Training Course Syllabus:

Effective Financial Compliance: How to Defend SEC and Financial Regulatory Enforcement Actions and Examinations: 2-Day Workshop by Former SEC Inspector

Course Description:

This course provides specific and concrete instruction on how to manage competing regulatory oversight and includes specific and hands-on advice on cultivating an ethical culture, managing whistleblower complaints, surviving several types of regulatory examinations, including SEC broker-dealer and investment advisor examinations, FINRA broker-dealer and investment advisor examinations, and CFTC and NFA examination of FCMs, defending both SEC and FINRA Enforcement actions, participating in the regulatory comment process, and defending FCPA claims.

The instructor, H. David Kotz, is the former Inspector General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), who held a senior position at the SEC during the financial crisis and the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act ("Dodd-Frank"). Mr. Kotz will draw upon his varied experiences at the SEC in teaching the class and will provide real-life examples of his tenure at the SEC, and his efforts to oversee the regulation put into place as part of Dodd-Frank.

Course Benefits:

Specific instruction on cultivating an ethical culture and managing corporate governance issues.
Specific instruction on how to respond to and manage whistleblower complaints.
Specific instruction on how to survive various types of regulatory examinations.
Specific instruction on how to defend governmental Enforcement actions.
Specific instruction on how to conduct internal investigations.

Learning Objective:

Learn how to establish policies and procedures to cultivate an ethical culture and manage corporate governance issues.
Learn how to establish a whistleblower program that can effectively respond to and manage whistleblower complaints.
Learn how to defend SEC and FINRA regulatory examinations.
Learn how to defend SEC and FINRA Enforcement actions.
Learn how to conduct internal investigations.
Learn how to conduct witness interviews in an internal investigation.
Learn how to gather evidence in an internal investigation.
Learn how to orally present the results of the investigation.
Learn how to prepare a comprehensive report of investigation.

Areas Covered:

Corporate governance
Ethics policies and culture
SEC Regulatory Examinations
FINRA Regulatory Examinations
Whistleblower Complaints
SEC Enforcement actions
FINRA Enforcement actions
Internal investigations
Fraud Investigations.

Topic Background:

Compliance professionals currently face a myriad of overlapping and confusing regulations and regulators. In the aftermath of the financial crisis, new regulations and increased aggressiveness on the part of regulators have led to growing demands placed on financial firms. The volume and pace of regulatory change causes new and diverse pressures on compliance functions. Over the years, the financial regulatory system has been modified to address various sources of potential financial instability and attempt to provide regulation and a structure for areas where there are purported regulatory gaps. With each new crisis, there are efforts made to address perceived weaknesses in the regulatory system. The result is a complex regulatory system in which federal agencies have overlapping jurisdictions. These structures have resulted in tremendous confusion on the part of compliance professionals who have to make decisions to allocate often scarce resources to compliance efforts necessitated by the overlapping regulatory schemes.

Course Outline:
Day 1 (8:30 AM – 4:30 PM)

8:30 – 9:00 AM: Registration
9:00 AM: Session Start Time

Corporate Governance
Creating Effective Policies and Procedures
Ensuring Accountability within an Organization
Red Flags of an Unethical Culture
Ethical Decision-Making
Comprehensive Case Studies
Whistleblowers and Whistleblower Complaints
How to manage complaints
How to deal with whistleblowers
How to put appropriate whistleblower policies and procedures into place
Comprehensive Case Studies
Defending Regulatory Examinations
SEC Examinations
Preparation for the Exam
Dealing with the SEC Examiners
FINRA Examinations
Preparation for the Exam
Dealing with the SEC Examiners
Comprehensive Case Studies

Day 2 (8:30 AM – 4:30 PM)

Defending Enforcement Actions
SEC Enforcement Actions
Commencement of the SEC Actions
Discovery
The Wells Process
Trends in SEC Enforcement
FINRA Enforcement Proceedings
Commencement of the FINRA Proceedings
Discovery
Conduct of the FINRA Hearing
Comprehensive Case Studies
Internal fraud investigations
Introduction and how to determine which investigations to conduct
Gathering Evidence
Collecting documents
Collecting electronic mail
Interviewing techniques
Strategies for conducting interviews
Mock interview exercises
Presenting the results of the investigation
Instruction on presentation techniques
Mock oral presentation exercises
Preparing a comprehensive report of investigation
Determining what to include in report
How to deal with exculpatory evidence
Comprehensive case studies

Seminar Summary:

This course provides specific and concrete instruction on how to manage competing regulatory oversight and includes specific and hands-on advice on cultivating an ethical culture, managing whistleblower complaints. (see full course description)

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