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The Ethisphere Blog offers an insightful and comedic look at the news and commentary from the world of ethics and compliance.

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Last Entry: October 22, 2009 at 15:10:27

Pinkerton Government Services Pays $1 Million for False Claims

Posted on October 22, 2009
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...

Former Stanford Clients Sue Willis Group for Alleged Fraud Participation

Posted on October 22, 2009
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...

SEC to Penalize CEOs Regardless of Role in Company Fraud

Posted on October 22, 2009
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 Publishes First Annual ?Green Rankings?

Posted on October 22, 2009
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...

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More Competition Busting in EU, Recent Raids Focus on ?Special Glass Sector?

Posted on October 22, 2009
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 [...

Trial Begins for Film Producers Accused of FCPA Violations

Posted on August 26, 2009
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 [...

McDonald?s Tests New Sustainability Initiatives

Posted on August 26, 2009
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 [...

Eastman Kodak Pays $21.4 Million Settlement over Racial Discrimination

Posted on August 26, 2009
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...

Garment Manufacturer Pays $1.7 Million for Age, Nationality and Pregnancy Related Discrimination

Posted on August 26, 2009
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...

Garment Manufacturer Pays $1.7 Million for Rampant Discrimination

Posted on August 06, 2009
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...

Bus Company Pays $650,000 for Idling Busses

Posted on August 06, 2009
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 [...

Indonesia?s Anti-Corruption Chief Accused of Orchestrating Murder

Posted on July 27, 2009
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...

Sanofi-aventis Pays $95.5 Million to Settle False Claims

Posted on July 27, 2009
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 [...

Mattel?s 2007 Toy Recall Lead to $2.3 Million Fine

Posted on July 27, 2009
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 [...

Former Valspar Chemist Charged with Stealing Trade Secrets

Posted on July 27, 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...

Former Employee Sues AIG over Retaliation for Reporting Alleged FCPA Violation

Posted on July 27, 2009
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...

McDonald?s Encourages Suppliers to Cut Use of Pesticides

Posted on July 27, 2009
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...

Bank Exec Says He Was Fired for Questioning Boss?s Salary

Posted on July 27, 2009
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 [...

Obama Signs Expansive New Fraud-Busting Bill

Posted on May 21, 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 the False Claims Act (FCA)...

Privately-Held Company Found Liable for SOX Violation

Posted on May 14, 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 [...

Former Valspar Chemist Charged with Stealing Trade Secrets

Posted on May 14, 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...

Anonymous Hacker Blackmails Virginia Department of Health

Posted on May 14, 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...

DOE Employee Justifies Performance Award by Self Evaluating Performance

Posted on May 14, 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...

Adidas, Michelin and Total Investigated for Tax Fraud

Posted on May 14, 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...

?Say-on-Pay? Gaining Momentum amid Financial Crisis

Posted on April 23, 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 [...

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

Posted on April 23, 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 [...

Cadbury to Save Environment by Reducing Cow Burps

Posted on April 23, 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...

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

Posted on April 23, 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...

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

Posted on February 25, 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...

Lost Laptop Costs Veterans Affairs Department $20 Million

Posted on January 28, 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 active [...

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

Posted on January 26, 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. The latest in a decade-old lawsuit, today’s ruling upheld the decision of a lower court that had to decide whether [...

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

Posted on January 21, 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 from possible improper payments to his Political Action Committees from companies that had received bond payments from [...

Study: Corruption Goes Up as Economy Goes Down

Posted on January 16, 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. Today?s financial crisis allows the opportunity for many research based organizations to publish studies on just that...

Former Blackstone Exec Accused of Insider Trading

Posted on January 15, 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.” Schwarzman, CEO of asset management firm Blackstone Group, was referring to charges that the SEC brought against 33-year-old Managing Director Ramesh [...

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

Posted on January 14, 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 each [...

Private Equity Firms Don?t Live Up to Voluntary Code for Transparency

Posted on January 13, 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 [...

DOJ Goes After Foreign Controlled Money for FCPA Violations

Posted on January 12, 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 of this money was allegedly paid from a U...

