Kavitha Gupta's blog

  MLATs: They Are Not Just For DOJ Any More (Maybe) May 17, 2024 Today’s post is from  Sara Kropf . A shorter version of this post was published by Bloomberg News on May 14, 2024. (See here). I’ve written  before  about the Department of Justice’s questionable tactics in an FCPA case against two former executives for Cognizant Technology Solutions. The two executives eventually lost their bid to suppress certain statements made during an internal investigation interview by the company.  But they continue to battle DOJ. Their efforts led the trial judge to take the extraordinary step of effectively forcing DOJ to help the defense secure exculpatory overseas evidence through a mutual legal assistance treaty or MLAT. The case is an example of how a trial judge can exercise discretion to help ensure a fair trial simply by refusing to take what DOJ lawyers say at face value. It’s also a master class in persistent lawyering; by refusing to abandon the b...

  This Year’s Top Ten!  By Kristy Grant-Hart  November 22, 2024   Reference:  https://compliancekristy.com/this-years-top-ten/ The end of the year makes me nostalgic. It’s meaningful to look back and reflect. I’m always excited to see how far I’ve come and how things have changed. One thing is certain – things are always changing in the compliance field. From regulatory expectations to new laws, the state of the profession never stands still. I’ve been writing blogs for the past eight years (time flies!). I’m particularly proud of the following ten blogs from this year. If you missed any of them, just click on the links! In no particular order… 1. New DOJ Guidance: What To Do NOW for Risk Assessments When the DOJ’s updates its  Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs  guidance, it’s always the biggest news of the compliance year. This time, I’ve focused on what to do now for your risk assessments to meet their new e...

Private sector could face scrutiny after US software company reveals it wined and dined NDIA officials  Parliamentary report finds agency officials also failed to declare gifts and outings paid for by IT firm Salesforce.   The potential “inappropriate cultivation” of government officials by the private sector could soon be under the microscope after US software company Salesforce revealed it wined and dined NDIA officials on at least 118 instances before, during and after the signing of a multimillion-dollar software contract. A parliamentary audit committee has recommended the federal government look into a number of contracts between the public service and major IT companies to see whether the behaviour is more widespread. The committee also noted the agency in charge of the national disability insurance scheme failed to publicly declare the ritzy outings with Salesforce officials. The final report on contracting arrangements at the NDIA and Services Australia, releas...

  What's The Difference Between Compliance And Ethics? Bruce Weinstein, Ph.D. Contributor Customized ethics keynotes, training, and online courses for CE credit May 9, 2019, 01:19pm EDT  TWEET THIS High-character leaders ask, "What is required of me?" but they don't leave it at that. Ethical leaders also ask, "What is the right thing to do? How would an honorable person behave in this situation?" I've noticed some confusion about the roles that ethics and compliance play in organizations. This confusion arises, in part, from the way these two fields are identified. Some companies have only a compliance department. Others have a compliance  and  ethics (or ethics and compliance) department. Some companies have a Chief Ethics Officer separate from compliance. To get some clarity on these crucial roles, I asked seven leaders who are involved in both ethics and compliance to explain the similarities and differences as they saw them. I'll present their vi...