Ethisphere News and Commentary Blog

Ethisphere Blog

Obama Signs Expansive New Fraud-Busting Bill

May 21st, 2009

President Obama today signed into law the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009 (FERA), a bill that extensively ramps up anti-fraud measures, including authorizing new funding to fight fraud, adding protections to federal whistle-blowers and expanding the power of

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Privately-Held Company Found Liable for SOX Violation

May 14th, 2009

Sarbanes-Oxley’s ever expanding sphere of influence grew further in April when the Department of Labor ruled that private companies that perform work for public companies will now held accountable under SOX.
The ruling came after a complaint was filed with OSHA by an in-house attorney who worked for a publicly traded company (the attorney’s name and [...]

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Former Valspar Chemist Charged with Stealing Trade Secrets

May 14th, 2009

In March, the FBI’s Chicago field office arrested a 52-year-old former employee of Valspar Corp, and charged him with theft of company secrets. The former employee, David Yen Lee of Arlington Heights, Ill., faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Valspar was tipped off to the theft after Lee [...]

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Anonymous Hacker Blackmails Virginia Department of Health

May 14th, 2009

Employees of the Virginia Department of Health Professions received an unwelcome surprise in February, when an anonymous hacker changed the organization’s homepage to a virtual ransom note.
According to the online note, the hacker claimed to have stolen 8.3 million patients’ personal information in Virginia, deleted any back up files of the information and demanded $10 [...]

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DOE Employee Justifies Performance Award by Self Evaluating Performance

May 14th, 2009

A former Department of Energy employee pleaded guilty to one count of false statements, after the Department of Justice accused him of writing his own annual review. He did so, according to news reports, in order to justify an annual performance award that he also managed to give himself.
According to the DOJ, no individual [...]

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Adidas, Michelin and Total Investigated for Tax Fraud

May 14th, 2009

In April, French President Nicolas Sarkozy ordered investigations into Liechtenstein bank accounts used by Michelin, Total and Adidas as tax havens. The move, intended to coincide with the recent G20 agreement to curb international tax shelters, began four months ago and was focused on accounts held by subsidiaries of the large companies.
Michelin and Total [...]

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“Say-on-Pay” Gaining Momentum amid Financial Crisis

April 23rd, 2009

Dan Amos, CEO of Aflac, is already famous for implementing say-on-pay measures within his company (Read his thoughts on say-on-pay in the Quarter 4 issue of Ethisphere Magazine). Other companies now seem to be warming up to the idea as well. Both Intel and Hewlett-Packard have acknowledged that they would be willing to take up [...]

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Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric, Agrees to Eliminate Multi-Million Dollar Bonus

April 23rd, 2009

Many companies have come under scrutiny for their head-scratching behavior amidst the financial downturn, specifically those that lay-off thousands of employees while their leadership accepts ever increasing, multi-million dollar bonuses. At the same time, however, there are many companies that haven’t made as dramatic of headlines for the way their leadership has voluntarily given up [...]

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Cadbury to Save Environment by Reducing Cow Burps

April 23rd, 2009

If you hadn’t heard by now, around 20 percent of our planet’s greenhouse-gas emissions come from cow “emissions.” Cadbury has decided to tackle this challenge head on and encourage cows to burp less in order to reduce the carbon footprint of the company’s chocolate products.
Experts say that nearly two-thirds of all carbon emissions involved in [...]

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Ex-CIA Official Sentenced to Three Years Prison For Improperly Awarding Contract

April 23rd, 2009

Kyle Foggo, who previously held the number 3 spot at the CIA from 2004 to 2006 was sentenced to three years after pleading guilty to one count of fraud. According to the New York Times, Foggo is the highest ranking CIA official to ever be convicted of a crime.
Prosecutors say that Foggo would accept tens [...]

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Verdict is doubled due to HR Director’s Lack of FMLA Knowledge

February 25th, 2009

A federal judge doubled the verdict awarded to an employee who was found to have been fired in violation of the Family and Medical Leave Act. The employee, Melissa Brown, said that she was fired because she told her employers at Nutrition Management that she was pregnant.
According to Scott Murray, Nutrition Management’s Human Resources [...]

