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The Morning Risk Report: Anti-Corruption Practitioners Expect Surge in Enforcement
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Good morning. Anti-corruption practitioners convened at the New York City Bar Association on Tuesday for one of the first in-person U.S. conferences on international white-collar crime since the coronavirus pandemic scuttled public gatherings nearly two years ago.
The takeaway? Anticorruption enforcement is alive and well. It may even be about to get a serious boost, particularly in the U.S., where the Justice Department’s deputy attorney general recently promised additional resources and a tougher stance on corporate crimes such as violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, according to Risk & Compliance Journal’s Dylan Tokar.
[Continued below...]
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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which brings civil FCPA cases, saw a decline in enforcement of the antibribery law over the last two years. But its new enforcement director, Gurbir Grewal, said the agency won’t be letting up.
“In many ways, FCPA violations are an especially insidious threat to public trust writ large, because they take place at the intersection of corrupt businesses and governments,” said Mr. Grewal. The SEC will be pushing for more robust penalties, and requiring an admission of wrongdoing in cases where they are warranted, he added.
The International White Collar Crime Symposium 2021 comes days after the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development released updated recommendations for member countries on how to combat international bribery, including around the use of pretrial settlements, whereby companies resolve bribery allegations by paying a fine and agreeing to undergo certain reforms.
“It will give the working group a lot of power to make sure that countries are appropriately dealing with nontrial resolutions, and to encourage the use of them,” said Kara Brockmeyer, a partner at the law firm Debevoise & Plimpton LLP and a former head of the SEC’s FCPA unit.
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From Risk & Compliance Journal
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Corporate Support for Vaccine Mandates Is Growing, Survey Shows
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More human-resources professionals and organizational leaders are backing Covid-19 vaccine mandates in the workplace, according to a survey by employee-engagement software maker TinyPulse.
The survey showed that 68% of HR leaders polled in the third quarter supported a vaccine mandate, up from 56% in the second quarter. Among non-HR employee respondents, support for a vaccine mandate was even higher, at 74%. The previous quarter's survey didn't include such respondents.
The percentage of HR leaders who said they were against vaccine mandates fell to 22% in the third quarter from 30% in the second quarter. Among employees, the share against mandates in the third quarter was 21%. About 5% of both HR leaders and employees said they would consider quitting if a vaccine mandate was imposed at their companies.
Elora Voyles, TinyPulse’s people scientist and one of the two lead researchers on the survey, said she expects mandates to continue to gain support in the workplace, especially with the rise of coronavirus variants like Omicron and as more people get vaccinated. “I expect, depending on how bad Omicron is…that this trend will continue,” she said.
In the third-quarter survey, 55% of HR leaders said their companies were encouraging vaccines, up from 48% in the previous quarter. Thirteen percent said their companies had vaccine mandates, up from 7.4% in the previous quarter.
TinyPulse, which was acquired by Limeade Inc. in July, conducted the survey of 621 HR leaders and 100 employees from a variety of industries in August. HR leaders include those in decision-making roles at companies, such as human-resources managers, people leaders and C-suite executives, according to TinyPulse. A total of 39 countries and territories were represented in the HR sample, though 80% were living in the U.S.
—David Smagalla
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At the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Richard Cordray brought changes to consumer finance, a sector that had previously escaped federal regulatory scrutiny. PHOTO: JOHN MINCHILLO/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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President Biden is considering Richard Cordray, the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to serve as the Federal Reserve’s top banking regulator, according to people familiar with the matter.
If nominated and confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Cordray would become the government’s most influential overseer of the U.S. banking system, succeeding Randal Quarles as the Fed’s vice chairman of banking supervision.
From 2012 to 2017, Mr. Cordray, an attorney, served as head of the CFPB, a watchdog Congress created after the 2008 financial crisis to regulate lenders and other companies tied to consumer finance. He is currently a top official at the Education Department, serving as the chief operating officer of Federal Student Aid, overseeing the $1.6 trillion student-loan program.
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A federal appeals court in California on Tuesday upheld the state’s ban on large-capacity firearm magazines, reversing earlier rulings that had found the restriction unconstitutional and giving gun-control advocates a victory at a moment of uncertainty around the scope of Second Amendment rights.
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In a 7-4 ruling, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that the state’s prohibition on magazines that can carry more than 10 rounds of ammunition was a reasonable and minor restriction on gun rights that aimed to limit the carnage of mass shootings.
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The Supreme Court on Tuesday wrestled with whether people with disabilities can seek monetary damages for emotional distress when they allegedly face discrimination in obtaining medical treatment.
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CNN said Tuesday it is suspending prime-time anchor Chris Cuomo indefinitely after records released this week by the New York attorney general’s office provided a detailed look into his efforts to help his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, respond to allegations of sexual misconduct.
