry standard. If a payment, distribution or other financial payment made is outside an established norm, thus creating a red flag that can be tagged for further investigation.

GSK’s failure in these three areas now seems self-evident. However, the company’s foibles can be useful for the compliance practitioner in assessing where their company might be in these same areas. Moreover, as within any anti-corruption enforcement action, you can bet your bottom dollar that the regulators will be assessing best practices going forward based upon some or all of GSK’s miss-steps going forward.

This publication contains general information only and is based on the experiences and research of the author. The author is not, by means of this publication, rendering business, legal advice, or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such legal advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified legal advisor. The author, his affiliates, and related entities shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person or entity that relies on this publication. The Author gives his permission to link, post, distribute, or reference this article for any lawful purpose, provided attribution is made to the author. The author can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com.

© Thomas R. Fox, 2014

Use of Influence in the Compliance Function

One of the challenges for any Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) is how to influence the conduct and actions in a corporate environment, particularly as compliance is viewed as non-revenue generating and usually does not exist simply to protect the company, which is how the legal department is often viewed. Folks like myself who came into compliance from the legal function tend to think of a top-down approach where compliance is centralized at the corporate officer, usually in the United States. But because the role is very different than that of a General Counsel (GC), a CCO needs to bring another skill set to bear to do his or her job. In a session at the SCCE 2014 Compliance and Ethics Institute, SCCE Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Roy Snell and Jenny O’Brien, CCO at United Health Care, talked about the techniques that a CCO can use to influence decision making in a company in order to do business in compliance and ethically.

Snell began the session with some basic questions about why there are positions such as a CCO and why there is a compliance function within an organization. After all, departments like legal and internal audit have existed in business organizations for up to at least a few hundred years. He posed two questions that I found interesting “Why are we here?” and “What did those who came before us to fail to do?” He listed some of the scandals from the late 90s and early 00s such as Enron, WorldCom, HealthSouth, Adelphia and others where he believed that the problems, which led to the disintegration of these organizations, were well known within the companies themselves. So the situation was not that people did not find the problems, the issue was that the people inside these organizations did not fix the problems. Snell believed that the persons who could and would have stood up to raise questions or say this should stop lacked some skill or ability to influence others to make the right decision. He concluded that such business and ethical collapses were a failure of influence.

This led into his presentation with O’Brien about techniques for a CCO to employ to help influence decision-making within an organization. They labeled them as the “Seven Steps of Influence” and they are as follows:

1. Collaboration. O’Brien emphasized that as a CCO you need to know your company’s business. If you are new to an organization she said you must take time to learn the business. You should sit in on sales meetings and, when appropriate, you should go out on sales call. Channeling her inner Atticus Finch, she characterized this as walking in the shoes of the business leaders you are assisting. By doing so, you will not only understand the products and services that your company offers but also the challenges that your business development team will face out in the world.
2. Here O’Brien emphasized that she has to work constantly at active listening, which is listening, thinking and then speaking, and not just jump into the middle of a conversation, talk to people in a manner that will address their concerns. When you do speak you should be prepared to make the case for the compliance proposition that you are trying to get across. She noted that as a CCO or compliance practitioner, you should strive to be relevant in every interaction you have with your senior management peers. O’Brien said that sometimes it means speaking up at meetings or other forums but sometimes it means listening. You should try to develop a rapport with your business team and this rapport can lead to trust building.
3. Relationships. Snell opened his remarks on this topic by intoning that by relationships he did not mean inter-personal relationships. He believes that it is mainly through relationships with other functions in an organization that a CCO or compliance practitioner can best bring influence to bear. It all begins with building trust with others within your organization. Invest time to find others in your organization that you want to work and with those with whom you desire to build relationships. Snell believes that some of the more key relationships that a CCO or compliance practitioner can develop are with the audit function, the legal department, Human Resources, IT and corporate communications. Snell said that when one of these groups offered to help him move the ball forward in compliance he always viewed it as a positive and wanted to work with these and other corporate groups. He did not view it as a turf war at all. The only thing that he said he requested were the terms of working together. Of those, he said the most important was that if another group in the company took on some project related to compliance, such an internal audit, that the group finish whatever they take on.
4. Humility. O’Brien believes that humility is important because it empowers. Moreover, it can empower others to expand the circle of influence and get others in a corporation to influence an ever-expanding circle on behalf of compliance. The CCO does not need center stage. She reiterated her belief that business units should solve compliance issues, as compliance is really just another business process. Further, through such influence where you can get the business unit resources to solve a compliance problem, you will hold down the costs of the compliance function. She ended by noting that it is not about being right but about moving the compliance ball forward in the right direction.
5. Negotiation. Here Snell said that negotiation should not be about the dichotomy of winning and losing an argument or debate. A CCO should strive to redefine what a win might look like or what a win might consist of for a business unit employee. He said that when faced with such a confrontation, he would try to determine what both sides wanted then give them something else in addition to what they thought they wanted. He provided the example of a CCO quietly listening and when the room is just right and all the participants are worn out, you, as the compliance practitioner, throw out an idea where the apparent loser in the argument receives even more than they thought they were asking for in the requesting. A CCO can be considered a mediator not just simply an enforcer or Dr. No from the Land of No. He ended by saying that as a compliance practitioner you need to learn the art of compromise.
6. Triple ‘C’. What do the three C’s stand for? Calm, cool and collected. O’Brien believes that all company employees, up and down the chain, are watching the CCO. For this reason, she said that as a compliance practitioner you should be poker faced. To this end she keeps the sign “Keep Calm and Carry On” in her office. She believes that the Triple C’s are important because organizations look to the CCO to solve complex issues with simple solutions. When faced with a compliance issue or an obstacle you should endeavor to keep everything on an even keel and never let them see you sweat.
7. Credibility. The final of the seven pillars was that the CCO role needs to be adequately scoped and that the accountabilities need to be clearly defined. Put another way, what is your job scope as the CCO and what is the function of the compliance department? What is your accountability to decide the resolution to an issue? Snell agreed with O’Brien that there should be business unit ownership for every issue that comes into the compliance department. Yet, as a CCO, you must demonstrate your value as a non-revenue function. This may require you to get out of your office and put on a PR campaign for compliance. Finally, Snell ended by saying that a CCO needs to guard their independence in job function and reporting. You must make clear that you will have independent reporting up to the Board or Audit Committee of the Board.