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

Posted on December 18, 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. In 2000 Markopolis was a former employee of a rival firm to Madoff’s, and later in 2004 [...

New Disclosure Rules Announced Between Government Contractors and Federal Agencies

Posted on December 15, 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. Specifically, an amendment to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (?FAR?) became operational that henceforth requires all contractors to ?timely? disclose certain violations of law [...

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

Posted on October 22, 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...

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

Posted on October 16, 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. WPP alleged that Benatti secretly took for his personal gain the majority of the proceeds from a �17 million takeover [...

Two Vietnamese Reporters Will Be Tried For Writing About Corruption

Posted on October 13, 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,” even after their reports led to the conviction of nine people and forced the [...

European Commission Fines ?Paraffin Mafia? ?676 Million

Posted on October 03, 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. This means the wax industry is just below the elevator industry, the vitamin industry and the [...

Cephalon Fined $425 Million For Illegally Promoting Its Drugs Like ?Lollipops?

Posted on September 30, 2008
Cephalon agreed to pay $425 million on Monday in order to settle criminal and civil charges filed against the company for the way it marketed three of its drugs - Actiq (a painkiller), Gabitril (an epilepsy drug) and Provigil (a sleeping drug), according to a story by Reuters, and published by The Guardian...

French Alcatel Executive Bribes Costa Rican Government, Then Nailed For FCPA Violations In U.S.

Posted on September 24, 2008
Just in case you forgot that the U.S. government applies the FCPA to foreign companies that operate within the United States, here is a reminder. Christian Sapsizian, a French citizen and former executive of Alcatel, was sentenced to three years in prison, three years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit $261,500 after [...

Two NASCAR Officials Fired Over Racial Discrimination and Sexual Harassment

Posted on September 22, 2008
Two NASCAR officials have been fired as part of an ongoing, $225 million, racial and sexual discrimination lawsuit. The two employees, Tom Knox and Bud Moore, are accused by Mauricia Grant of “exposing themselves to her, and making graphic and lewd jokes,” according to the Associated Press...

With A Compliance Officer Like That, Who Needs Shady Employees?

Posted on September 17, 2008
The ongoing Alstom bribery probe has already expanded to at least four continents and possibly uncovered hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes, but insult was added to injury when Swiss prosecutors announced that Alstom’s former compliance officer was arrested for operating a slush fund at the heart of the case, according to a story [...

DOJ: Corporations Can Again Provide Legal Assistance to Employees Without Fear

Posted on August 28, 2008
The U.S. Department of Justice announced new Departmental guidelines today that repeal restrictions to attorney-client privilege between corporations and their employees embroiled in federal cases. These new guidelines will prohibit the DOJ from punishing companies for providing their employees legal assistance, such as paying lawyers’ fees or protecting privileged information between employees and corporate [...

Price Fixing Mixed Into Egyptian Cement Industry

Posted on August 26, 2008
Twenty executives from the Egyptian cement industry were fined $1.87 million each after being found guilty of price fixing. Each of their respective companies will be fined an additional $1.87 million. According to the Daily News Egypt, this trial was the first of its kind, as the country’s anti-monopoly laws went into effect [...

China Displaces UK In ?Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Indices?

Posted on August 19, 2008
China knocked the United Kingdom out of the top five countries considered most attractive for investment in renewable energy, according to a quarterly report released by Ernst & Young. In fact, the two countries simply switched places–the UK is now listed at six, just behind Spain (tied for fourth with China)...

Be Ethical And You Can Pay Your Employees Less

Posted on July 22, 2008
According to a new joint study from Stanford University and the University of California Santa Barbara, 97 percent of recent MBA grads are willing to chop $15,000 a year off their starting salary if their company practices good CSR. According to BusinessGreen...

High-Profile Chinese Insider Trading Trial Begins

Posted on July 22, 2008
Saturday marked the commencement of a trial in Southern China for the former president of Guangfa Securities, China’s sixth largest stock brokerage firm, over allegations of insider trading that began in 2006. At that time, Chinese authorities accused Dong Zhengqing of tipping off a reverse merger between Guangfa Securities and Yan Bian Road Ltd...

