Hui Chen Twitter Photo

Hawaii attorney general’s office hires nationally-known ethics expert

Star-Adv Feb 10, 2020: … Chen was the subject of a number of news stories in Washington., D.C. after she resigned in mid-2017, saying she could no longer force companies to comply with the government’s ethics laws when members of President Donald Trump’s administration were behaving in unacceptable ways.

“Trying to hold companies to standards that our current administration is not living up to was creating a cognitive dissonance that I could not overcome,” Chen wrote in a LinkedIn post at the time. “To sit across the table from companies and question how committed they were to ethics and compliance felt not only hypocritical, but very much like shuffling the deck chair on the Titanic.”

A CNN story noted that Chen had posted a picture of herself on social media protesting in front of the White House, but Chen told the cable news outlet she was very careful to avoid any politically inappropriate posts.

Trump’s firing of Comey weeks before Chen’s resignation was a turning point for her, she told the cable outlet.

“That really was stunning to me,” Chen told CNN. “I kept trying to picture a company telling us that we have a situation involving the CEO, where the lead investigator was told to ‘let it go,’ and then fired. That would not be a good story to tell the fraud section — that would not reflect well on your company’s compliance program.”

Comey was fired in May 9, 2017…

CW: In 2015 became the first-ever Compliance Counsel Expert at the U.S. Department of Justice

read … Hawaii attorney general’s office hires nationally-known ethics expert

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NEW CHIEF INTEGRITY ADVISER HUI CHEN

News Release from Office of Attorney General, Feb 10, 2020

HONOLULU – Attorney General Clare E. Connors announced today that Hui Chen is the new Chief Integrity Adviser for the Department of the Attorney General.

The Chief Integrity Adviser is a new position within the Department.  The Adviser reports directly to the Attorney General and her responsibilities include the Department’s policies and procedures, internal training programs, and ethics and conflicts reviews.  Additionally, the Adviser is a member of the Complex Litigation, Fraud, and Compliance Unit, and will be tasked with investigating, reviewing, and consulting on compliance issues within state government.

Chen is an internationally acknowledged leader in ethics and compliance issues.  She has held senior compliance positions in the technology, pharmaceutical and financial services industries and was the first Compliance Counsel Expert at the United States Department of Justice.  While there, she was a consultant to the Department of Justice Fraud Section, authored that section’s guidance document “Evaluation of Corporate Compliance” and consulted on all corporate monitorships conducted by that section.

“Not only has Hui worked with companies and regulatory authorities around the world to address ethics and compliance issues, she has extensive private and public sector experience,” said Attorney General Connors. “As my department continues its commitment to provide thoughtful improvement to the State of Hawaiʻi, I am delighted to welcome Hui to the team.”

Chen attended the University of California Los Angeles, where she earned a B.A. and earned her law degree from the University of California Berkeley School of Law.

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