Snell concluded by reminding us all that influencing is not a one-time activity. It is ongoing. Tying back to his original question of why the compliance function exists in the quantum it does today, he said that he believes a CCO or compliance practitioner exists to help influence a company to build a better business environment by acting more ethically and responsibility. By moving the ball forward in this manner, it may well lead to a country’s economy to be trusted which could well lead to greater economic development.

This publication contains general information only and is based on the experiences and research of the author. The author is not, by means of this publication, rendering business, legal advice, or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such legal advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified legal advisor. The author, his affiliates, and related entities shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person or entity that relies on this publication. The Author gives his permission to link, post, distribute, or reference this article for any lawful purpose, provided attribution is made to the author. The author can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com.

© Thomas R. Fox, 2014

The Weatherford FCPA Settlement, Part III

Yesterday, I reviewed the conduct which Weatherford International Limited (Weatherford) engaged in over a period from 2002-2011 in connection with its Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) investigation, noted the deficiencies in its compliance program and its internal controls and even how the company intentionally impeded the investigations of both the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Today, I want to look at how the company changed course in mid-stream during the investigation, brought in a top-notch and well respected lawyer as its Chief Compliance Officer (CCO), created a best-in-class compliance program; all of which saved the company millions of dollars in potential fines and penalties.

1. I.                    DOJ Fine Calculation

To resolve the criminal aspects of this case, Weatherford agreed to pay an $87.2 million criminal penalty as part of a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with the DOJ. There was also another $65.6 million paid to the SEC. However the figure paid to the DOJ was at the very bottom range of a potential criminal penalty. The range listed in the DPA was from $87.2 to $174.3 million. In coming up with this range under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, it is significant for the actions that Weatherford did not receive credit for during the pendency of the investigation. The company did not receive a credit for self-reporting. The company only received a -2 for its cooperation because prior to 2008 the company engaged in activities to impede the regulators’ investigation.

So the fine range could have been more favorable to the company. But the key is that Weatherford received the low end of the range. How did they do this?

A.     New Sheriff in Town

One of the key things Weatherford did was bring in Billy Jacobson as its CCO and give him a seat at the table of the company’s Executive Board. He was a Federal Prosecutor in the Fraud Section, Criminal Division, US Department of Justice. He also served as an Assistant Chief for FCPA Enforcement Department so we can assume he understood the FCPA and how prosecutors think through issues. (Jacobson also worked as a State Prosecutor in New York City, with my former This Week in FCPA co-host Howard Sklar, so shout out to Howard.) Jacobson was not hired directly from the DOJ but after he had left the DOJ and had gone into private practice. There is nothing that shows credibility like bringing in a respected subject matter expert and giving that person the tools and resources to turn things around.

But more than simply bringing in a new sheriff, Weatherford turned this talk into action by substantially increasing its cooperation with the government, thoroughly investigating all issues, turning over the results to the DOJ and SEC and providing literally millions of pages of documents to the regulators. The company also cleaned house by terminating officers and employees who were responsible for the illegal conduct.

B.     Increase in Compliance Function

In addition to establishing Jacobson in the high level CCO position, the company significantly increased the size of its compliance department by hiring 38 compliance professionals and conducted 30 anti-corruption compliance reviews in the countries in which Weatherford operates. This included the hiring of outside consultants to assess and review the company’s compliance program and beefing up due diligence on all third parties, including those in the sales and supply chain, joint venture (JV) partners and merger or acquisition (M&A) candidates. The company also agreed to continue to enhance its internal controls and books and records to prevent and/or detect future suspect conduct.

If you have ever heard any of the current Weatherford compliance professionals speak at FCPA conferences, you can appreciate that they are first rate; that they know their stuff and the company supports their efforts on an ongoing basis.

C.     Best in Class Compliance Program

During the pendency of the investigation, Weatherford moved to create a best practices compliance program. They appear to have done so and agreed in the DPA to continue to maintain such a compliance program. Under Schedule C to the DPA, it set out the compliance program which the company had implemented and continued to keep in place, at least during the length of the DPA. It included the following components.

1. High level commitment from company officials and senior management to do business in compliance with the FCPA.
2. A substantive written anti-corruption compliance code of conduct.
3. Written policies and procedures to implement this code of conduct.
4. A robust system of internal controls, including accounting and financial controls.
5. Risk assessments and risk reviews of its ongoing business.
6. No less than annual assessments of its overall compliance program.
7. Appropriate oversight and responsibility of a Chief Compliance Officer.
8. Effective training for all employees and relevant third parties.
9. An effective compliance function which can provide guidance to company employees.
10. A robust internal reporting system.
11. Effective investigations of any reported compliance issue.
12. Appropriate incentives for employees to do business ethically and in compliance.
13. Enforced discipline for any employee who violates the company’s compliance program.
14. Suitable due diligence and management of third parties and business partners.
15. A correct level of pre-acquisition due diligence for any merger or acquisition candidate, including a risk assessment and reporting to the DOJ if the company uncovers and FCPA-violative conduct during this pre-acquisition phase.
16. As soon as practicable, Weatherford will integrate any newly acquired entity into its compliance regime, including training of all relevant new employees, a FCPA forensic audit and reporting of any ongoing violations.
17. Ongoing monitoring, testing and auditing of the company’s compliance function, taking into account any “relevant developments in the field and the evolving international and industry standards.”

D.    Monitor

Weatherford also agreed to an external monitor. However, the term of the monitor is not the entire length of the three-year DPA; the term of the monitor is only 18 months. The monitor’s primary function is to assess the company’s compliance with the terms of the DPA and report the results to the DOJ at least twice during the terms of the monitorship. After this 18 month term the DOJ will allow the company to self-report to the regulators. It should be noted that the term of the external monitor can be extended by the DOJ.

II.                Conclusion

It certainly has been a long, strange journey for Weatherford. I should note that I have not discussed at all the Oil-For-Food aspect of this settlement, which was an additional $100MM penalty to the company. However, with regard to the FCPA aspects of the matter, there are some very solid and telling lessons to be drawn from this case. First and foremost is that cooperation is always the key. But more than simply cooperating in the investigation is that a company should take a pro-active approach to putting a best-in-class compliance program in place during, rather than after the investigation concludes. Also, a company cannot simply ‘talk-the-talk’ but must come through and do the work to gain the credit. The bribery schemes that the company had engaged in and the systemic failures of its compliance program and internal controls, should serve as a good set of examples for the compliance practitioner to use in assessing a compliance program.

The settlement also sends a clear message from both the DOJ and SEC on not only what type of conduct will be rewarded under the US Sentencing Guidelines, but what they expect as a compliance program. One does not have read tea leaves or attempt to divine what might be an appropriate commitment to compliance to see what the regulators expect these day.

