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


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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Posted in Antitrust & Business Practices (Global), Ethisphere Blog, Government Contracting & Relations, Most Popular, News & Events, Vendor Relations/Ethical Sourcing, must_readComments (1)

Indian Retailer Boycotts Cadbury Products for Alleged Price Discrimination


Cadbury products will no longer be sold by India’s largest retailer, Future Group, as Future’s chief executive Kishore Biyani has accused the nation’s largest chocolate manufacturer of price discrimination. He has accused Cadbury of cutting

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Posted in Antitrust & Business Practices (Global), Ethisphere Blog, Finance & Fraud, News & Events, Vendor Relations/Ethical Sourcing, must_readComments (0)

Local Supplier Bribes Ikea Managers With £1.3million


A British businessman and two Ikea managers pleaded guilty on Sept. 7 to charges dealing with bribery. Adam David Hauxwell-Smith, owner of Godfrey and Warner Ltd, a company that sold items such as potpourri, candles and picture frames to Ikea, admitted to giving £648,000 to John Brown, a purchaser for Ikea, and £243,437 to [...]

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Posted in Corporate Compliance, Europe, Finance & Fraud, General, International/FCPA, News & Events, Vendor Relations/Ethical SourcingComments (0)

Barclay screens suppliers for corporate social responsiblity practices…a sign of things to come?


In hopes of setting the standard in its industry, banking powerhouse Barclays recently began a new trend in corporate responsibility. This will include screening £1.5 billion in supplier expenditures.
The company introduced a “corporate responsibility supplier questionnaire” last year with a goal of ensuring that Barclays “engages with the right suppliers and that they have [...]

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Posted in Corporate Citizenship, Environment Health & Safety, Europe, Vendor Relations/Ethical SourcingComments (1)

Nabors Industries joins the FCPA internal investigation party


Houston oilfield services company, Nabors Industries, became the latest oilfield services firm to launch an internal review in response to a federal investigation into possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
In a filing with the SEC, Nabors said, “We are reviewing certain transactions with this vendor, which provides freight forwarding and customs clearance [...]

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Posted in Africa, Corporate Compliance, DOJ, Finance & Fraud, International/FCPA, Vendor Relations/Ethical SourcingComments (0)

Fisher-Price recalls nearly 1 million “Made in China” toys over lead paint concerns


Fisher-Price has announced a recall of nearly one million Chinese-made toys over concerns of lead-based paint.
The worldwide recall affects 967,000 Nickelodeon and Sesame Street toys, including such popular items the Big Bird, Elmo, Dora and Diego characters.
In an interview with the Associated Press on Wednesday, David Allmark, general manager of Fisher-Price, said the problem was [...]

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Posted in Asia, CPSC, Corporate Citizenship, Environment Health & Safety, Product Liability, Recall, Vendor Relations/Ethical Sourcing, Workplace/Customer SafetyComments (2)

Home Depot fires four purchasing managers over kickbacks… part of a larger ethical culture problem?


Home Depot confirmed yesterday that it terminated four purchasing managers nearly two weeks ago for allegedly taking over $1 million in kickbacks from suppliers.
Reportedly, the three lower-level managers were taking large bribes from flooring vendors out of Asia in return for featuring these vendors’ products in Home Depot stores.
Home Depot is cooperating with law [...]

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Posted in Codes of Conduct, Company Property, Corporate Citizenship, Corporate Compliance, Finance & Fraud, Vendor Relations/Ethical SourcingComments (0)

Dean Foods sued for price-fixing…


As reported in the Dallas Business Journal, a group of dairy farmers has filed a series of lawsuits against Dean Foods and several other companies, including Dairy Farmers of America and National Dairy Holdings, accusing them of illegal price fixing and monopolization. The lawsuit says that, as early as 2001, Dean and [...]

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Posted in Antitrust & Business Practices (Global), Corporate Compliance, Corporate Ethics, Marketing Practices, Vendor Relations/Ethical SourcingComments (1)

Coke sues Danone, alleges South American “smear” campaign on the Internet


According to media reports, the Coca-Cola Co. has filed a criminal complaint against executives of French food and drink maker Danone, as well as its PR firm Euro RSCG. In this complaint, the company accuses them of orchestrating a smear campaign against Coke’s Dasani water brand in the Argentinian market – a violation of [...]

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Posted in Antitrust & Business Practices (Global), Conflict of Interest, Corporate Citizenship, General, Learning Moment, Marketing Practices, South America, Vendor Relations/Ethical SourcingComments (1)

French retailing giant Carrefour SA fined for false advertising of low prices


French company Carrefour SA, the second-largest retailer in the world behind Wal-Mart, has been fined $2.7 million by a French regional court for:

below-cost selling in certain situations;
illegal collusion with suppliers;
advertising prices on products which were later not sold at that price in the stores;
promoting products with special prices, but not having sufficient quantities of the [...]

