The year 2020 seems to be the magic number for carbon reduction targets. Many companies have used that as the cut off point in their public commitments of reducing emissions and implementing new environmental initiatives. Brazil is the latest entity to join this race as the country recently announced it will reduce 36 [...]

The European Union has begun an investigation into whether or not Standard & Poor’s, the international credit rating company, has violated antitrust laws by overcharging its customers for the use of Cusip numbers. Cusip numbers, nine digit numbers assigned to companies’ securities in order to help track trades, are sold to companies by Standard [...]

The chief executive of a Vietnamese real estate investment company, Hoang Hai Ltd., was arrested for allegedly hiring a man to carry out an attack on the executive’s former deputy. The executive, Ngo Quang Truong, hired Vu Van Luan, who then allegedly hired five other men to help carry out the attack.
Police [...]

Pinkerton Government Services (PGS), a company that specializes in security, fire and emergency services for government agencies and contractor companies, has agreed to pay just over $1 million in order to settle allegations that it overbilled the government on health insurance costs.
PGS, a subsidiary of the large security firm Securitas Security Services, was [...]

A group of Latin American former clients of Stanford Financial Group have filed a lawsuit against Willis Group Holdings, the giant insurance broker, claiming that it aided in Stanford’s alleged $7 billion fraud. The lawsuit is seeking class action status on behalf of over 1,000 plaintiffs and asking for $1.6 billion in damages.
The clients [...]

The SEC has for the first time invoked specific claw-back provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act against a company CEO that was not directly involved in the company’s fraud scheme. Maynard L. Jenkins, the former chief executive of CSK Auto Corporation was ordered to reimburse the company and shareholders over $4 million that he earned [...]

Newsweek published its first annual Green Rankings in September, a list of the S&P 500 companies ranked and scored by the magazine for their environmental impact and reputation.
The list, which reportedly took 18 months to compile, was created with the help of environmental research groups, including KLD Research & Analytics, Trucost and CorporateRegister.com.
The top 5 [...]

Last year the European Commission levied billions in fines against cartels in the glass industry, this year it raided companies in the special glass sector under suspicion of cartel activity. The EC didn’t reveal the names of the companies it raided, but said special glass sector refers to companies that produce glass “used for [...]

Regular readers of Ethisphere will remember the two organizers of an international film festival in Thailand who were accused earlier this year of bribing government officials in order to obtain the rights to run the festival. Gerald and Patricia Green, established film producers, were accused of giving the former governor of the Tourism Authority [...]

In line with its ever increasing pro-environment initiatives, McDonald’s has implemented a number of recent sustainability programs to help reduce waste, water and energy use both with its restaurants and from its suppliers. The first initiative has been discussed before, but is still as important as ever: encouraging its suppliers to operate in an [...]

Ending a 2004 class-action lawsuit, Eastman Kodak Co. has agreed to pay a $21.4 million settlement over allegations that it paid and promoted black workers less than their white counterparts. The payment will be divided among 3,021 past and current employees. Kodak also agreed to implement measures such as enhancing its diversity training [...]

L&T Group of Companies, the largest employer of manufacturers in Saipan, will pay $1.7 million as part of a series of discrimination suits brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The discrimination was both blatant and rampant. According to the EEOC, L&T routinely discriminated based on the country of origin of its [...]

L&T Group of Companies, the largest employer of manufacturers in Saipan, will pay $1.7 million as part of a series of discrimination suits brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The discrimination was both blatant and

Paul Revere Transportation, LLC, a Boston-based bus company agreed to pay $650,000 in fines after the company was found liable of leaving its vehicles idle for long periods of time. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency brought charges against the company in June for violating the federal Clean Air Act and local Massachusetts laws against [...]

A ninth suspect has been charged over the murder of a Director of Indonesian pharmaceutical company Putra Rajawali Banjaran, turning a brighter spotlight on what is already a very high-profile case in Indonesia. The ninth suspect was no less than Indonesia’s head of anti-corruption, Antasari Azhar.
Antasari, Chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commision of Indonesia [...]

In late May, pharmaceutical company Sanofi-aventis agreed to pay $95.5 million in order to settle a charge that one of the company’s former subsidiaries intentionally violated the False Claims Act by over reporting the costs of some of its drugs.
In order to sell three of its nasal sprays—Azmacort, Nasacort and Nasacort AQ—to Medicaid, the company [...]

Regular readers of Ethisphere – or news in general, for that matter – will likely recall the 2007 hubbub over a recall of toys that contained dangerous levels of lead. At the center of the controversy were Mattel and its Fisher-Price subsidiary. In June of this year, the company agreed to pay a [...]

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 [...]

While American International Group has its hands full untangling the knots created by its Financial Products Division, another allegation has been raised against the embattled insurance giant. A former employee of AIG recently sued the company, alleging that she was retaliated against after blowing the whistle on payments made to the South Korean government.
The [...]

McDonald’s has agreed to take a number of steps to help reduce the use of pesticides in potatoes that it purchases from suppliers. The company agreed to the new practices after a shareholder resolution was introduced by the Bard College Endowment, Newground Social Investment and the AFL-CIO Reserve Fund. After McDonald’s announcement, the [...]

The former Chief Credit Officer of Citizens Republic Bancorp has filed suit against the company, alleging that he was fired in retaliation for questioning the former CEO’s compensation package.
The former employee, John Schwab, alleges in his complaint that he was informed by one of the company’s Directors that CEO William Hartman was requesting a bonus [...]

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

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]