This publication contains general information only and is based on the experiences and research of the author. The author is not, by means of this publication, rendering business, legal advice, or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such legal advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified legal advisor. The author, his affiliates, and related entities shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person or entity that relies on this publication. The Author gives his permission to link, post, distribute, or reference this article for any lawful purpose, provided attribution is made to the author. The author can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com.

© Thomas R. Fox, 2013

Where’s The Ball? Lesson for the Compliance Practitioner in China

Where’s the ball? That iconic question was asked by Oakland A’s center fielder Chris Young to Houston Astro left fielder Robbie Grossman near second base late Wednesday night, as Grossman was returning to the dugout after robbing Young of a game-winning walk-off home run by literally catching Young’s shot after it was over the left field fence. Grossman obliged Young as he passed second base, opening up his glove with a big grin on his face, to show that he did indeed have the ball. (For a clip of Young’s shot and Grossman’s catch, click here. Young’s question “Where’s the ball?” is at the 23 second mark.)

I thought about that question when I read an article in the Financial Times (FT), entitled “China drug bribe probes broaden”, where reporters Patti Waldmeir, Jamil Anderlini and Andrew Jack wrote that Chinese authorities are widening their probe of western pharmaceutical companies. In one example cited it was stated that the government of Shanghai “told hospitals to look for corruption in the purchasing and prescribing of drugs, as well as in clinical trials conducted with hospital participation.” This broadening also included investigations of doctors. Separately the State Administration for Industry and Commerce announced that it would investigate “bribery, fraud and anti-competitive practices in a range of industries that touch the lives of consumers, from drugs and medical services to school admissions.”

Whether the focus on the corruption by western companies is based on politics, nationalism, the rising cost of domestic drugs or any other reason, it really does not matter, however, it could mean that in addition to investigation and potential enforcement by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); the Chinese themselves may take up the task. If that is the case there will most probably be cooperation between the various investigative agencies involved. All of that means more pain for the companies involved.

Over the past couple of days Mike Volkov has provided information to the compliance practitioner to assist in this new world order in China. In a blog post, entitled “China and Compliance Solutions: Choking Off the Money Supply” and webinar, entitled “How to Avoid Corruption Risks in China”, Volkov gave some specific suggestions for the compliance professional to utilize in the current enforcement environment in China. In his webinar, he said that western companies operating in China need to understand that the cost of compliance will exceed other countries. While there is certainly an upside in revenues from China business, it also involves greater compliance costs and risks. Companies need to construct enhanced compliance controls and implement aggressive monitoring programs, demand adherence to strict documentation policies and to integrate non-Chinese controls and personnel into China operations to supervise and monitor the local operations.

Volkov identified third party risks as the greatest risk because companies have a limited ability to control the outgoing of their monies much more than companies usually do of their own. Some of the key questions that need to be explored in the due diligence process include what specific services will the third parties be used for and have you verified that the potential agent can deliver those services? You need to care that there is an absence of relationship between your Chinese employees and third party. You also need to inquire about how the third party came to the company’s attention? So, for instance, does it have an internal sponsor in your company? Volkov notes that not only must audit rights be secured by western companies; they need to exercise those rights. Lastly, he advises that any unjustified expenditures have to be aggressively pursued both through the audit process and into the investigative process, if needed.

Volkov believes that a key control involves focusing on internal expenditure. Unfortunately, he notes that external auditors often rely on Chinese affiliates, who he believes are “notorious for bending to company resistance to auditing standards and inquiries.” Therefore companies need to require their external auditors to install quality controls. Companies should also demand strict adherence to auditing standards. He suggests that there should be both forensic auditing and transaction testing to review individual receipts and transactions. Lastly, he suggests that money should only be doled out through strict supervision by a non-Chinese controller.

In his blog post, Volkov drills down into some specific protections that a company can take to control its cash outlays in China to try and prevent some of the more well-known bribery schemes. He believes that “The strategy for compliance is then to focus on access to the money which the bribe payor needs to complete the bribe. Resources and controls need to be allocated and designed based on this analysis and focus.” He provides two scenarios where bribery and corruption can occur and two possible strategies to combat such actions.

In the first scenario, a company employee obtains company money by fraud and then pays a government official. Under this scenario, a company employee uses a fake invoice(s), which is typically required in China to satisfy tax authorities. The fake invoice, which may involve another party as the recipient of the payment, is a means by which to “steal” the money from the company and use it for an improper purpose. This was the bribery scheme used by Eli Lilly’s employees in China where employees submitted false expense accounts and used the difference to fund their bribery scheme.

Volkov’s prescription for this is that the company’s compliance function must ensure that internal financial controls are scrupulously followed, so that any potential fake invoice is identified in advance.  He believes whether the offender is an ex-pat or a local employee it is important to enforce such rules, it is an issue which can be debated and the outcome will depend on the personal and the specific situation facing the company. The reason would seem rather self-obvious; that is, if no one is watching the invoicing process, verifying the accuracy of the invoice and ensuring that the payment is justified, money will slip out from the company for bribes. But, then again, maybe not given the paucity of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) enforcement actions in China. This means the focus of internal controls should include not only fake invoices but systems, procedures and forms to ensure that only approved and appropriate payments are made.

Under his second scenario, Volkov cites the situation where a company employee enlists the assistance of an agent to make direct payments to a foreign official to ensure that the government official purchases the company’s product or service. The company employee knows that the third party is used (or will be used) for legitimate and improper payments. The company employee knows that some of the invoices submitted by the third party are for legitimate services and some are for non-existent services and used to finance bribe payments. Sounds sort of like GlaxoSmithKline PLC’s (GSK) China operation to me.

To help counteract this second bribery and corruption scenario, Volkov recommends that “China-focused compliance strategy to reduce illegal money flows through third parties requires enhanced resources and controls to conduct due diligence, monitoring of money payments, justification for every payment, and enhanced monitoring elements. Each payment has to be fully justified, documented and corroborated. Monitoring techniques have to include detailed transaction testing and in-depth compliance and financial audits.” He once again cautions that the objective is to concentrate compliance on the movement of each dollar, confirm the legitimacy, and look for any signs of potential funding of bribery through the third party.

We started out with the question of “Where’s the Ball?” Just as Chris Young thought it was prudent to verify that indeed the Astros outfielder had caught his near game-winning, walk-off home run; you need to be prepared to ask some direct questions in your Chinese operations. If you do not see the ball or you do not get direct answers, my suggestion is that you gear up and get some people in place who can do so. Otherwise you might end up like our friends at GSK.

