Ethisphere News and Commentary Blog

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Boeing and Airbus Work to Improve Airline Industry CO2 Levels

April 30th, 2008

Though the two transatlantic rivals may be bitterly fighting for the rights to a U.S. government contract, Boeing and Airbus do see eye-to-eye on one critical issue: cutting the carbon dioxide emissions from their planes. Both companies are aggressively working towards developing

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Oilman Sues BP and Others Over Alleged FCPA Violations

April 16th, 2008

The CEO of Denver-based Grynberg Productions is trying a new strategy to escape possible FCPA violations: suing a bunch of his rivals. This month Jack Grynberg, the eponymous chairman of the oil company, sued British oil company BP, BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward, Former BP Chief Executive John Browne, Norway’s Statoil and others, accusing […]

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South Africa Cracks Down on Possible Food Industry Cartel

April 9th, 2008

The South African Competition Commission decided that there have been so many reports of price fixing involving producers of bread, milk and other food items that they’re just going to go ahead and probe the entire South African food industry, according to a report by sabcnews.com. The Commission will focus primarily

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Tesco Sues Thai Dissenters for Speaking Out Against Its Expansion in Thailand

April 8th, 2008

A Thai Member of Parliament (MP) and a newspaper critic face millions of dollars in damages and significant prison time after being sued for libel by Tesco, the UK’s largest retailer, according to a story by the Guardian Newspaper. Both were sued for saying that Tesco, known as Tesco Lotus in Thailand, is expanding […]

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Jury Awards Ex-Kelly Employee $6.5 Million for Religious Discrimination

April 7th, 2008

A former Kelly Services employee, Lynn Noyes, was awarded $6.5 million by a Sacramento federal jury on Friday after suing the company for reverse religious discrimination. She argued that a less qualified employee earned the manager position that she was seeking because he was a member of

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Naturalized U.S. Citizen Caught Allegedly Attempting to Give Trade Secrets to China

April 4th, 2008

Who says random airport searches don’t work? United States customs officials discovered that Hanjuan Jin, 37, a China-born U.S. citizen, was allegedly trying to leak confidential trade secrets from her former U.S. employer to a China-based rival when they searched her luggage at

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IBM Banned From New Government Contract Work

April 2nd, 2008

Two weeks ago, in the last edition of Ethisphere Magazine we rated and ranked the ethics programs of some of the largest U.S. government contractors. IBM was

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UK Employees Now Protected From Customer Sexual Harassment

March 31st, 2008

A new law in the United Kingdom will protect employees from sexual harassment beyond just coworkers and bosses, now extending to “customers, suppliers and others they encounter in the course of their work,” according to a story in the UK’s Guardian. Well, technically the punishment still goes to employers if they are aware of […]

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Employee Fined $13,000 for Drunken Hacking

March 25th, 2008

Indiana resident James M. DiBlasio woke up to more than a hangover the morning after a three-day drinking binge. At some point during the 72 hours that he was drunk he managed to hack into the Denver-based server of his employer, Ski.com, and change various data such as flight reservations and contact information. […]

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Starbucks Takes Heat for Tip Sharing Policy

March 13th, 2008

Tipping is an activity so fervently argued and debated in the United States that entire books have been published on tipping etiquette. Those who have worked for tips argue for it, those that haven’t argue against it, and both sides tend to leave the debate unsettled and more angry than when they started. […]

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“I Want to be a Whistleblower When I Grow up”

March 4th, 2008

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 […]

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Flowserve Pays $10.6 Million for Abusing Iraqi Oil-for-Food Program

February 26th, 2008

Will there ever be an end to the Oil-for-Food abuses? Flowserve Corporation announced last Thursday that it will pay nearly $10.6 million to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice for violating the United Nation’s Iraq Oil-for-Food humanitarian program. A Dutch and French-based subsidiary of the company, Flowserve […]

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Germans Evade About 30 Billion(Euro) in Taxes Each Year

February 21st, 2008

The large percentage of Germans that regularly avoid taxes isn’t terribly surprising, considering the nation’s top income tax rate is 45 percent and the tax laws are notoriously confusing, according to Bloomberg. Nevertheless, the problem is huge for the country and getting worse. The issue is making a lot of headlines right now, […]

