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About Board and Fraud

Board and Fraud is a blog that aims to bring a practical approach to issues facing the board of directors and the audit committee specifically in the area of governance, risk management, compliance, and internal audit, with a strong focus on fraud, ethics, and internal controls.

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

At first glance, the relationship between an organization’s fraud risk and its corporate culture might seem obvious. Even a casual observer is likely to assume that a high-pressure, results-driven organization – with a culture that tolerates or even encourages people to cut corners or find loopholes and succeed at any cost – is bound to be at greater risk of financial reporting fraud and other risks. A root cause of almost every major scandal or fraud is dysfunction in the organization’s culture, with recent history offering numerous examples.

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The Continued Evolution of Best Practices for Compliance Programs

In 2019 and 2020, the federal government released significant information which directly impacted compliance professionals. We cover all three releases in this eBook, the 2020 Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs – Guidance Document, the 2019 Framework for OFAC Compliance Commitments, and the 2019 Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs in Criminal Antitrust Investigations.

These three documents provided not only the government’s refreshed thinking on what constitutes a best practices compliance program. I have combined all three onto a best practices document.

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DOJ Revises its Guidance on the Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs

Without any fanfare, the U.S. Department of Justice Criminal Division has once again revised its Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs (“ECCP”).  The ECCP  remains  organized around three overarching questions that prosecutors ask when evaluating compliance programs, with some revisions, which are in bold text below:

Is the corporation’s compliance program well designed?
Is the program being applied earnestly and in good faith? In other words, is the program being implemented adequately resourced and empowered to function effectively?
Does the corporation’s compliance program work in practice?

While most of the document is identical to the 2019 Guidance, there are subtle and noticeable revisions.  The revisions appear to be designed to help provide additional clarity when answering the above three questions. 

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Internal Investigations and Keywords

Investigative search terms are specific to each situation and are a primary tool used by the investigation team to identify possible relevant information in a data set. However, overly broad or poorly chosen terms or keywords can produce excessive and irrelevant results, or worse, miss the  “smoking gun” e-mail or document. Additionally, have you thought about the list of search terms or keywords being privileged or protected opinion work product in the context of an internal investigation?

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Whistleblowers: Tipsters not trusting the system?

Whistleblowers: Tipsters not trusting the system? Here’s how to win them back.

Anonymous hotlines and tip-reporting structures are useless, of course, if informants don’t trust them. Employees won’t blow the whistle if they fear reprisals. So, their concerns often don’t enter case-management systems and frauds continue. Here’s how to earn back their trust, take them seriously and transform raw tips into valuable fraud examinations.

Ovem lupo commitere!

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The Role of the Board of Directors in Compliance Oversight

Under the U.S. Federal Sentencing Guidelines, in order to receive credit for having an effective compliance program, and thereby reduce the fines imposed on the organization, a Board of Directors must be “knowledgeable about the content and operation of the compliance and ethics program,” and must “exercise reasonable oversight with respect to the implementation and effectiveness of the compliance and ethics program.” In addition, in criminal actions against a business organization, including the FCPA, the DOJ’s Justice Manual instructs prosecutors to ask and answer several questions, including: 1) Do the Directors exercise independent review of the company’s compliance program? and 2) Are Directors provided timely and accurate information sufficient to enable the exercise of independent judgment?

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IIA Philadelphia and Baker Tilly’s Fraud & Ethics Symposium is Postponed! Stay tuned for the new date.

This one-day fraud symposium, sponsored by Baker Tilly’s Global Forensic, Compliance and Integrity Services, and Solutions Practice Group and hosted by the Institute of Internal Auditors, Philadelphia Chapter, will include topics such as:

•Culture
•Current trends in white-collar crime
•Tone is the middle
•Policy management
•Case study on a local fraud

Discover who will be speaking and register for the event!

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Bribery Schemes and Their Compliance Responses

This writing will highlight some of the more unusual bribery schemes described in 2019 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) enforcement actions and also consider their impact on compliance programs, what they mean for the compliance professional and how the government could potentially use these cases to require more effective compliance programs going forward.
Fraudsters are always looking for loopholes and weak spots to exploit. The same is true for those engaged in bribery and corruption. The role of every compliance professional is to prevent, detect and remediate. By following some of the approaches I have outlined, you can move towards more robust detection.