This publication contains general information only and is based on the experiences and research of the author. The author is not, by means of this publication, rendering business, legal advice, or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such legal advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified legal advisor. The author, his affiliates, and related entities shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person or entity that relies on this publication. The Author gives his permission to link, post, distribute, or reference this article for any lawful purpose, provided attribution is made to the author. The author can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com.

© Thomas R. Fox, 2013

GSK and Missed Red Flags in China

One of the questions that GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK) will have to face during the next few years of bribery and corruption investigations is how an allegedly massive bribery and corruption scheme occur in its Chinese operations? The numbers thrown around have been upwards of $USD500MM. It is not as if the Chinese medical market is not well known for its propensity towards corruption, as prosecutions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) are littered with the names of US companies which came to corruption grief in China. GSK itself seemed to be aware of the corruption risks in China. In a Reuters article, entitled “How GlaxoSmithKline missed red flags in China”, Ben Hirschler reported that the company had “more compliance officers in China than in any country bar the United States”. Further, the company conducted “up to 20 internal audits in China a year, including an extensive 4-month probe earlier in 2013.” GSK even had PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) as its outside auditor in China. Nevertheless, he noted that “GSK bosses were blindsided by police allegations of massive corruption involving travel agencies used to funnel bribes to doctors and officials.”

Types of Bribery Schemes

The types of bribery schemes in China are also well known. In a Financial Times (FT) article, entitled “Bribery built into the fabric of Chinese healthcare system”, reporters Jamil Anderlini and Tom Mitchell wrote about the ‘nuts and bolts’ of how bribery occurs in the health care industry in China. They open their article by noting that the practice of bribing “doctors, hospital administrators and health officials is rampant.” They quoted an un-named senior health official in Beijing for the following, “All foreign and domestic pharmaceuticals operating in China are equally corrupt”. The authors also quoted Shaun Rein, a Shanghai-based consultant and author of “The End of Cheap China” for the following, “This is a systemic problem and foreign pharmaceutical companies are in a conundrum. If they want to grow in China they have to give bribes. It’s not a choice because officials in health ministry, hospital administrators and doctors demand it.”

Their article included a diagram which visually represented two methods used to pay bribes in China, which were designated the Direct incentives and Indirect incentives methods. Whichever method is used, the goal is the same – to boost sales.

In the Direct incentives method, a third party representative of a company would provide cash to the department head of a clinic or hospital. The department head would in turn pay it to the physicians to encourage them to prescribe the company’s medical products. But a third party representative could also contact a physician directly and reward them with “gifts such as storecards, vouchers and travel” expenses. Other direct methods might include the opening of bank accounts or charge accounts at luxury goods store and then the company would hand “the debit card or VIP card directly to the recipient.”

The FT noted that the Indirect incentives method tended to be “used by larger pharmaceutical groups with stricter governance procedures.” Under this bribery scheme there were two recognized manners to get benefits into the hands of prescribing physicians. The first is to have cash incentives paid to a third party representative, such as a travel agency, which would then “pass on some of these rewards to the physician directly.” Another method was for the company itself to make a “lump sum sponsorship paid to hospitals”. The hospitals would then distribute perks “to the doctors as a monthly or annual bonus.” Another indirect method noted was that companies might organize overseas conferences and site visits, which might “include free first class travel and five-star accommodation.”

Anderlini and Mitchell reported that “The 2012 annual reports of half a dozen listed Chinese pharmaceutical companies reveal the companies paid out enormous sums in “sales expenses”, including travel costs and fees for sales meetings, marketing “business development” and “other expenses”. Most of the largest expenses were “travel costs or meeting fees and the expenses of the companies’ sales teams were, in every case, several multiples of the net profits each company earned last year.” They cited the example of Guizhou Yibai Pharmaceutical Co Ltd which earned a net profit last year of Rmb333.3m. However its “sales expenses came to a total of Rmb1.25bn, including meetings expenses of more than Rmb295m and wages of just Rmb88m.” Indeed the “largest expense for the company’s sales team of 2,318 people was Rmb404m spent on travel, for an average of more than Rmb174,000 per sales representative for the year. That is roughly what it would cost every single sales representative to fly 10 times a month between Beijing and Guiyang, where the company is based.”

Auditing Responses – Missed Red Flags?

But what should GSK have done if such expenses were kept ‘off the books’? Hirschler, in his Reuters article, quoted one un-named source for the following, ““You’d look at invoices and expenses, and it would all look legitimate,” said a senior executive at one top accountancy firm. The problem with fraud – if it is good fraud – is it is well hidden, and when there is collusion high up then it is very difficult to detect.” However, Jeremy Gordon, director of China Business Services was quoted as saying “There is a disconnect between the global decision makers and the guys running things on the ground. It’s about initially identifying red flags and then searching for specifics.”

There are legitimate reasons to hold Continuing Medical Conferences (CME), such as to make physicians aware of the latest products and advances in medicine. However, this legitimate purpose can easily be corrupted. Hirschler quoted Paul Gillis, author of the China Accounting Blog, for the following “Travel agencies are used like ATMs in China to distribute out illegal payments. Any company that does not have their internal audit department all over travel agency spending is negligent.” Based on this, GSK should have looked more closely on marketing expenses and more particularly, the monies spent on travel agencies. Hirschler wrote, “They [un-named auditing experts] say that one red flag was the number of checks being written to travel agencies for sending doctors to medical conferences, although this may have been blurred by the fact that CME accounts for a huge part of drug industry marketing.”

One other issue might be materiality. If GSK’s internal auditors had not been trained that there is no materiality standard under the FCPA, they may have simply skipped past a large number of payments made that were under a company’s governance procedure for elevated review of expenses. Further, if more than one auditor was involved with more than one travel agency, they may not have been able to connect the dots regarding the totality of payments made to one travel agency.

What about the external auditors, PwC? Francine McKenna, who writes and speaks extensively on all things related to Big 4 auditing, wrote last year, in blog entitled “What The SEC And PCAOB Fail To Acknowledge About Chinese Fraud”, that Pam Chepiga, of Allen & Overy LLP, in 2012, “told the audience that FCPA investigations in China are difficult because, “you can’t take the documents out of the country.”” After her panel, Chepiga, told McKenna “that not only does China restrict the dissemination of documents outside of China, but internal investigations by multinationals must be done by Chinese lawyers with support from the Chinese accounting firms. Given the experience that the SEC is having with Deloitte, it seems, “previous cooperation agreements are not in force”. The SEC would have a hard time going over and investigating a fraud or FCPA violation by the Chinese arm of a US based company”. So things may not have been any easier for PwC. However, the recent agreement between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Chinese Securities Regulatory Commission will allow the SEC some access to audit the work papers of Chinese companies listed in the US may influence this issue.

