Foreign Bribery Payment Controls Register

PROBLEM: On 22 October 2020 Goldman Sachs agreed to pay more than $2.9 billion to resolve DOJ and SEC Foreign Corrupt Practices Act charges over the 1MDB scheme; the SEC found violations of the anti-bribery, internal accounting controls and books-and-records provisions, and the bank's Malaysian subsidiary pleaded guilty to conspiracy. The DOJ cited the bank's failure to voluntarily disclose, the duration of the scheme and deficiencies in its compliance programme and internal controls.

SOLUTION: An IBM Cloud Ideas compliance improvement that maintains a foreign-bribery payment-controls register: high-risk payments, intermediaries and approvals are logged with their business justification, compliance review and supporting documents, so control gaps are visible to auditors before a payment is released.

EVIDENCE BASIS: DOCUMENTED — DOJ/SEC, 22 Oct 2020: Goldman Sachs agreed to pay over $2.9B to resolve FCPA charges over 1MDB; SEC found anti-bribery, internal accounting controls and books-and-records violations; Malaysian subsidiary pleaded guilty.