Have you seen complex investigations go wrong? Do you want to make sure your organisation safely addresses Bullying and Harassment cases? Does the phrase “it’s just banter” cause you to shudder? For investigators dealing with Bullying and Harassment cases, this terminology is all too common.
Join us as we discuss the nuances of bullying and harassment investigations. We will cover current trends, debunk myths, and review how the harm-centred approach can be adopted to make your investigations safer for everyone.
Participants will analyse a closed case, identifying what went well and what fell short. We will explore how to carry out safe investigations from disclosure to closure, and look at how organisations can integrate investigation insights to drive cultural change and promote accountability.
Agenda:
Day 1: Friday, 20th September 2024, 9.30 am – 12.30 pm (UK)
Welcome and Introductions
Introduction to the case study
Bullying and Harassment – key terms and definitions
Receiving Disclosures -viewing documents from this case and discussion of best practice
Interviewing – viewing a video and interview statements, and discussion
Myth busting – the harm-centred approach
Day 2: Friday, 27th September 2024, 9.30 am – 12.30 pm (UK)
Reminder of Day 1
Weighing up evidence and coming to a conclusion on a case – balance of probability approach in bullying and harassment cases
Viewing an investigation report activity
Bringing in the harm-centred and trauma-informed approach
Case closure and organisational culture
Learning Outcomes:
Gain more confidence to carry out bullying and harassment investigations
Be more familiar with a harm-centred approach and applying it in bullying and harassment investigations
Be more aware of risks and challenges in bullying and harassment investigations and how to avoid pitfalls and mistakes
On Thursday, 19th September join us for an insightful event exploring whistleblowing investigations.
Keynote Speech:
We will kick off the event with a keynote speech from Jo Gideon, Director and Vice Chair, Whistleblowers UK.
Case Study Examination:
We will take a look at the high-profile whistleblowing case of Jonathan Taylor, who blew the whistle at an energy company, to understand the challenges faced, the investigative process, and the ultimate outcomes.
UK Whistleblowers Bill Briefing:
This comprehensive briefing will cover the UK Whistleblowers Bill, discussing its implications for corporations and ensuring that attendees are well-informed about their legal obligations.
For or Against
Should whistle-blowers be paid? Join us in a lively debate as we hear from our colleagues in the UK and Europe.
Networking Opportunity
Meet and network with your colleagues who are working in this space. Share your experiences and learn from others in the industry to handle whistleblower cases more effectively within your organisation.
Whether helping large organisations prepare reasonable procedures or leading investigations when things go wrong, corporate investigators will be heavily invested in the successful implementation of the pending UK corporate ‘failure to prevent fraud’ offence.* The offence will apply to UK-based large organisations as well as offshore large organisations with business and/or customers in the UK.
But what are the views of investigators on general readiness for the new legislation? RSM and the ACi are launching a Fraud Offence Readiness Survey, giving you the opportunity to express your thoughts on the matter.
*Section 199 of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act, 2023.
Join the ACi with Ankura and Fieldfisher for an interactive workshop considering the restrictions and best practices for addressing legal and reputational risks arising at different stages of the investigations life cycle. The case study central to the in-person workshop encompasses allegations of misconduct, cross-border data collection challenges, regulatory considerations, and potential corporate financial fraud.
Participants will be split into small groups to assess and analyse a scenario based on a blend of real-life cases, whereby a Senior Business Leader is the subject of whistle-blower reports alleging bullying and harassment, with some claims suggesting potential financial fraud. Our subject matter experts will support participants through the process of successfully planning a complex and multi-faceted investigation, by walking through the following areas:
How to achieve effective, efficient and lawful data collection and analysis;
Considering a proportionate scope, and setting up appropriate investigation governance;
Key preliminary considerations, such as considering and recording the position around legal professional privilege, stakeholder management, considering mandatory and non-mandatory self-reporting, determining the status of key individuals, and communicating with subjects and witnesses;
Methodology and top tips for interviewing, with a focus on discharging the corporate duty of care, maintaining psychological safety, and vulnerable witnesses; and
How best to evaluate exposure, and adjust investigation objectives with regards to the relevant (or potentially relevant) legislation, regulations, and rules, as new matters come to light, and new lines of enquiry present themselves.