Ongoing Monitoring

Another response that GSK could have implemented was to engage in greater ongoing monitoring. In the Texas Law, Out of Order column, entitled “5Tips for Avoiding Email Compliance Traps”, Alexandra Wrage, President of TRACE International, reported that “Internal Glaxo documents and emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show Glaxo’s China sales staff was apparently instructed by local managers to use their personal email addresses to discuss marketing strategies related to Botox. In the personal emails, sales staff discuss rewarding doctors for prescribing Botox with cash payments, credits that could be used to meet medical education requirements and other rewards.”

Wrage uses the GSK matter as a jumping off point “For companies wanting to get a handle on the compliance risks they face through email (mis)uses and other forms of technology”. She gives five tips to avoid email compliance traps: (1) Encourage communication between compliance and IT departments. (2) Map out your universe of data. (3) Know your obligations, then develop an established set of policies and procedures around them. (4) Train employees to speak up about the new uses in technology. (5) Stress-test your program.

Remember with the technology available to companies today it is possible that companies have the ability to determine if employees are accessing personal email accounts business computers. Also to Wrage’s list, I would add one other point and that is call Eddie Cogan at Catelas Software. Relationship monitoring is what they do and they can help you out immediately.

This publication contains general information only and is based on the experiences and research of the author. The author is not, by means of this publication, rendering business, legal advice, or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such legal advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified legal advisor. The author, his affiliates, and related entities shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person or entity that relies on this publication. The Author gives his permission to link, post, distribute, or reference this article for any lawful purpose, provided attribution is made to the author. The author can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com.

© Thomas R. Fox, 2013

Lunch with the FCPA Compliance & Ethics Blog – Phil Wedemeyer and the Audit Perspective in Compliance

One of my weekend reading pleasures is the Saturday section in the Financial Times (FT) entitled “Lunch with the FT”. Each week, this column highlights a weekly interview with leading cultural and business figures. In addition to an excellent interview with fascinating people, the column discusses the food served and lists the prices of all items purchased. The column is so smartly done that even the Men In Blazers talk about it in their weekly podcasts on all things soccer.

Since imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, today I will inaugurate a “Lunch with FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog” series of posts. While it will not be a weekly feature, nor will I detail the costs for lunch, I will commit to you the cost will be in line with that of a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) or UK Bribery Act compliance program business entertainment lunch. My inaugural guest is Phil Wedemeyer, who is a retired former partner of a Big Five accounting firm (when there was a Big 5); the former Director of the Office of Research and Analysis at the Public Company Oversight Accounting Board and currently sits on the Board of Directors of two corporations; one public, where Phil is the Chairman of the Audit Committee, and one private. As you might guess from someone with such a professional background, Phil tends to view things through the prism of an audit perspective.

This week Phil and I sat down for a couple of Houston’s finest cheeseburgers to catch up. Phil asked me what might be happening on the FCPA front and I told him that I thought the news about the National Security Agency (NSA) information collection programs was going to make the job of the compliance practitioner more difficult. Many of America’s allies are up in arms over not only the collection of information but the revelation that such collection of information can be used in monitoring FCPA compliance across the globe. I think this will mean that companies will face greater data privacy laws and have more difficulty not only getting information out of foreign countries and into the US for evaluation but even in collecting types of data and information.

Great Board Oversight Required?

Phil had another take on it, which I found equally interesting. He questioned whether this information about the US government could put an additional burden on not only the compliance practitioner but on a board of directors? When I asked him what he meant by this, he questioned if a company had reliable information that the US government was employing oversight techniques to search for evidence of bribery and corruption (or non-compliance with other laws or regulations) beyond more traditional law enforcement techniques (e.g., whistleblowers, self-disclosure and competitor reporting); should this cause that company to increase its oversight of compliance with the FCPA? In particular, more comprehensive government monitoring activity could increase the chances of discovery of the types of illegal activities at lower levels of the company that is one of the primary objectives of whistleblower procedures and that may not always be known to upper level management. Further, if so, would this change in risk put a director on notice that they need to perform additional oversight of the compliance function?

Transaction Analysis

Phil also inquired about any trends that I might have seen over the past six to 12 months on FCPA enforcement. I told him that one of the things I have seen is the introduction of transaction monitoring, beginning with the Morgan Stanley declination. I then discussed the Eli Lilly enforcement action and particularly the bribery scheme used in Poland where charitable contributions were made to a charity run by the head of a provincial health service. This led to sales spiking in that province rather dramatically. These cases, and some others, have led me to advocate that companies engage in transaction monitoring from the compliance perspective to identify any anomalies.

Phil’s observation here was once again based on his auditing background. He said that, in considering variations in operating results as a director, he asks two questions of management: What happened and how do you know? In answering these questions, it is clearly important that management understands the business cause of significant sales increases and that there could be other issues involved in the situation that may require consideration by the compliance practitioner. Phil thought analysis of variations needs to occur at the level at which the sales increase was material. As an example, he conjectured that, in the Lilly scenario, such a sales spike would likely not be material to the company’s consolidated financial statements or, for that matter, to the European business unit. However, such a sales increase would most probably be material for the country of Poland and certainly for the province in which the sales increase occurred.

Once the material level is determined, direct questions should be asked and answered at that level. Explanations of a sales increase as being the result of the appointment of a new head of business development or a more aggressive sales manager should not simply be taken at face value. Questions such as what techniques were used; what was the marketing spend; how much was spent on business entertainment or other specific categories; were charitable donations made to any non-core business charities and other questions might help to get at the true underlying reason for a sales spike. Further, a company should review its findings in subsequent periods for confirmation. So, for example, if a sales increase legitimately appears to be due to the efforts of a new person in the territory or region, is that same increase sustained in later periods. The answer to such a question might identify red flags indicating the need for further review.

One of the key things that I learned from my lunch is the need for the compliance practitioner to talk to other non-compliance professionals to get their perspectives on how they view issues. So, just as I had lunch with Phil Wedemeyer, you could take out the head of your internal audit group for a lunch and chat; or HR; or IT. The list of possibilities is lengthy. I hope that you have enjoyed my inaugural, Lunch with the FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog as much as I have bringing it to you.

