The Network in the News

Speaking of Fraud

May 15 2012

by Sarah Johnson, CFO.com

Corporate hotlines buzzed with a record-high percentage of fraud-related tips during the most recent quarter, according to a March report.

The Network and BDO Consulting said that 21.6% of incidents reported during the fourth quarter in organizations’ hotlines and other reporting mechanisms were related to fraud, including possible corruption, misuse of corporate assets, and accounting irregularities. That is the highest such number since the companies began their quarterly index in 2005, according to Jimmy Lin, a vice president at The Network, a governance, risk, and compliance consultancy.

For the fourth quarter of 2011, 6,816 tips made to more than 1,400 organizations concerned fraud-related incidents, a 15.2% increase over the total for Q4 2010. The organizations in the study comprise public and…

Strengthening Your Security Posture with Compliance

April 11 2012

by Luis Ramos in Corporate Compliance Insights, April 10, 2012

Security measures are essential for protecting people, assets and information, and compliance makes sure those measures are effective. If you have designed adequate security controls and formally documented your procedures, shouldn’t that be enough? Maybe, but maybe not. A healthy compliance program will bolster your security measures and find weaknesses before they become problems.

Sometimes, an investment in compliance initiatives is just an effort to meet minimum regulatory requirements – all width and no depth – even when it comes to physical security matters. However, most of the time, “checkbox compliance” is not effective at reducing corporate risks beyond addressing a specific issue or deficiency. Unless you’re willing to take consistent, proactive measures to detect…

Is the SEC’s Whistleblower Program Working?

April 10 2012

by Bruce Carton, Compliance Week, April 10, 2012

Somewhere in the United States is a bank account with $452 million sitting there, waiting to be paid out to anyone who helps the Securities and Exchange Commission identify and pursue cases of corporate fraud.

Well, anyone who meets the right criteria, that is.

The fund was created by the Dodd–Frank Act and is earmarked for payouts to whistleblowers. Although not a single award has been paid out yet, that is about to change, as the SEC’s new Office of the Whistleblower continues to expand its operations and readies the first wave of whistleblower payments. As the office concludes its first year of operation, answers to questions about the SEC’s whistleblower program are beginning to emerge, such…

Whistling While You Work

April 02 2012

by Susan Ladika, Workforce Management, April 1, 2012

With changes in whistle-blower laws, companies must be even more diligent about protecting workers who speak out.

As a vice president in the consumer lending division at Citigroup, Richard Bowen III knew something was seriously amiss with the quality of many mortgages his company was buying from other lenders.

Bowen had been promoted to his new position in 2006 and immediately started raising the red flag to superiors, highlighting the problem in emails, weekly reports and presentations. Instead of anyone taking action, “it got worse; it didn’t get better,” he recalls.

He sent an email detailing his concerns to the board of directors. “That was my hail Mary attempt.”

Shortly afterward,…

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IN THE NEWS

Strengthening Security Through Compliance

Security measures are essential for protecting people, assets and information, and compliance makes sure those measures are effective. A healthy compliance program will bolster your security measures and find weaknesses before they become problems.