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Posted in Antitrust & Business Practices (Global), Corporate Ethics, Europe, Marketing Practices, Vendor Relations/Ethical Sourcing, must_readComments (0)

Adecco and L’Oreal busted for discriminatory job recruiting in France


As reported in the UK’s Guardian and BBC News, global cosmetics giant L’Oréal and its outside employment services firm Adecco were found guilty last week of racial discrimination after they sought to exclude non-white women from promoting a line of shampoo.
The French campaign group SOS Racisme brought the case against the Garnier division of [...]

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Posted in Careful Communications, Corporate Compliance, Corporate Ethics, Employment Law & Discrimination, Europe, General, Learning Moment, Marketing Practices, Most Popular, Vendor Relations/Ethical SourcingComments (2)

Our holiday travel advice if you’re hitting the roads: DUCK and COVER!!!!


Actually the proper term from the nuclear cold war drill of the 1950s is “duck, cover and roll.” However, the “roll” part seems inappropriate today as Online Tire Review (yes, there really is such a website – www.tirereview.com) broke the news yesterday that Foreign Tire Sales (FTS), the New Jersey importer at the center [...]

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Posted in Asia, Learning Moment, Product Liability, Recall, Vendor Relations/Ethical SourcingComments (0)

Supervalu ordered to pay $16 million for allegedly forcing customer out of business


A former Richmond grocer who was once hailed as the nation’s most successful minority grocer was awarded $16 million by a jury from a lawsuit in which he accused grocery giant Supervalu of forcing him out of business. Jonathan F. “Johnny” Johnson’s suit claimed that Supervalu defrauded him by singling him out, then extending high-interest [...]

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Posted in Antitrust & Business Practices (Global), Corporate Compliance, Vendor Relations/Ethical SourcingComments (0)

U.S. Foodservice executive gets 7 years in the slammer for orchestrating Ahold fraud


What compels a person to commit a fraud worth $800 million? Mark Kaiser, former Chief Marketing Director for U.S. Foodservice, insisted to a federal judge that in his own case, it wasn’t “fueled or driven by greed.” U.S. District Judge Thomas P. Griesa disagreed – he sentenced Kaiser to seven years in prison for [...]

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Posted in Corporate Compliance, Europe, Finance & Fraud, Marketing and Consumer Data, Vendor Relations/Ethical SourcingComments (1)

Coke endeavors to improve water recycling


Quiz: How many liters of water does it take to produce a two-liter bottle of Coca-Cola?
Answer: 5.08
In response to criticism that the company contributes to water shortages in the emerging markets in which is operates, Coca-Cola announced a set of water-recycling and environmental initiatives with the goal of becoming “water neutral”.
According to [...]

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Posted in Corporate Citizenship, Corporate Ethics, Environment Health & Safety, Vendor Relations/Ethical SourcingComments (2)

Euro-retailing giant Marks & Spencer outlines 100-point plan to profit through ethics…


Marks & Spencer has made quite a splash in announcing a detailed plan to do business “more ethically”. M & S’s announcement was met with a flurry of press, including a thorough piece from the BBC.
At the core is a 100-point five-year plan to re-engineer itself to become a carbon neutral, zero-waste-to-landfill, ethical-trading, [...]

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Posted in Corporate Citizenship, Corporate Ethics, Environment Health & Safety, Europe, Governance Boards & CEOs, Marketing Practices, Vendor Relations/Ethical Sourcing, must_readComments (0)

Burger King hugged by PETA and the Humane Society?


In the “should have seen that coming category” of news, Burger King grabbed the mantle of ethical leadership in the fast-food industry and ran off with it. The company announced a series of food supply chain initiatives that could appeal to its customers, including:
- increasing purchasing of eggs produced by free range chickens, with a [...]

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Posted in Corporate Citizenship, Corporate Ethics, Environment Health & Safety, Vendor Relations/Ethical SourcingComments (0)

Jail time for ‘employing’ illegal immigrants (*plus $12 million fine)


Maximino Garcia, president of a company that employed hundreds of illegal immigrants in Wilmington, Ohio, was sentenced to fifteen months in jail and ordered to forfeit $12 million in gains yesterday by U.S. District Judge S. Arthur Spiegel.  According to prosecutors, through his company (Garcia Labor Company Inc.), Mr. Garcia had more than 900 illegal immigrants using invalid Social [...]

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Posted in Employment Law & Discrimination, Vendor Relations/Ethical SourcingComments (0)

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