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I will be discussing transaction monitoring on a free Webinar entitled, “A Winning Strategy for Automating FCPA Compliance” hosted by SAP, next Wednesday, June 19 at 2 PM EDT. For registration and information, click here.

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This publication contains general information only and is based on the experiences and research of the author. The author is not, by means of this publication, rendering business, legal advice, or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such legal advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified legal advisor. The author, his affiliates, and related entities shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person or entity that relies on this publication. The Author gives his permission to link, post, distribute, or reference this article for any lawful purpose, provided attribution is made to the author. The author can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com.

© Thomas R. Fox, 2013

Get Out of the Ivory Tower – Using Internal Corporate Resources to Facilitate the Compliance Function

The second day of Hanson Wade Oil and Gas Supply Chain Compliance conference in Houston packed as much solid information into it as did the first day. One of the sessions dealt with utilizing other corporate functions to assist a compliance department in implementing or enhancing a compliance program. There are many resources which currently exist inside your organization and if you are in the position where you must use internal rather than external resources, this post will detail some of the functions which you may be able to call upon inside your organization.

You should start with a basic approach which the speaker termed “Get Out of the Ivory Tower”. He explained that the compliance department must obtain realistic input from geographies, cultures, business units and corporate functions within the company. As he rather succinctly put it to the audience “A procedure which may work in Texas may not work in Indonesia.” He also counseled to train in local languages. This may mean more than translating your talk into one language. He gave the example of his training in Spain where he had dual translations going, from English into Spanish and Catalan.

Part of this translation issue led to his next point, which was not to believe your own story or even worse, your own propaganda. Simply because a Country Manager says something is true means does not mean that it is true. Internal controls, monitoring and auditing are important to test that you are actually doing compliance rather than simply saying you are in compliance.

In determining what other departments might be able to assist the compliance function, the speaker suggested that you should start with three inquiries. They were:

1. What can yours do? This is the initial assessment that you need to make about what your compliance department can do. What are your resources and budget? Start with this question.
2. What can theirs do? In looking around your company, next ask this question. What are the functions of the departments? Are there things that they are currently doing which can supplement the compliance function? Are there functions in that department’s core function which can assist the company in the doing of compliance?
3. How many employees does each of you have? An obvious concern is the number of employees that are available to assist the compliance function.

What are some of the other corporate functions that might assist the compliance department going forward? An obvious starting place is Human Resources (HR). The speaker listed several areas in which HR can bring expertise and, in my experience, enthusiasm to the compliance function. Some of the reasons include the fact that HR is physically located at or touch every site in the company, globally. HR is generally seen as more approachable than many other organizations in a company, unfortunately including compliance. A person’s first touch point with a company is often HR in the interview process. If not in the interview process, it is certainly true after a hire is made. Use this approachability.

Obviously, HR has several key areas of expertise, such as in discrimination and harassment. But beyond this expertise, HR also has direct accountability for these areas. It does not take a very long or large step to expand this expertise into assistance for compliance. HR often is on the front line for hotline intake and responses. These initial responses may include triage of the compliant and investigations. With some additional training, you can create a supplemental investigation team for the compliance department.

Clearly HR puts on training. By ‘training the trainers’ on compliance you may well create an additional training force for your compliance department. HR can also give compliance advice on the style and tone of training. This is where the things that might work and even be legally mandated in Texas may not work in other areas of the globe; advice can be of great assistance. But more than just putting on the training, HR often maintains employee records of training certifications, certifications to your company’s Code of Conduct and compliance requirements. This can be the document repository for the Document, Document Document portion of your compliance program.

Internal Audit is another function that you may want to look at for assistance. Obviously, Internal Audit should have access to your company’s accounting systems. This can enable them to pull data for ongoing monitoring. This may allow you to move towards continuous controls monitoring, on an internal basis. Similarly, one of the areas of core competency of Internal Audit should also be internal controls. You can have Internal Audit assist in a gap analysis to understand what internal controls your company might be missing.

Just as this corporate function’s name implies, Internal Audit routinely performs internal audits of a company. You can use this routine job duty to assist compliance. There will be an existing audit schedule and you can provide some standard compliance issues to be on each audit. Further, compliance risks can also be evaluated in this process. Similar to the audit function are investigations. With some additional training, Internal Audit should be able to assist the compliance function to carry out or participate in internal compliance investigations. Lastly, Internal Audit should be able to assist the compliance function to improve controls following investigations.

A corporate IT department has several functions that can assist compliance. First and foremost, IT controls IT equipment and access to data. This can help you to facilitate investigations by giving you (1) access to email and (2) access to databases within the company. Similar to the above functions, IT will be a policy owner as the subject matter expert so you can turn to them for any of your compliance program requirements which may need a policy that touches on these areas. The final consideration for IT assistance is in the area of internal corporate communication. IT enables communications within a company. You can use IT to aid in your internal company intranet, online training, newsletters or the often mentioned ‘compliance reminders’ discussed in the Morgan Stanley Declination.

Finally, do not forget your business teams. You can embed a compliance champion in all divisions and functions around the company. You can take this a step further by placing a Facility Compliance Officer at every site or location where you might have a large facility or corporate presence. Such local assets can provide feedback for new policies to let you know if they do not they make sense. In some new environments, a policy may not work. If you company uses SAP and you make an acquisition of an entity which does not use this ERP system, your internal policy may need to be modified or amended. A business unit asset can also help to provide a push for training and communications to others similarly situated. One thing that local compliance champions can assist with is helping to set up and coordinate personnel for interviews of employees. This is an often over-looked function but it facilitates local coordination, which is always easier than from the corporate office.

There are many ways to implement or enhance a compliance program in a company. If you do not have the luxury of creating an entire compliance department with an unlimited budget, you may be able to call upon other areas of corporate expertise to facilitate your role. Do not be an Ivory Tower.

This publication contains general information only and is based on the experiences and research of the author. The author is not, by means of this publication, rendering business, legal advice, or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such legal advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified legal advisor. The author, his affiliates, and related entities shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person or entity that relies on this publication. The Author gives his permission to link, post, distribute, or reference this article for any lawful purpose, provided attribution is made to the author. The author can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com.

© Thomas R. Fox, 2013

Use of Forensic Accounting to Avoid a Compliance Meltdown

On this date in 1979, the worst accident in the history of the US nuclear power industry began when a pressure valve in the Unit-2 reactor at Three Mile Island fails to close. Cooling water, contaminated with radiation, drained from the open valve into adjoining buildings, and the core began to dangerously overheat. While plant workers were exposed to unhealthy levels of radiation, no one outside Three Mile Island had their health adversely affected by the accident. Nonetheless, the incident greatly eroded the public’s faith in nuclear power. In the more than two decades since the accident at Three Mile Island, not a single new nuclear power plant has been ordered in the United States.