Throughout this training, Fieldfisher and Ankura will share their experience, drawing parallels to the case study scenario. The training will also be an excellent opportunity for you to network with peers from various industries – both during the session, and afterwards, whilst sharing a drink on Fieldfisher’s terrace overlooking the Thames.
This June we are reaching out to members to see if they’d like to get more involved with building the ACi. As you’re aware, the Executive Committee at ACi are all volunteers, who have full-time in-house investigations roles. The popularity of the Association means we are always on the lookout for subject matter experts who are willing to share knowledge and experience, and for investigations professionals who want to give back to the profession by reaching out to their networks to expand ACi’s mission.
With the war in Ukraine bringing unprecedented EU sanctions (restricted measures) against Russia this expert panel will discuss what this means for corporate investigators charged with investigating potential sanctions breaches for companies operating within EU member states.
Christoph Haid, partner, Schoenherr
Christoph joined the law firm in January 2004. He is a member of the EU & Competition department and co-heads Schoenherr’s Compliance & Investigations teams. On the competition law side, he has since been involved in numerous high-profile merger control proceedings before the Austrian competition authorities and the European Commission, and coordinated global merger control filings, particularly in CEE, where his focal point of work is. On the compliance side, Christoph is frequently involved in supporting clients to implement comprehensive compliance programmes, investigate perceived misconduct and respond to emergency situations.
Karen Williamson, Director, Deloitte
Karen has spent more than 15 years’ working in Forensics and specialises in investigations, predominantly focused on the Financial Services industry, including spending one year on secondment to the Financial Services regulator in the UK, the FCA.
Karen is a highly experienced Forensic accountant and investigator starting her career in the UK, before moving to Switzerland in 2019. Karen advises clients on matters ranging from fraud and misconduct investigations; allegations of conflicts of interest; bribery and corruption investigations; to Panama papers exposure analysis; tax evasion; and accounting investigations.
Darya Chub, Sanctions Compliance Project Counsel, BAT
Darya is a member of Central Trade Compliance Team focusing on the recent sanctions regulation evolution with primary responsibility for sanctions compliance matters.
Darya joined BAT in 2005 in Uzbekistan and since then has been responsible for supporting and counselling various markets ( Uzbekistan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Hong Kong, Global Duty Free and UK) and functions on legal and compliance issues. In her previous role, she has been principally responsible for compliance programme in Asia-Pacific Area and Global Travel Retail. She has been instrumental in transformation of Global duty-free compliance framework, setting it as a best practice example, compliant with ABC, AML, AFC and international sanctions regulation.
Jeff Giddings
Jeff has over 26 years’ experience leading and performing internal and external corporate investigations in the corporate sector, various United Nation’s agencies, and other international organizations. Currently, he is the Senior Investigator and Head of Investigations for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) – the world’s largest security-oriented intergovernmental organization.
The Association of Corporate Investigators is delighted to announce its 2022 one-day symposium on Thursday, 10th November 2022 in London. Our last Symposium event was held in 2019 so we are looking forward to bringing our investigations community back together for a day of learning, networking and sharing experiences.
This year, we are kindly hosted by Allen & Overy at their London offices. This year’s theme is ‘Every Detail Matters’. As investigators ourselves, we know how paying attention to the detail is vital in an investigation. So whether that be an understanding of the rules around legal privilege, or giving a whistleblower due care and attention, it’s the investigator’s job to conduct their enquiries legally, ethically and professionally.
We have designed our event with the same attention to detail to bring you an agenda that will inspire and inform – featuring topics such as Greenwashing and Conduct Investigations, E-Discovery, Crypto Investigations, Investigations Trends and Interviewing Techniques.
The day has been built with plenty of time for networking so that you can meet your investigations peers and discuss best practices.
As always places are limited so please book early to avoid disappointment.
Member In Person Ticket – £99 GBP
Non-Member In Person Ticket – £199 GBP
On Thursday, 26th May ACi proudly hosted its first Banking Investigators Forum event, kindly sponsored by Forensic Risk Alliance. The event was attended by banking investigators from 80 different banks and covered a range of issues, all of which had been selected by delegates as points of interest.