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H&M Stops Selling Australian Wool

February 19th, 2008

H&M is the second largest retailer in Europe and has stores around the world, and now it no longer accepts wool from Australia. This came about after the Australian wool industry showed signs of hesitation on its plan to stop mulesing sheep by 2010. Though H&M admittedly uses only a “very small […]

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Labor Department Proposes Changes to FMLA Regulations

February 15th, 2008

On February 11th, the United States Department of Labor announced its proposed changes to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) - changes that have been in the works for quite some time. For those unfamiliar with the act, it was brought about in 1993 and permits workers to take unpaid leave for serious […]

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68 Million Reasons Why You Want to Report Bad Behavior

February 8th, 2008

Seven years ago H. Dean Steinke, a rising employee and former district sales manager for Merck, put his career on hold by blowing the whistle on his former employee’s unethical marketing practices. Today, his conscience finally paid off when Merck agreed to pay $671 million to settle accusations of overcharging government programs such as […]

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Alpha Mining Systems Wins $19.7 Million from Trade Secret Theft

February 4th, 2008

A Florida man has been found guilty of dishing out company trade secrets from his former employer, Alpha Mining Systems, to competitors. Alpha, a global manufacturer of industrial mining tires, won a $19.7 million judgment against Sam Vance, the company’s former sales and marketing manager. The judge ruled that Vance gave competitors more […]

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Mattel is Recovering from Toy Recall

February 1st, 2008

Remember all those Mattel toy recalls last year? Apparently it didn’t cripple the company as much as some experts predicted. The Motley Fool posted an interesting article yesterday on the tenuous recovery of the company. Mattel’s fourth-quarter earnings are up 15% over last year, and the stock price - still drastically

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Ocean Plundering Meets the 21st Century

January 23rd, 2008

For several years, Ernesto Tapanes was a simple, ordinary “oceanography survey consultant,” doing contracting work for the treasure-hunting firm Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. One spring day in 2007, however, his life abruptly changed when he discovered an anomaly off the coast of Gibraltar. Upon further investigation, it turned out to be a sunken

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Norway Really Wants to Become Carbon Neutral

January 18th, 2008

Norway may have been beaten to the punch by Vatican City, but in a long-standing tradition of doing things better than the rest of us, the “Land of the Midnight Sun” clearly hasn’t given up its goal of becoming carbon neutral before everyone else. Originally slated to become a “zero-emission” state by 2050, the […]

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Major Pharmaceutical Companies Raided by EU Officials

January 17th, 2008

Several major pharmaceutical companies were raided by European authorities yesterday as part of an investigation into whether or not they colluded to keep prices of their drugs high after their patents had expired. The UK’s Financial Times reports that Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca and Sanofi-Aventis were some of the companies

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Former Attorney General John Ashcroft’s Firm Earns No-Bid Deal from New Jersey Federal Prosecutor

January 11th, 2008

Joining private life hasn’t saved former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft from public scrutiny. He’s back in the spotlight after New Jersey top prosecutor Christopher Christie recently gave Mr. Ashcroft’s consulting firm, the Ashcroft Group, the contract to monitor a settlement between Zimmer Holdings, a medical supply company, and the Department of Justice. […]

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Lockheed Martin Agrees to pay $2.5 Million for Racial Discrimination

January 8th, 2008

Last week, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced one of the largest settlements ever in an individual case. It went against (if you can call a settlement “against”) Lockheed Martin, forcing the company to pay $2.5 million for knowingly looking the other way on alleged racial

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What do you Call Taking 1,000 Chinese Government Officials on Vacation?

January 4th, 2008

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 […]

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Hollywood Couple is Charged for FCPA Violations

December 21st, 2007

A new case this week proves that the FCPA doesn’t just cover the back offices of large, powerful businesses. Even individuals and small businesses can and will be prosecuted for violations. Gerald Green, a Hollywood producer, and his wife Patricia were arrested for allegedly bribing a Thai official as much as $1.7 million […]

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