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Speaking and Training on Fraud, Compliance, Ethics, and More…

Welcome to my site. I have spoken and been the keynote speaker for many conferences, including the ABA, ACC, ACFE, IIA, and IMA to name a few. I have designed customized training for the board, senior leadership, legal, compliance, internal audit, and others for some of the world’s largest organizations.

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Reputation Risk Management Doesn’t Have a Start or End Date!

How can we protect our brand? What are we doing to protect our brand? Questions all board members should be constantly asking.  Reputational risks can damage the most well-crafted business strategies and is a growing challenge that companies around the world are still learning how to manage.

By definition, reputational risk refers to the potential for negative publicity, public perception, or uncontrollable events to adversely impact a company’s reputation, thereby affecting its revenue.

Board directors covet their company’s reputation because it’s their most valuable asset. A study by Deloitte and Forbes affirmed this conviction, but should not surprise anyone.  Senior-level executives also agreed that their company’s reputation presented the greatest risk to the company’s ability to achieve business strategies.

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e-Guide for Chief Compliance Officers

This e-book is intended as a guide for Chief Compliance Officers (CCOs) and those responsible for developing and implementing compliance policies and procedures for an organization. Compliance, when done properly and embraced fully, should be seen as a necessary business process. It is our vision that companies have more than a best-in-class compliance program going forward.
The time is now for companies to take the next step up to make compliance a part of the business process of the organization. This would not only allow companies to meet the Department of Justice’s requirement that compliance programs be more fully operationalized, but it is our firm belief that a more effective compliance program will make the company’s internal controls operate more efficiently and enable it to operate more profitably. With the increased efficiencies for compliance offered by data analytics and AI, a robust compliance program can demonstrate internal commercial inefficiencies which can be remediated for greater return from assets.

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Crisis Management – Lights, Camera, Action!

Some of the biggest mistakes made when handling a crisis are not dealing with the problem head on, thoughtless or insincere comments, lack of communication with stakeholders, unprepared spokespeople, getting defensive after receiving backlash, or, sitting back and letting the problem grow. Domino’s, Sony, Samsung, BP, United Airlines, Equifax, KFC, are all good examples of companies who stumbled with crisis management.  Organizations should study these crises and learn from the mistakes!

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Board Member Composition: Participants, Passengers, and Prisoners?

As the organization’s ultimate decision-making body, the board of directors plays two critical roles: overseeing management on behalf of shareholders and other constituencies; and advising management, albeit with limited involvement in everyday company operations – nose in, hands off! The board should not attempt to run the operations of the organization; it should oversee how management runs the company.

I am amazed at how many members literally are not engaged, which reminded that one of the traits of an effective leader, or Pilot, is being a good team builder. But how can you build a good team if you don’t understand the players?  I’m not speaking about understanding their skills, I am speaking about understanding their level of engagement.  That amorphous concept most ignore.

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Jonathan T. Marks, CPA, CFF, CFE

Partner, Firm Practice Leader – Global Fraud & Forensic Investigations, Compliance, & Integrity Services

Jonathan T. Marks is the original author and producer of Board and Fraud. He specializes in global and complex corporate investigations (White Collar Crime) and other investigations. He has 30+ years of experience working closely with clients, their board, audit committees, senior management, internal audit, compliance, legal & outside law firms on global and domestic fraud, misconduct, cyber incidents, bribery, money laundering, whistleblowers, retaliation matters, and conducting investigations when appropriate (10A, books and records, cross-border, FCPA, regulatory etc.). Jonathan determines economic damages, performs root cause analysis, develops remedial procedures, and designs and enhances governance, global risk management and compliance systems along with internal controls and policies and procedures. He also monitors tactics to mitigate future potential issues and testifies in the court-of-law when called upon. 

To learn more about what Jonathan T. Marks, or the Global Fraud and Forensic Investigation team and their services, select the button below.

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Baker Tilly US, LLP, trading as Baker Tilly, is a member of the global network of Baker Tilly International Ltd., the members of which are separate and independent legal entities. ©2022 Baker Tilly US, LLP

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