30 Months in Prison for Spamming Over One Million AOL Users

Posted on July 16, 2008
The sentence came in yesterday for a New York man who plead guilty to sending spam email messages to over 1.2 million AOL users in a way that avoided being noticed by the company’s spam filter. The messages were used by Adam Vitale, 27, to try and sell a computer security program in return [...

Man Earns Nearly $47 Million for NOT Firing Employees

Posted on July 14, 2008
An Ohio jury awarded $46.7 million to a former general manager of Republic Services, a waste collection company, after it found he was wrongfully fired. Ronald Luri was asked to fire three employees, all over the age of 60, and he refused, arguing that doing so would constitute age discrimination...

Anti-Corruption Officials Discovered Taking Bribes

Posted on July 09, 2008
Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission reported yesterday that it uncovered a number of its own officials taking bribes while on the job, where they were supposed to try and curb bribery themselves. The Commission says it will “take action” against the 28 officials, including sending 11 of them to court, according to a report published on [...

McKesson Faces $15 Billion Racketeering Lawsuit

Posted on June 25, 2008
Bad news came to McKesson Corp. yesterday in the form of a ruling by U.S. District Judge Patti B. Saris. Judge Saris certified a number of 2005 suits by the New England Carpenters Health Benefits Fund as class action, and allowed them to

Transparency International Names Worst Fighters of Corruption

Posted on June 24, 2008
A new report released today in Berlin by Transparency International (TI) ranks 34 countries in regard to their overall corruption-fighting efforts, with some surprising results. The bottom four? Britain, Italy, Japan and Canada. According to TI, the four countries had “practically no investigations or extremely

U.S. Shareholders Enter EADS Fray

Posted on June 18, 2008
Last year, we wrote about insider trading allegations against a number of current and former European Aeronautic Defense & Space (EADS) executives. This has been a huge issue in Europe for quite some time, as EADS is one of the largest defense contractors in the world and the parent of Airbus...

Internet Service Providers Will Block Child Pornography Material

Posted on June 12, 2008
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

U.S. Supreme Court Restricts Whistleblower Protections

Posted on June 10, 2008
Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday unanimously in favor of restricting the whistleblower provisions of the U.S. False Claims Act. Now, the Court ruled, a whistleblower needs to prove that there was more than just a false statement involved in any sort of government fund or contract...

Oregon Wants a Cut of Adidas? Award

Posted on June 06, 2008
In 2005, Adidas AG sued Collective Brands, Inc., parent company of Payless ShoeSource, for selling shoes that have a triple-striped design similar to that of Adidas’ products. In early May, a federal jury in Oregon awarded Adidas nearly

Global Compliance: United Arab Emirates

Posted on June 04, 2008
If you?ve heard anything of booming global markets in the past few years, chances are that there has been some mention of the United Arab Emirates. This young nation comprised of seven Arabian states has experienced tremendous growth since its founding in 1971, in large part due to abundant natural resources, moderate foreign policy and [...

Indian Retailer Boycotts Cadbury Products for Alleged Price Discrimination

Posted on June 04, 2008
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

Ethisphere?s ?Driving Profit Through Ethical Leadership? Conference Underway, Interviews on CNBC

Posted on June 03, 2008
The ‘Driving Profit Through Ethical Leadership’ conference, which officially kicked off this morning in New York City’s Rainbow Room, has garnered some significant attention. You can take a look at CNBC’s interviews of PepsiCo America’s CEO John Compton and a nearly 15-minute interview with Steve Forbes

Anticlimactic Ending for News Corp Hacker Case

Posted on May 21, 2008
What started off as a media dream story (with the words “Rupert Murdoch,” “employs” and “hacker” all in the same headline) ended on a very anticlimactic, and somewhat humorous, note. Readers might remember the DISH Network lawsuit that hoped to receive nearly $1 billion in damages from

More of Johnson & Johnson?s Case Against the American Red Cross is Thrown Out

Posted on May 21, 2008
Last year, J&J sued the American Red Cross, alleging that the humanitarian organization unlawfully licensed its famous logo to companies that directly compete with J&J (we blogged about it here). Last week, a federal judge threw out the majority of