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Theranos Inc. founder Elizabeth Holmes conceded Tuesday that she has many regrets about how she responded to criticisms of her blood-testing company, as prosecutors questioned her directly for the first time since they charged her with criminal fraud more than three years ago.
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Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell discussed in a Senate hearing the factors driving continued inflation and the risk the Omicron variant poses for the economy. PHOTO: AL DRAGO/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank was prepared to quicken the pullback of its easy-money policies, opening the door to raising interest rates in the first half of next year as it grapples with inflation and a potential new virus wave that could exacerbate supply-chain disruptions.
Mr. Powell during a Senate hearing on Tuesday said it would be appropriate for the Fed to consider accelerating the reduction of its asset-purchase stimulus program at its meeting on Dec. 14-15.
His comments, which caused stock markets to tumble and bond yields to rise, were part of a broader shift in how the Fed leader characterized the risks to an economy that faces a fresh coronavirus threat following the identification last week of the potentially more transmissible Omicron variant in South Africa.
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Airlines are warning of lower bookings, executives in Europe are tweaking business travel plans and a handful of organizations have canceled or downscaled events across the continent amid new government-mandated restrictions and uncertainty over the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
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Coal piles at U.S. power plants have dwindled to their lowest point since the 1970s, and the race to build up inventories ahead of heating season has sent domestic thermal coal prices to their highest levels in more than a decade.
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India’s economy is rebounding after a brutal pandemic-induced recession, but job losses related to Covid-19 are weighing on consumer spending and the country’s economic recovery.
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NATO warned that its members would impose significant costs on Russia if it launched a new military incursion in Ukraine, while making clear the limits of the organization’s support for Ukraine.
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Microsoft will bring in a third party to do independent assessments of its sexual harassment investigations. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
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An investor proposal to Microsoft Corp. demanding greater disclosure on its handling of sexual harassment at the company was approved at the annual shareholders’ meeting on Tuesday.
The proposal requested an annual report that summarizes the number of sexual harassment cases investigated and their resolution, as well as results of any independent investigation into Microsoft’s executives, including co-founder Bill Gates.
A Wall Street Journal report, citing people familiar with the matter, earlier this year said Microsoft board members pursued an investigation into the billionaire’s prior romantic relationship with a female. Mr. Gates stepped down from the board last year.
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David Marcus, a longtime Meta Platforms Inc. executive who worked on messaging and led the company’s heavily scrutinized cryptocurrency initiatives, announced his resignation from the company on Tuesday.
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Business-software company Salesforce.com Inc. elevated Bret Taylor to the role of co-chief executive officer and vice chairman, as it issued third-quarter results, including a muted sales outlook.
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Zara’s parent company said it had appointed the daughter of the retailer’s founder as its new chairwoman, placing a little-known 37-year-old atop one of the world’s largest fashion chains.
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‘Sharing personal media, such as images or videos, can potentially violate a person’s privacy, and may lead to emotional or physical harm,’ Twitter said in a blog post Tuesday. PHOTO: ISOPIX/ZUMA PRESS
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Twitter Inc. said users will no longer be able to share private media, such as photos and videos, of another person without their permission, a move aimed at improving privacy and security.
“Sharing personal media, such as images or videos, can potentially violate a person’s privacy, and may lead to emotional or physical harm,” Twitter said in a blog post on Tuesday. “The misuse of private media can affect everyone, but can have a disproportionate effect on women, activists, dissidents, and members of minority communities.”
Twitter said it can take enforcement action when private media is posted without the consent of someone included in it. It said the change is part of its work to align its safety policies with human-rights standards and better prevent so-called doxxing, which is the publishing of private information online with malicious intent.
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Glencore’s coal mining operations at the Mount Owen Complex near Singleton, Australia, in October 2015. PHOTO: BRENDON THORNE/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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An activist investor has called on Glencore PLC to sell its thermal- coal business, pressuring the commodities giant to join other big miners in ditching the fuel.
Glencore is the last of the world’s large miners to retain a presence in thermal coal, a currently lucrative business but one seen by some as harmful to the environment. The company has said it plans to run down its thermal- coal operations by 2050 but remains committed meanwhile to the fuel, which analysts at Bernstein expect to generate 17% of earnings this year.
The activist, Bluebell Capital Partners, sent a letter to Switzerland-based Glencore earlier this month asking the company to separate its coal business, dispose of noncore assets and improve its governance. The measures, which also include the sale of Viterra, Glencore’s agricultural business, could help boost the company’s share price, Bluebell said.
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The last mile in the e-commerce delivery process looks like a windfall for real-estate owners. Industrial properties in general have enjoyed strong rent growth and record-low vacancies during the pandemic. An increase in online shopping has furthered the trend, creating greater demand for warehouses to hold ordered items.
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