Corporate Compliance Advisory

Corporations in every industry face a growing array of compliance obligations. In addition to anti-money laundering and anti-bribery/anti-corruption regulations, there are an increasing number of environmental, social and governance (ESG) requirements covering everything from board composition to data privacy. Furthermore, economic and trade sanctions pose a constantly shifting challenge given the global nature of supply chains, subsidiary holdings, and customer and banking relationships. 

Fulfilling these compliance requirements requires a complex mechanism that includes policies and procedures, training, whistleblowing channels, internal audit, escalation, response and disclosure. Complicating matters further, the mechanism must comply with regulations that differ across jurisdictions, and that may even be at odds with one another. 

Kroll’s Corporate Compliance Advisory practice helps organizations evaluate their compliance functions, prevent compliance breaches, and respond quickly and effectively should a breach occur. Our team includes professionals with regulatory and law enforcement backgrounds, forensic specialists, data analysts, corporate compliance officers and senior practitioners from international audit firms. We have extensive expertise in all major compliance areas, including anti-money laundering (AML), anti-bribery and corruption (ABC) and ESG. 

Kroll’s Corporate Compliance Advisory engagements are customized to address a range of client needs, including:

Compliance Assessment and Stress Testing

Our compliance assessments help companies critically examine how compliance is supported throughout the organization. We take a top-down approach, starting with how the board and its committees oversee compliance-related issues and interact with management. We then assess how compliance cascades throughout the organization, at both functional and operational level. Because we take a practical rather than a theoretical approach, we look beyond compliance procedures to focus on how compliance is actually followed within the enterprise. This enables us to identify deficiencies in the practical application of a compliance program, the resulting risks, and the root causes that must be addressed. 

Compliance Optimization

Working from the findings of our compliance assessment and stress testing, we can then make specific recommendations tailored to the company and its culture, industry and geographical footprint. These recommendations might include improving the response to whistleblowing allegations, creating and conducting training programs based on real-world scenarios, and suggesting changes to performance incentives to better align them with compliance obligations.

Compliance Breach Response and Remediation

No matter how effective a compliance program may be, there are unavoidable instances where fraud, bribery and corruption, or other compliance violations occur, whether as the result of a compliance breach, a vulnerability inherited in an acquisition, or otherwise. In these situations, our Financial Investigations provides our clients’ in-house legal and compliance teams with the full range of Kroll’s global investigative capabilities to determine the extent of the violation, how it occurred, and recommended steps to address regulatory disclosures, investor and reputational concerns and other issues.

Case Study – On-Site Review of a Global Ethics and Compliance Program

Kroll undertook an independent on-site expert review of a global company’s ethics and compliance program to comply with an international agency’s procurement and ethics requirements.

Our review covered, amongst other issues, areas related to misconduct, bribery and corruption, fraud, money laundering, sanctions, training, whistleblowing and due diligence. 

Case Study – Fraud Risk Review for a European Company

Kroll was engaged by a European company to perform a review of historical fraud-related incidents, investigated potential similar occurrences and assessed the current internal control system. 

The review included an assessment of the effectiveness of secure and accessible confidential channels for reporting breaches of the ethics and compliance program and the procedures for remedial actions.

Case Study – Investigative Training Workshop for a FTSE 250 Company

Kroll undertook an engagement with a UK law enforcement agency to develop and deliver an investigative training workshop for a FTSE 250 company. 

The three-day intensive training was delivered on-site by Kroll and law enforcement representatives. Participants were provided with resources for the workshop and were required to complete written and oral examinations. Participants also received a certificate on successful completion of the training.

Case Study – Analysis of a Pharmaceutical Company’s FCPA Compliance Program

On behalf of a leading pharmaceutical and medical supply manufacturer, Kroll conducted a risk-based analysis of the company’s FCPA compliance program, as it related to its over 400 third-party distributors. 

Based on our analysis, we designed and implemented an FCPA integrity program, which included public records due diligence on each of the distributors, a risk analysis and ranking of the distributors, and an in-person FCPA training course.