Willbros Group Settles FCPA Allegations

Posted on May 19, 2008
Willbros Group, Inc. and its subsidiary, Willbros International, agreed to pay $32.3 million in a settlement with the Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve allegations of FCPA violations. Of that

Weyerhaeuser Loses Antitrust Suit, Ordered to Pay $28 Million

Posted on May 02, 2008
A Portland jury awarded plaintiffs $28 million today in a now four-year-old class-action antitrust lawsuit against North American lumber company Weyerhaeuser. The jury said that the company violated antitrust laws through high prices and buying unnecessary amounts of lumber to prevent their competition from getting

Boeing and Airbus Work to Improve Airline Industry CO2 Levels

Posted on April 30, 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

News Corp Subsidiary Allegedly Hired Hacker to Develop Piracy Software

Posted on April 28, 2008
EchoStar Communications, the parent company of DISH Network, filed a corporate espionage lawsuit against News Corp’s NDS Group, alleging that the firm hired one of the “two best hackers in the world” to hack into DISH’s satellite network and steal the company’s security codes, according to a report by Reuters...

New Deloitte Poll Finds Under a Third of Companies are Increasing FCPA Controls

Posted on April 23, 2008
FCPA investigations are a dime a dozen these days, but a new Deloitte poll shows that most companies don’t seem to be reacting. The study found that only 32 percent of respondents to the Deloitte online poll acknowledged that they were stepping up their internal FCPA controls to

Government Closes Loopholes in FAR Regulations

Posted on April 21, 2008
A new bill that will further regulate the federal acquisition process, called The Close the Contractor Fraud Loophole Act, was approved by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last week, according to a report by Federal Computer Week, and is now

Alleged Stripper Price-Fixing in the Land Down Under

Posted on April 17, 2008
More proof that price-fixing can take place in any industry: the owner of Adult Fire, an Australian company that puts on various X-rated strip shows for men and women, sued two of its Sydney rivals, Bombshells and Sex Bomb Promotions, for price-fixing...

Oilman Sues BP and Others Over Alleged FCPA Violations

Posted on April 16, 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 [...

South Africa Cracks Down on Possible Food Industry Cartel

Posted on April 09, 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...

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

Posted on April 08, 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 [...

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

Posted on April 07, 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

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

Posted on April 04, 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

IBM Banned From New Government Contract Work

Posted on April 02, 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 on the lower end of the rankings with a score of just over 50 (below standard). And guess what? Yesterday the company was temporarily banned [...

UK Employees Now Protected From Customer Sexual Harassment

Posted on April 01, 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...

3M Misrepresents Size of Tape

Posted on March 31, 2008
Thanks to a settlement announced last Thursday, 3M Company will have to change the labels of their tape products and pony up nearly $700,000 for allegedly misrepresenting the physical dimensions of their tape by six percent. 3M was accused of mislabeling its products by Fresno, California’s Division of Measure Standards, which brought suit against

Man Recieves 24 1/2 Year Sentence for Conspiracy to Give U.S. Defense Secrets to China

Posted on March 27, 2008
A whopper of a sentence came in on Monday for the Chinese-born engineer who last May was convicted of conspiring to hand over U.S. military secrets to China. Chi Mak, 67, was given 24 1/2 years for smuggling top secret data, acting as an unregistered foreign agent in the U...

Employee Fined $13,000 for Drunken Hacking

Posted on March 25, 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...

Surprise! Another Company is Being Investigated for FCPA violations. This Time it?s Shell.

Posted on March 18, 2008
Either investigative techniques used to uncover FCPA violations are improving, more companies are doing it or it’s just getting more attention from the DOJ. But whatever the reason, FCPA cases are a dime a dozen these days. The most recent alleged violator: Shell Oil...

Starbucks Takes Heat for Tip Sharing Policy

Posted on March 13, 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...

