Mike J. Masoud | October 19, 2026 A board of directors may consist of accomplished, independent, and highly respected individuals. But what happens when none possesses sufficient knowledge to question the financial, operational, and governance information presented by management? Consider two boards facing comparable corruption risks. Both review financial statements,...
Mike Masoud | September 14, 2026 Organizations devote considerable attention to deciding who should have authority. Boards appoint executives. Governments designate public officials. Institutions delegate approval rights. Committees receive mandates. Managers acquire discretion. But there is a more difficult question: What tells us that the person who has been given...
Mike Masoud | September 8, 2026 An organization may possess a robust internal control system—complete with clear approval rules, segregation of duties, due diligence, audit trails, and escalation procedures—yet remain dangerously exposed when a powerful executive can quietly switch those safeguards off. That is the true threat of management override:...
August 17, 2026 Boards and senior decision makers are surrounded by information. They receive reports, presentations, risk assessments, legal opinions, audit findings, forecasts, dashboards, and recommendations. They also ask questions. Yet neither the volume of information nor the existence of questions guarantees a sound decision. A critical issue is often...
Mike Masoud | July 15, 2026 Money laundering risk is not limited to banks, casinos, or financial institutions. Ordinary businesses may also be misused to move, disguise, justify, or return illicit funds. The risk may appear in a customer payment, vendor invoice, refund request, third-party payment, or transaction that seems...
Mike J. Masoud | July 3, 2026 Governance failure does not always begin with silence. Sometimes it begins with questions that sound responsible but fail to test the substance of what matters. “Was it approved?”“Was the policy followed?”“Was the report submitted?”“Did management review it?” These questions may be useful, but...
Mike Masoud | June 20, 2026 A company can have a 100% training completion rate and still be indicted six months later. That isn’t a coincidence. It’s a predictable outcome of how most anti-corruption training is built. Thousands of organizations require this training every year. Employees attend. Certificates are issued....
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