At our firm, spring basketball is a time honored tradition—right up there with our summer John Hughes movie day or Monday fight club at Lou Savarese’s Main Street Boxing Gym. Unfortunately, it usually falls when many of our clients are planning their annual risk assessments. This makes it difficult for us to follow all of the games and keep up with risk assessment planning. Three years ago, we came up with an innovative fix for this problem. We put together a risk assessment compliance bracket (and wrote an article about it – of course!). And, when reality television stars pass for Presidential candidates, our approach now seems prescient.
Chapter Eight of the United States Sentencing Guidelines requires a company to periodically assess the risk of criminal conduct and take appropriate steps to reduce such risks. Similarly, the compliance framework set forth in the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) Guidance emphasizes regular risk assessments as an integral part of an effective compliance program. According to the FCPA Guidance, risk assessments should focus on the most significant risks a particular company faces. Risk assessment results should guide a company’s allocation of resources and compliance program development.