One of the recognized aspects of a best practices compliance program is auditing. In many ways, auditing is thought of as one of the ways to avoid a compliance meltdown. However, in a recent article in the Texas Lawyer, entitled “How Forensic Accountants Differ from Auditors”, author Elizabeth M. Junell discussed how a forensic accountant can assist an in-house lawyer in a manner of different ways than auditors from a company’s internal audit function. I found that her article had some interesting points for the compliance practitioner.

Junell says that forensic accountants collect and analyze accounting and internal-controls evidence. They use this information to produce a fact-based report that can inform the decision-making process in inquiries, investigations and dispute resolution. The by-products of a forensic accountant’s work can include remediation strategies to help a company mitigate and remedy procedural or internal-controls gaps that allowed the underlying issue to occur. Inquiries into accounting and internal controls raise a host of technical issues requiring specialized knowledge that forensic accountants are uniquely positioned to provide. Junell contrasts these areas with that of internal audit, which she believes more often looks at process to determine if it has been adhered to in a procedure. This leads to internal auditors examining evidence to determine whether people followed prescribed processes or internal controls; this occurs, for example, in an operational Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) or Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) compliance audit.

Junell writes that forensic accounting differs from auditing in both its objective and skill sets. The objective of a forensic accounting assignment is to collect, analyze and report on the evidence or facts surrounding a particular act that often has litigious, fraudulent or criminal implications. Auditors also collect and analyze evidence, but an independent auditor’s objective is to attest to the credibility of assertions that are under examination, such as the material accuracy of financial statements for which the audited company’s management is responsible. However, she argues that a key role of the forensic accountant is to identify a concern and to notify company management about the issue or issues discovered.

From there Junell believes that management should determine if further investigation is warranted. If further investigation is decided upon by management, then Junell considers that “this is where objective shifts and one of the forensic accountant’s strongest skills comes in: an investigative mind that drives him or her to answer questions about what occurred, when and how it happened, and who was involved.” She expects that, at times, a forensic accountant will be required to gather facts about why an event may have occurred so that they look for answers to such questions or for other red flags in the evidence.

One of the discussions that I found interesting in her article was how a compliance practitioner might use a forensic accountant. On the initial level, a decision should be made about whether a forensic accountant should be retained as an outside consultant or hired as an employee. Junell articulates that if such professional is brought in as an employee, the position should sit in the legal department rather than the company’s internal audit department. She recognizes that in the past, many companies have used existing internal auditors to do forensic accounting work as a way to reduce costs and because the perceived similarities in the skill set and work product. She believes that this view is becoming outdated and that more companies are placing the forensic accountant position into the legal and compliance department because of the legal implications surrounding the work. Further, by placing the forensic accountant in the compliance department, it allows the maintenance of an objective approach to any assignment, since, as Junell believes, “he or she will not be governed by management or influenced by potential biases within” a company.

Lastly is the issue of privilege. If a forensic accountant is assigned to the internal audit group, you can kiss away even the chance of claiming privilege. Junell argues that by assigning the forensic accountant to the legal and compliance department one might have “more privilege protection than assigning him or her to internal audit or another department.”

I found Junell’s article to have some interesting points about how a compliance practitioner and compliance department can use a forensic accountant to help create a best practices program. It might be something that you would like to consider for your compliance regime. The lesson from Three Mile Island is not that it just might keep you from having a compliance meltdown but that since that time, think about the number of nuclear plants which have been built.

This publication contains general information only and is based on the experiences and research of the author. The author is not, by means of this publication, rendering business, legal advice, or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such legal advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified legal advisor. The author, his affiliates, and related entities shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person or entity that relies on this publication. The Author gives his permission to link, post, distribute, or reference this article for any lawful purpose, provided attribution is made to the author. The author can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com.

© Thomas R. Fox, 2013

The FCPA Guidance on the Ten Hallmarks of an Effective Compliance Program

Many commentators are still mining the Department of Justice (DOJ)/Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) publication, A Resource Guide to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, (the “Guidance”), which was released last November. I continue to find nuggets to provide to the compliance practitioner, as do others. But as we are a Base 10 culture, today I want discuss the 10 points listed as the ‘Hallmarks of Effective Compliance Programs”. They are a change in style, but not content, from the prior 13 point minimum best practices that the DOJ has in the Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPAs) since at least November, 2010 and, indeed, from prior information made available by the DOJ.

I.                   Where Have We Been

Beginning with at least the Metcalfe & Eddy Consent and Undertaking, filed in December, 1999, the DOJ has laid out its thoughts on what should go into a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) anti-corruption compliance program. In the Metcalfe & Eddy Consent and Undertaking, the DOJ laid out ten points of an effective FCPA anti-corruption compliance program. This was modified somewhat in Opinion Release 04-02, which laid out a best practices compliance program in 12 points, where the DOJ reviewed the proposal by an investment group who were acquiring certain companies and assets from ABB Ltd. ABB Vetco Gray Inc. and ABB Vetco Gray (UK) Ltd., two of the entities being acquired, had previously pled guilty to FCPA violations. The investment group desired to protect itself from further liability, to the extent possible, by proposing to the DOJ a comprehensive best practices compliance program. While the DOJ noted that this compliance program was not a shield against future violations, the DOJ would not “intend to take an enforcement action [against the investors] for violations of the FCPA prior to their acquisition from ABB.”

In the Panalpina DPA, issued in November, 2010, the DOJ laid out a 13 point minimum best practices compliance program. This number was changed this past summer when the Data Systems & Solutions LLC (DS&S) DPA was announced. In this enforcement action the DOJ listed 15 points on its minimum best practices FCPA anti-corruption compliance program. Then later in the summer, the DOJ moved to a 9 point compliance program in the Pfizer DPA. Even with all these changes in the number, the substance of each compliance program has remained the same.

II.                Where Are We Now? Hallmarks of Effective Compliance Programs

The Guidance cautions that there is no “one-size-fits-all” compliance program. It recognizes that depending on a variety of factors such as size, type of business, industry and risk profile that a company should determine what is appropriate for its own needs regarding a FCPA compliance program. But the Guidance makes clear that these ten points are “meant to provide insight into the aspects of compliance programs that DOJ and SEC assess”. In other words you should pay attention to these and use this information to assess your own compliance regime.