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Lost Laptop Costs Veterans Affairs Department $20 Million

January 28th, 2009

The Veterans Affairs Department agreed to a $20 million settlement yesterday, after concerns of identity theft arose from a 2006 case of a lost laptop and external hard drive. A VA analyst admitted to losing the laptop, which contained the names, birth dates and social security numbers of over 26 million veterans and

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Taco Bell Loses Appeal, Still Has To Pay $42 Million For Chihuahua Concept

January 26th, 2009

A federal appellate court ruled today that Taco Bell, and not its ad agency TBWA, is responsible for the $42 million payment to the original creators of the now famous Taco Bell Chihuahua mascot.

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Bernie Who? Municipal Bond Antitrust Schemes Could Put Madoff Fraud To Shame

January 21st, 2009

Earlier this month, Governor Bill Richardson decided to withdraw his nomination for commerce secretary in order to, in his explanation, avoid making a spectacle out of the confirmation process. The unnecessary distraction, he feared, would come about

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Study: Corruption Goes Up as Economy Goes Down

January 16th, 2009

It’s well known that during times of financial hardship, crime goes up. So no one should be surprised that corporate crime goes up during a recession.

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Former Blackstone Exec Accused of Insider Trading

January 15th, 2009

“I am both saddened and outraged,” Steve Schwarzman wrote in a message to Blackstone employees on Tuesday. “The SEC has brought a civil complaint today against Ramesh Chakrapani in our Corporate Advisory Services Group.”

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Whole Foods Reaches Out to Competitors to Help Dispute Anti-Trust Charges

January 14th, 2009

Team of Rivals? Not Quite. In response to a series of 2007 FTC antitrust suits, Whole Foods has asked 96 of its U.S.-based competitors to hand over sensitive company data. John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, believes the information will help fight the 29 separate lawsuits it is facing – one for

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Private Equity Firms Don’t Live Up to Voluntary Code for Transparency

January 13th, 2009

In 2007 a Code of Conduct for transparency and disclosure was drawn up for the private equity industry in the United Kingdom. It was created, and still remains, as a voluntary code that firms can agree to sign onto at their leisure. Unfortunately, even after signing up voluntarily, many firms didn’t fully comply

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DOJ Goes After Foreign Controlled Money for FCPA Violations

January 12th, 2009

The Department of Justice announced last week that it filed a forfeiture action against approximately $3 million in accounts held in Singapore. The DOJ alleges that this money was used to pay off officials in Bangladesh. The kicker is that some

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Could The SEC Have Uncovered Madoff’s Scheme Eight Years Ago?

December 18th, 2008

A great piece in the Wall Street Journal today discusses the dedicated efforts of a Mr. Harry Markopolos in trying to alert the Securities and Exchange Commission to the Bernard Madoff ponzi scheme as early as 2000.

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New Disclosure Rules Announced Between Government Contractors and Federal Agencies

December 15th, 2008

The following information comes courtesy of David Laufman at Kelley Drye:
On Friday, a new mandatory disclosure rule took effect that dramatically alters the legal dynamic between government contractors and federal agencies.

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J&J Paid at Least $68.7 Million In Ortho Evra Related Settlements

October 22nd, 2008

Regular Ethisphere readers are aware of a number of issues that have affected Johnson & Johnson in the past, namely the (still ongoing) problems with their Ortho Evra birth control patch. Along those lines, Bloomberg published an interesting story claiming that Johnson & Johnson has paid - at a minimum - $68.7 million in [...]

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Is The Battle Between WPP And Its Former Director Finally Over?

October 16th, 2008

An amusing story in the Times Online this week reports that uber-advertising company WPP and its former Italian director, Marco Benatti, have privately settled an ongoing dispute involving libel, wrongful termination and interoffice romance.

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Two Vietnamese Reporters Will Be Tried For Writing About Corruption

October 13th, 2008

Two journalists who were arrested last May after reporting on corruption within the Vietnamese government are set to go on trial next week. The two reporters, Nguyen Van Hai and Nguyen Viet Chien, are charged with “abusing freedom and democracy,”

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European Commission Fines “Paraffin Mafia” €676 Million

October 3rd, 2008

The European Commission announced on Wednesday that it had levied the fourth largest fine against a cartel in the history of the EU. This time, it came out to €676 million and went against the wax industry.

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