22Feb
We published an article in the November 2011 edition of the newsletter of the Association of International Arbitration .
The Association for International Arbitration (AIA) works towards the promotion of alternative dispute resolution (ADR). AIA focuses on arbitration as a means of dispute resolution and strives to bring together the global community in this field, including judges, lawyers, arbitrators, mediators and academics as well research scholars and students.
Our article provides a short summary of our global expertise in the field of arbitration, alternative dispute resolution and dispute resolution support.
You can find the November 2011 issue of the newsletter here.
Tags: AIA, Arbitration, Dispute Analysis & Investigations
03Feb
With the 2012 World Economic Forum in Davos just behind us, Transparency International reflect on some of the evolutions in the global corporate community in terms of transparency, corruption, bribery and perception of people around the world.
TI sees the need for companies to consider new approaches and new business models in light of the persistent global economic woes and ever growing public dis-trust in corporations around the world.
Well worth the read: TI – Corporate Transparency: Old Problems and New Ideas
Tags: Compliance, Corruption, Economic Crime, Fraud, Fraud prevention, Prevention, TI, transparency, Transparency International
05Jan
Interesting publication from the UK Serious Fraud Office providing comments on the impact of anti-fraud and anti-corruption legislation. It provides insights into current international legislation and related implications. Additionally it provides hands-on information regarding the management of forensic investigations and the implementation of preventive measures.
Serious Economic Crime: A boardroom guide to prevention and compliance
Tags: Compliance, compliance audit, Economic Crime, Fraud prevention, Prevention, Risk Management, UK Bribery Act
30Nov
Belgian businesses are increasingly falling victim to cyber-crime. The trend is revealed by PwC’s ‘Global Economic Crime Survey 2011’. This bi-annual study, now in its sixth edition, in which 3,877 organisations have taken part worldwide, investigates fraud occurring within businesses and other organisations as committed both by staff and by customers and suppliers.
In Belgium, 84 undertakings, including 36 listed companies, participated in the survey. Of the Belgian organisations faced with economic fraud in the past year, no fewer than 44% (23% globally) said that they’d fallen victim to cyber-crime. Misappropriation of assets continues to be the most common form of economic crime here just like elsewhere in the world.
A further striking conclusion from the survey is the great divide between perception and reality: businesses under-estimate their vulnerability and fall victim to economic fraud more often than they imagine. It continues therefore to pose a stubborn problem, and not a single sector is spared. Which is why businesses have to protect themselves better, given that the economic damage being done is enormous. For 1 in 10 companies (worldwide) that were faced with cases of economic fraud in the last 12 months, the losses topped five million dollars.
Please click the following links to see the different reports:
Tags: computer crime, cyber crime, Economic Crime, Fraud, GECS2011, Global Economic Crime Survey, Risk Management
16Oct
With information in mountain stacks of paper files coupled with financial records, electronic media, instant messaging, tweets and blogs are you able to locate specific information to support an inquiry?
Is the greater challenge in finding it or in missing it all together?
Tags: Dispute Analysis & Investigations, e-Disclosure, e-Discovery, Forensics, legal technology, Risk
02Oct
Granted, an audit is usually not perceived as a pleasant thing, but it doesn’t have to be a painful experience either.
Let’s imagine, for a moment, that you feel you have a rough idea what software is being used in your company. You have a robust security policy and more or less good guidelines on how software should be installed and used. But, you haven’t actually ever counted and verified against the contracts. Should you worry?
I am afraid the answer will be yes. Users often easily install software on corporate machines without giving it much thought. The company, however, can be held liable for this. But, the larger issues often lie within the server environment rather than the pc-environment. Due to the very nature of the software contracts and the rapid developments in IT, you can become heavily out of compliance by simple actions such as upgrading or changing a processor. As a result, a potential compliance audit by a software publisher may cause more disruption than desired and the findings may cause a small financial hangover. And if it doesn’t, you could worry that perhaps you have been spending too much on software.
For readers that just want to avoid worrying all together, maybe you want to think about a software asset management function. I will pick that up next time.
Cheers,
Sally
Tags: compliance audit, licence compliance audits, Risk, Risk Management, SAM, Software Asset Management, Software licence audits
24Sep
Good risk management at UBS, you say?
The Harvard Business Review seems to thinks not…
HBR: UBS Systems Failed the “Too Big to Fail” Bank
An eye-opening piece on risk management systems at UBS, which permitted this massive fraudulent trading to take place, without ever being detected.
Despite a recent and large scale overhaul and improvement.
Sort of makes you think, doesn’t it?
Tags: Fraud, Fraud prevention, Risk, Risk Management
22Sep
UK Bribery Act: the British act against corruption is not something that Belgian business can just ignore.
UK Bribery Act press release PwC
Tags: Corruption, Fraud, Fraud prevention, Risk, UK Bribery Act
22Sep
Suspected rogue trader held at UBS – Business News, Business – The Independent
An unfortunate example of what could go wrong when risk management procedures are inadequate. And not the first one either, like the article says:
- Jerome Kerviel at Soc Gen (£3.7 billion),
- Nick Leeson at Barings (£800 million),
- Yasuo Hamanaka as a copper trader (£2.4 billion).
Besides the financial cost to the organisations, reputations are at stake and they can take a long time to repair.
Let’s not forget, someone has to figure out exactly what happened here and how it was possible that it happened.
Tags: DA&I, Dispute Analysis & Investigations, Forensics, Investigations
22Sep
The Bribery Act 2010 received Royal Assent on 8 April 2010 and came into force on 1 July 2011. In addition to the two offences of active and passive bribery (paying and receiving bribes respectively), two specific offences are covered:
- Bribery of an overseas public official; and
- A corporate offence of ‘failure to prevent’ bribery.
With the Bribery Act the UK has one of the strictest anti-bribery regimes in the world and its reach is even broader than the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
What do you need to do?
As the Bribery Act will have implication for all businesses that are incorporated in the UK and for the businesses that carry on all or part of their business in the UK, it is of utmost importance to have a fully integrated and effective anti-corruption program.
In many ways the introduction of the Bribery Act could require a fundamental reassessment of the risks that a company is running and how those risks are addressed.
Tags: Corruption, Fraud, Fraud prevention, Risk, UK Bribery Act
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