1. Commitment from Senior Management and a Clearly Articulated Policy Against Corruption. It all starts with tone at the top. But more than simply ‘talk-the-talk’ company leadership must ‘walk-the-walk’ and lead by example. Both the DOJ and SEC look to see if a company has a “culture of compliance”. More than a paper program is required, it must have real teeth and it must be put into action, all of which is led by senior management. The Guidance states that “A strong ethical culture directly supports a strong compliance program. By adhering to ethical standards, senior managers will inspire middle managers to reinforce those standards.” This prong ends by stating that the DOJ and SEC will “evaluate whether senior management has clearly articulated company standards, communicated them in unambiguous terms, adhered to them scrupulously, and disseminated them throughout the organization.”
2. Code of Conduct and Compliance Policies and Procedures. The Code of Conduct has long been seen as the foundation of a company’s overall compliance program and the Guidance acknowledges this fact. But a Code of Conduct and a company’s compliance policies need to be clear and concise. The Guidance makes clear that if a company has a large employee base that is not fluent in English such documents need to be translated into the native language of those employees. A company also needs to have appropriate internal controls based upon the risks that a company has assessed for its business model. Some of the risks a company should assess include “the nature and extent of transactions with foreign governments, including payments to foreign officials; use of third parties; gifts, travel, and entertainment expenses; charitable and political donations; and facilitating and expediting payments.”
3. Oversight, Autonomy, and Resources. This section starts with a discussion on whether a company has assigned a senior level executive to oversee and implement a company’s compliance program. Not only must a company assign such a person with appropriate authority but that person, and the overall compliance function, must have “sufficient resources to ensure that the company’s compliance program is implemented effectively.” Additionally, the compliance function should report to the company’s Board of Directors or an appropriate committee of the Board such as the Audit Committee. Overall the DOJ and SEC will “consider whether the company devoted adequate staffing and resources to the compliance program given the size, structure, and risk profile of the business.”
4. Risk Assessment. The Guidance states that “assessment of risk is fundamental to developing a strong compliance program”. Indeed, if there is one over-riding theme in the Guidance it is that a company should assess its risks in all areas of its business. The Guidance lists factors that a company should consider in any risk assessment. They are “the country and industry sector, the business opportunity, potential business partners, level of involvement with governments, amount of government regulation and oversight, and exposure to customs and immigration in conducting business affairs.” The Guidance is also quite clear that when the DOJ and SEC look at a company’s overall compliance program, they “take into account whether and to what degree a company analyzes and addresses the particular risks it faces.”
5. Training and Continuing Advice. Communication of a compliance program is a cornerstone of any anti-corruption compliance program. The Guidance specifies that both the “DOJ and SEC will evaluate whether a company has taken steps to ensure that relevant policies and procedures have been communicated throughout the organization, including through periodic training and certification for all directors, officers, relevant employees, and, where appropriate, agents and business partners.” The training should be risk based so that those high risk employees and third party business partners receive an appropriate level of training. A company should also devote appropriate resources to providing its employees with guidance and advice on how to comply with their own compliance program on an ongoing basis.
6. Incentives and Disciplinary Measures. This involves both the carrot and the stick. Initially the Guidance notes that a company’s compliance program should apply from “the board room to the supply room – no one should be beyond its reach.” There should be appropriate discipline in place and administered for any violation of the FCPA or a company’s compliance program. Additionally, the “DOJ and SEC recognize that positive incentives can also drive compliant behavior. These incentives can take many forms such as personnel evaluations and promotions, rewards for improving and developing a company’s compliance program, and rewards for ethics and compliance leadership.” These incentives can take the form of a part of senior management’s bonuses or simply recognition on the shop floor.
7. Third-Party Due Diligence and Payments. Here the Guidance focuses on the ongoing problem area of third parties. The Guidance says that companies must engage in risk based due diligence to understand the “qualifications and associations of its third-party partners, including its business reputation, and relationship, if any, with foreign officials.” Next a company should articulate a business rationale for the use of the third party. This would include an evaluation of the payment arrangement to ascertain that the compensation is reasonable and will not be used as a basis for corrupt payments. Lastly, there should be ongoing monitoring of third parties.
8. Confidential Reporting and Internal Investigation. This means more than simply a hotline. The Guidance suggests that anonymous reporting, and perhaps even a company ombudsman, might be appropriate to have in place for employees to report allegations of corruption or violations of the FCPA. Furthermore, it is just as important what a company does after an allegation is made. The Guidance states, “once an allegation is made, companies should have in place an efficient, reliable, and properly funded process for investigating the allegation and documenting the company’s response, including any disciplinary or remediation measures taken.” The final message is what did you learn from the allegation and investigation and did you apply it in your company?
9. Continuous Improvement: Periodic Testing and Review. As noted in the Guidance, “compliance programs that do not just exist on paper but are followed in practice will inevitably uncover compliance weaknesses and require enhancements. Consequently, DOJ and SEC evaluate whether companies regularly review and improve their compliance programs and not allow them to become stale.” The DOJ/SEC expects that a company will review and test its compliance controls and “think critically” about its own weaknesses and risk areas. Internal controls should also be periodically tested through targeted audits.
10. Mergers and Acquisitions. Pre-Acquisition Due Diligence and Post-Acquisition Integration. Here the DOJ and SEC spell out what it expects in not only the post-acquisition integration phase but also in the pre-acquisition phase. This pre-acquisition information is not something that most companies had previously focused on. Basically, a company should attempt to perform as much substantive compliance due diligence that it can do before it purchases a company. After the deal is closed, an acquiring entity needs to perform a FCPA audit, train all senior management and risk employees in the purchased company and integrate the acquired entity into its compliance regime.

As I commented earlier in this article, the DOJ and SEC have communicated what they believe are the important parts of a risk based, anti-corruption compliance program for many years. I do not think that a compliance defense could be set out any more succinctly. However, I do like things set out in Base 10 and the “Hallmarks of Effective Compliance Programs” is an excellent compilation of where we are and what you need in place to go forward. I recommend this as a good a starting point for any compliance practitioner to implement a new compliance program or to evaluate the state of an ongoing compliance regime so assess your company’s risks and use these hallmarks as a basis to move forward.

This publication contains general information only and is based on the experiences and research of the author. The author is not, by means of this publication, rendering business, legal advice, or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such legal advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified legal advisor. The author, his affiliates, and related entities shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person or entity that relies on this publication. The Author gives his permission to link, post, distribute, or reference this article for any lawful purpose, provided attribution is made to the author. The author can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com.

© Thomas R. Fox, 2013