Those pesky Romulans!

You may not be old enough or nerdy enough to remember the Romulan cloaking device from the original Star Trek.  But I do/am.

“Fake Signals and Illegal Flags: How North Korea Uses Clandestine Shipping to Fund Regime,” The Wall Street Journal, November 29, 2018 (online). How do shipments still arrive in and leave from North Korea, notwithstanding the various sanctions on the regime there?  Apparently, it’s blue smoke and mirrors.

I raise this here for two reasons.  First, in the North Korean story this is a bunch of information being generated that is deliberately false, and the compliance types struggle to deal with it in order to enforce the applicable rules.  The enforcers use satellites and data analytics; the shippers use deception and semi-legal and illegal stratagems.

Second, what extremes might your employees go to to avoid being detected when they are doing something they know is wrong, and how well prepared are you to deal with it?  Do you have the proper controls and investigative procedures?  What should you look at to confirm that what you’re being told is true?

 

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Filed under Collect, Compliance, Compliance, Compliance (General), Controls, Corporation, Data quality, Directors, Duty, Employees, Governance, Information, Internal controls, Management, Oversight, Policy, Supervision, Third parties, To report, Use

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