CEA Regulatory Compliance & Legal Ethics Flashcards
6 cards from real CEA practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 6 CEA Regulatory Compliance & Legal Ethics flashcards as text
What ethical obligation does a compliance officer have when they discover that senior management is concealing a regulatory violation?
Answer: Escalate the matter through available channels, including the board or external regulators if necessary
A compliance officer's duty is to the law and the organization's integrity, not to protect individuals — escalation, even to external authorities, may be required.
What is the ethical significance of 'materiality' in financial and compliance disclosures?
Answer: It defines the threshold at which information is significant enough that a reasonable investor or regulator would consider it important
Materiality is a core concept in disclosure ethics — omitting material information can mislead stakeholders even if the omission is technically legal.
Under the US Federal Sentencing Guidelines, what is the benefit of having an effective compliance and ethics program when an organization faces sentencing?
Answer: The organization may receive a reduced culpability score, leading to lower fines and penalties
An effective compliance and ethics program can reduce an organization's culpability score under the Guidelines, directly lowering the range of fines.
Which of the following best describes an attorney's ethical duty of candor to a tribunal under US professional conduct rules?
Answer: Attorneys must not make false statements of fact or law to courts and must correct prior falsehoods
Rule 3.3 of the ABA Model Rules prohibits attorneys from making knowingly false statements to courts and requires correction of prior misrepresentations.
What is the purpose of an 'ethics and compliance risk assessment' in a regulatory context?
Answer: To systematically identify, prioritize, and mitigate the legal and ethical risks most likely to affect the organization
Risk assessments direct limited compliance resources to the highest-probability and highest-impact ethics and legal exposure areas.
How does the concept of 'respondeat superior' create ethical obligations for organizations under US law?
Answer: It holds employers legally responsible for employee actions within the scope of employment, creating an organizational duty to prevent misconduct
Because organizations can be held liable for employee misconduct, they have both a legal and ethical duty to create systems that prevent and detect wrongdoing.