Our prestigious speakers included:
Colin Bell, CEO, HSBC
Stephen M Kohn, Managing Partner, Kohn & Kohn LLP
Jonathan Shatford, Head of Investigations, JP Morgan EMEA
Madalina Florea, Head of SM?MRT Investigations, Lloyds Banking Group
Michael Delf, Global Employee Conduct Director, Citibank
Charlie Steele, Partner, FRA
Dave Francis, Head of Litigation & Investigations, NatWest Bank Plc
Lorene Wiggin, Managing Investigator, NatWest Bank Plc
Gerben Schreurs, Partner, FRA
Jamie Brown, Executive Director, Head of Fraud Intelligence and Investigations, Standard Chartered Bank
Paul Carroll, Manager, Fraud Inestigations, Intelligence & Policy, TSB
Ronan Guckian, Deputy Head, Financial Crime Unit, KBC Bank
Magdalena Boskik, Head of RegTech and Crypto Compliance Services, Sygnum Bank
Katerina Androutsou, RegTech & Crypto Compliance Services, Sygnum Bank
Robert Clarke, Managing Director, Global Head of Investigations, Citibank
Cecillie Fjellhoy, romance scam victim
During the day, delegates grappled with a range of issues such as whether investigative interviews should always be recorded, the current crypto landscape and what it means for investigators, and skills and tools that investigators should have for successful outcomes.
The day was ably managed by Simon Scales who had the delegates giggling in their seats with his engaging and witty moderating style.
Feedback from attendees has been outstanding. For example one delegate said,
“The event was run really efficiently, the venue was excellent but mostly important the speakers and subject matter was just brilliant. Often I see people on their phones at lot at these events catching up with emails etc but as I looked around, like myself everyone was listening intently. It really was one of the best conferences I have attended in many years (ignoring the pandemic). Thanks to everyone involved, with a little special mention to Simon who I thought was amazing as an MC.Already looking forward to the next one, please keep my details within your database. I will be selling the events for you as I speak with all of my bank investigator contacts throughout the whole industry. So many of them would have benefitted and enjoyed yesterday.”
You can read our event programme here. Thank you to everyone involved especially our sponsor Trevor Wiles and the FRA team, Simon Scales, our speakers and not least of all the delegation who made it such a special event.
In this short video extract ACi members briefly discuss the Principles
ACi is delighted to announce the launch of its new Investigations Principles and Good Practice Guidelines guidance. This is the first wide-reaching practitioner-led Principles and good practice guidance developed for the global corporate investigations profession. These foundational Principles and Guidelines are the culmination of working group discussions with a highly diverse group of corporate investigation subject matter experts, both in-house and external, from various industries and sectors. They are intended to help guide the work of corporate investigators.
The ACi would like to thank all those who contributed subject matter expertise in our working groups, and our group leads Mary Eastwood Jones, Jeff Giddings, Patrick Wellens and content creator Esther-Gail Fraser. The following are some quotes from our members about the importance of our Investigation Principles.
Jeff Giddings, Senior Investigator at OSCE said, “Core principles and guidelines are foundations for a successful corporate investigative function. The ACi Principles and Good Practice Guidelines are fusions taken across the wide spectrum of ACi members. Given the multitude of industries represented in the ACi, it was a challenge in getting consensus for having succinct, yet inclusive, principles and guidelines. To my knowledge, this has never been accomplished until now, which demonstrates the strength and commitment of the ACi and its members. This is truly trailblazing.”
Patrick Wellens, Investigations Expert said,”The creation of the new Principles and Good Practice Guidelines fits perfectly in the mission of the ACi to professionalize Corporate Investigations. It is a major achievement to now have a common set of Standards and Good Practice Guidelines that can be applied across Corporate Investigators in any industry. I am personally very proud to have actively contributed to these documents.”
Ash Sharma, Group Investigations Manager, Anglo American, said, “Corporate Investigation is a unique profession. The Corporate Investigator might be asked to investigate financial crime, physical or psychological safety, health or environmental breaches, data and cybercrime amongst others. Corporation Boards, employees, investors, customers and the wider community expect the highest standards from these investigators. The ACi will ensure these expectations are met by educating, supporting and mentoring their members. The release of the ACi Principles and Good Practice Guidelines is an exciting achievement for the profession. I am proud to be part of this community and support the evolution of the profession.”