Stryker Finds New Trouble, This Time for FCPA Violations

Posted on March 11, 2008
Last year Stryker Corp came under fire for illegal payments to U.S. doctors. This year, that might be topped. The company announced in an SEC filing last month that it is being investigated by the Department of Justice for “possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act...

2007 was a Record Year for EEOC Complaints

Posted on March 06, 2008
In 2007, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) received the highest amount of discrimination complaints in five years, the agency reported yesterday. The EEOC noted it received approximately 7,000 more complaints in 2007 than 2006, about a nine percent increase...

?I Want to be a Whistleblower When I Grow up?

Posted on March 04, 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...

Bahrain Metal Company Accuses Alcoa of Bribery and Fraud

Posted on February 28, 2008
Alcoa was sued yesterday by Aluminum Bahrain BSC in a U.S. federal court for allegations of overcharging, fraud and bribery. Aluminum Bahrain BSC, better known as Alba, says it was overcharged by Alcoa for alumina (pictured), a key ingredient in creating aluminum...

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

Posted on February 26, 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...

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

Posted on February 21, 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 Motley Fool talks about Ethisphere and the 100 Most Influential?

Posted on February 20, 2008
A recent article in The Motley Fool discussed Ethisphere’s 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics 2007. The article touts Ethisphere’s list as an easy way to find socially responsible businesses. And this is true. Ethisphere’s rankings continue to grow in popularity and are becoming a measure of success for leaders who believe that ethics [...

H&M Stops Selling Australian Wool

Posted on February 19, 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...

Labor Department Proposes Changes to FMLA Regulations

Posted on February 15, 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 [...

Morrison Supermarket Fights Cartel Allegations

Posted on February 13, 2008
Wm Morrison, the UK supermarket chain, is suing the UK’s Office of Fair Trade (OFT) for libel after the OFT claimed Morrison was allegedly part of a 2002 milk cartel, and is demanding a judicial review of how the OFT is handling the case. Several food companies have come under investigation recently on charges [...

68 Million Reasons Why You Want to Report Bad Behavior

Posted on February 08, 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 conscious finally paid off when Merck agreed to pay $671 million to settle accusations of overcharging government programs such as [...

Ex-Wellpoint CFO David Colby?s Firing for ?Non-Business Nature? Clarified

Posted on February 06, 2008
One day you’re labeled the “best health-insurance chief financial officer for each of the past four years” by Institutional Investor, the next you’re frantically texting “ABORT!!” to one of your many girlfriends/fiancees, hoping that your double life isn’t discovered...

Alpha Mining Systems Wins $19.7 Million from Trade Secret Theft

Posted on February 04, 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...

Mattel is Recovering from Toy Recall

Posted on February 01, 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

Lahmeyer International Loses World Bank Support because of Connection with Lesotho Highlands Water Project

Posted on January 31, 2008
The World Bank announced it won’t be giving any more money to Lahmeyer International after the company was found guilty of bribing officials responsible for lending contracts for the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, a multi-billion dollar operation...

Fly the [Environmentally] Friendly Skies

Posted on January 29, 2008
Air France today announced a pledge to spend $3 billion annually (until 2020) to cut carbon emissions and noise levels for its aircraft. The company is also hoping to cut fuel consumption by 15 to 20 percent within five years. You can see a bunch of other numbers over

BASF and Bayer Investigate Alleged Price Fixing Charges

Posted on January 23, 2008
It seems the chemical and pharmaceutical industries haven’t exactly been the most ethically-minded these days. Both BASF SE and Bayer AG announced they will begin an internal probe into allegations by the World Bank that the two companies engaged in a price fixing scheme for an anti-mosquito pesticide sold in India...

Ocean Plundering Meets the 21st Century

Posted on January 23, 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...

Chevron Donates $30 Million to U.N. Backed Global Fund

Posted on January 22, 2008
Chevron announced yesterday it will be giving its largest single donation in company history to the United Nations backed Global Fund, a program that helps to fight AIDS and other infectious diseases throughout the world. This also marks the largest single donation to the Fund by a company, which makes Chevron the Global Fund’s [...

