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 [...]

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

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.

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.

Three of the largest internet service providers agreed on Wednesday to block child pornography newsgroups and other related materials from their servers, according to a report by the Associated Press. The three companies

Becoming a whistle-blower is now a financially sound career move, thanks to the UK’s Office of Fair Trade (OFT). The British watch dog announced last Friday that it will offer as much as £100,000 for information leading to the discovery and dismantling of illegal corporate cartels. The OFT will offer the rewards for [...]

Bribery, according to the DOJ. Lucent technologies helped wrap up a DOJ investigation on Tuesday by agreeing to pay $1 million for FCPA violations. From 2000 to 2003 the company reportedly spent over $10 million on about 315 various trips for approximately 1,000 Chinese government officials. This included all expense paid trips [...]

conradblack.jpgConvicted of defrauding Hollinger International last July, Canadian-turned-British media mogul Conrad Black was sentenced yesterday to six and a half years in prison, fined $125,000 and forced to forfeit $6.1 million dollars. Mr. Black, aka Lord Black of Crossharbour, was allowed to keep his Florida home despite prosecutors’ requests to the

William McGuire, former CEO of United Health, agreed to give back about $620 million to resolve a government investigation into whether or not he illegally backdated millions of stock options. Sure, this is a hefty sum, but the blow is softened when considering McGuire still floated home with a billion dollar golden parachute, even [...]

Stolt-Nielsen’s amnesty has been reinstated and the company’s Chief Executive, Niels G. Stolt-Nielsen, is “pleased” that he doesn’t have to go to jail – a fate suffered by three top brass of the company’s co-conspirators in a 2002 antitrust case. This is the latest (and final?) development in an ongoing case of “he said, [...]

Yesterday, an Employment Tribunal in the UK ruled on the country’s first employment discrimination case involving a worker fired for being too young. The Tribunal sided with 20-year-old Megan Thomas, a former membership secretary at the Eight Members Club in London.  Ms. Thomas complained that her boss

David Brooks, the former CEO of DHB Industries, was recently indicted by the Department of Justice for insider trading, fraud, obstruction of justice and tax evasion. Even after all those charges, the most gripping piece of information is what Brooks allegedly spent company money on, including $101,500 on an armored vehicle for himself and [...]

Two major settlements relating to oil spills were reached this week. Polar Tankers, a subsidiary of ConocoPhillips, was fined $2.5 million dollars for an oil spill in the Pacific Ocean in 2004. A criminal penalty represented $500,000 of the fine, and the other $2 million went to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, a nonprofit [...]

Johnson & Johnson recently agreed to pay $1.25 million to settle allegations that its Ortho Evra birth control patch was responsible for the death of a 14-year-old Wisconsin girl. Just two weeks ago, J&J settled a separate lawsuit over a death allegedly caused by the patch as well. In fact, J&J has settled [...]

A new study discovered that U.S. and U.K. consumers want businesses to be more environmentally friendly, but have a hard time naming specific companies focusing on the issue. However, the study discovered a number of “big brands” in each country that are recognized for climate-change awareness more than others. In the U.K., those leaders [...]

Although this story is unique in and of itself, more interesting is what it brought to light: there are actually federal guidelines in place for what constitutes a “stew.” The USDA outlines the official government recipe for beef stew with language that seems better suited for a Monty Python sketch. “The beef stew shall [...]

Cisco employees in Brazil got a surprise when over 600 federal police and tax officers, armed with over 90 different subpoenas, stormed Cisco System’s Brazilian operations earlier this week. Their target was any information regarding the company’s alleged tax evasion, dodging an estimated $826 million. The raid was the dramatic climax of a two-year [...]

A major, two-year investigation into an alleged price fixing scheme in the land down under came to a close on Tuesday after Richard Pratt, Australia’s third richest man, admitted his role in the whole thing. What started as a hotel lunch in 2000 between Pratt, chairman of Visy, and Russel Jones, former CEO of [...]

While Neelie Kroes and the hard-hitting men and women of the European Commission are busy bruising up large corporations with fines for antitrust violations, it seems the United States is involved in its own crackdown. They’re on a mission to remind everyone that the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act doesn’t just apply to American

The major finance and business media missed this, but it’s big all the same. Ethisphere has learned that several days ago a former financial staff member of the Chinese company, LDK Solar Co. Ltd, has sent letters to company management alleging that he was terminated last month as financial controller because [...]

Okay, we love this story. Corruption is rampant in Sweden as police officer demands fruitcake in exchange for solving case of the missing trombone! Ethisphere readers know all about the pervasive problems of bribery and corruption in hotspots around the world such as China (bad), Russia (badder) and Nigeria (baddest).  But who would [...]

After investigating a former Enron employee’s high profile whistle-blower story, USA Today discovered she’s not everything she claims to be.

A federal judge sentenced four people today for administering unnecessary medical tests on elderly Vietnamese immigrants as part of a multimillion dollar Medicare scheme.

In a 93-page ruling last week a federal judge threw out an Oklahoma state law forcing companies to allow employees to bring guns to work.

Oral arguments in the much anticipated Stoneridge Investment Partners v. Scientific Atlanta Inc. and Motorola Inc. case began before the Supreme Court today.
The plaintiffs, shareholders of Charter Communications, allege that Scientific Atlanta and Motorola knowingly participated in a scheme with Charter to artificially inflate the company’s annual earnings.