Steve Young, CEO, ACi, said, “Investigators are bound by the moral imperative to find the true facts. For me, the ACi principles underpin this obligation, which we all carry as members of the corporate investigations community. “
Mary Eastwood Jones, ED, ACi added, ‘The work we do carries great responsibility to establish the facts ethically- the consequences of a poorly or unfairly executed investigation can be devastating for the people and organisations involved. I am proud to be part of this first practitioner-led foundational project and am so grateful to all in our community who have collaborated and reached consensus to make this possible. The Investigation Principles are integral to conducting robust and ethical investigations, and are essential on our journey to professionalising corporate investigations.’
The nature of corporate communication is shifting, and that rate of change is accelerating—new channels and data types are continuously springing and it’s becoming increasingly easy for it all to be recorded and archived… somewhere. But how do you target and capture only the relevant information and quickly make sense of it when you do? The complexity and volume are now simply beyond human ability to keep up with.
In this session, experts will talk through the cutting-edge techniques and tools that are being applied to sift through rising data volumes from a host of different communication platforms and show you how in-house teams are easily applying powerful AI to zero in on and simply review the data most relevant to your matter.
Corporate investigation experts from Capital One and Lam Research will join to discuss the rising challenges they are seeing and how they are adapting their investigations practices.
Amelia is the Senior Manager, Product Marketing – Corporate Solutions at Relativity where she oversees the product marketing function for the corporate segment. With a background in finance, sales, strategic partnerships and marketing, Amelia is passionate about understanding the market and finding the most effective and resonant ways to meet customer needs. Always seeking to learn more, Amelia holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and earned her Bachelor’s Degree from Northwestern University.
Ben DeWitt, Senior Manager, Cyber Insider Threat & Technical Investigations eDiscovery at Capital One
Ben DeWitt is the eDiscovery Lead for Capital One’s Cyber Insider Threat and Investigations Program. With 15 years of eDiscovery experience, Ben and his team have a primary focus on the collection, processing, and analysis of evidence and the administration of technology solutions. He collaborates with investigative and legal partners to develop strategy for technology and workflows in support of internal investigations, government investigations, and corporate litigation matters. Ben is a certified Relativity Expert and Brainspace Analyst.
Nolan Robinson, Program Manager, Legal Operations at Lam Research
Kristin Sunderman, Litigation Support Director, Freddie Mac
Kristin Sunderman is the Litigation Support Director at Freddie Mac. Prior to joining Freddie Mac, Ms. Sunderman spent the last 20+ years in the industry working not only for law firms and corporations but also as an eDiscovery vendor. It is in the vendor world that Ms. Sunderman spent the bulk of her career. She started off in project management but quickly worked up to managing all of Operations. It is there that she focused on creating efficiencies, implementing automation and providing a development path for new eDiscovery specialists. Ms. Sunderman continues to focus on process improvements and development in her new role and prides herself on being heavily involved in mentorship and inclusion programs.
Moderator
Simon Scales
Simon’s extensive international experience in corporate investigations includes significant Employee Misconduct, Fraud, Bribery, Corruption, Antitrust & Competition, AML, Sanctions, Market Abuse and commensurate preventative / remedial measures. His 30 years of expertise in major investigation management, covert and overt intelligence gathering, relationship and stakeholder management, Ethics / Compliance / Integrity related investigations and reviews demonstrate his proven ability to facilitate consensus through negotiation and collaborate with senior management across all geographies. Simon is a visiting lecturer to a number of UK Universities and has articles published in leading UK, EU and US journals, newspapers and other international media, including Global Investigations Review, The Times (UK), The Guardian (UK), Le Monde (France), Washington Post (US) and the Law Society (UK). Having appeared on the BBC and CNN, he has provided editorial content and testimonies for those writing about the world of Fraud, Bribery and Corruption, and is in demand for his knowledge, experience and unique approach. Simon chairs significant industry recognised conferences on the subjects of Fraud, Bribery, Corruption, Ethics, Risk Management, Internal Control, IPR, Identity Theft, eCrime and Corporate Security.