Siemens Could be Fined up to 4 Billion Euros by U.S. SEC

Posted on January 21, 2008
The European engineering firm Siemens just learned that it might be fined as much as ?4 billion (close to $6 billion) by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission as the result of a large bribery investigation that began in 2006. The number is about three times the amount of bribes that were uncovered [...

Norway Really Wants to Become Carbon Neutral

Posted on January 18, 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...

Major Pharmaceutical Companies Raided by EU Officials

Posted on January 17, 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 unexpectedly visited by the EU [...

Chocolate Companies Come Under Scrutiny for Price Fixing

Posted on January 16, 2008
Choco-giants Hershey, Nestle, Cadbury and Mars have come under scrutiny from the U.S. and Canada over allegations of price fixing. The companies have already handed over documents to the Canadian authorities, and Bloomberg reported back in December ‘07 that U...

Green Washing at its Best

Posted on January 14, 2008
Stop the presses! Al Gore, the Sierra Club, and environmentalists everywhere are going to need to find a new hobby because global warming has just been stopped. Limousine Eighteen, the international ?ground transportation company,? has purchased one hybrid SUV for their fleet of ground vehicles...

Drug-Maker Amgen is Accused of Shady Sales Dealings

Posted on January 14, 2008
Two former sales representatives for Amgen have brought suit against the company, alleging it used questionable and illegal sales tactics to help push sales of its psoriasis-treating drug, Enbrel. The suit alleges that Amgen pressured its sales team to 1) obtain physician’s records for patients suffering from psoriasis and 2) encourage insurance companies to reimburse [...

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

Posted on January 11, 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...

Singapore Exterminator Exchanges ?All the Best? Wishes with Competitors, then Fined for Bid-Rigging

Posted on January 10, 2008
This week, the Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS) issued its first ever bid-rigging fine to six pest control firms. The companies were found guilty of coordinating their bids for six extermination contracts and rotating which firm would offer the lowest...

Lockheed Martin Agrees to pay $2.5 Million for Racial Discrimination

Posted on January 08, 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 discrimination...

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

Posted on January 04, 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...

Californian Sues Staples and HP Over Price-Fixing

Posted on December 21, 2007
Staples and HP have been sued by a California man, who accuses the two of price-fixing. Ranjit Bedi claims that HP approached Staples, asking that the company stop selling third party ink cartridges for HP printers. In turn, Bedi claims, Staples was given over $100 million in market development funds to only sell HP [...

Hollywood Couple is Charged for FCPA Violations

Posted on December 21, 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...

The UK Warns of Potential Security Threat from Chinese-Sponsored Hackers

Posted on December 11, 2007
Jonathan Evans, the head of the UK’s MI5, recently sent a letter out to 300 British business leaders warning them to be wary of a possible Chinese espionage attack. Since then, the UK’s Times has reported that both Rolls-Royce and Shell have already been hit by “sustained spying assaults” from Chinese government-backed hackers...

Update: Conrad Black?s Sentence Comes In

Posted on December 11, 2007
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 contrary...

Former United Health CEO to Forfeit $620 Million

Posted on December 10, 2007
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 [...

Upon Further Review, Stolt-Nielsen is Safe

Posted on December 05, 2007
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...

Target Aims to Eliminate PVC from Several Product Lines

Posted on November 16, 2007
Target became the most recent retail company in the United States to announce it would end the use of polyvinyl chloride (more commonly known as PVC) in some of the products it sells, most notably children’s paraphernalia like eating utensils and lunch boxes...

Neelie Kroes is Fighting Around the World

Posted on November 14, 2007
She’s mad as hell and she’s not going to take it anymore…and now she’s going to “fight like hell” to do something about it. Apparently a record-breaking fine of $1.3 billion against elevator cartels didn’t get the message across as clear as she’d like (note: fines levied against cartels could be as steep as [...

Brit Wins First Ever Discrimination Claim for Being ?Too Young?

Posted on November 14, 2007
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...

DHB Industries? Former CEO Indicted by the DOJ

Posted on November 06, 2007
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 [...

Oil Spill Fines Come Through for BP and ConocoPhillips Subsidiary

Posted on October 26, 2007
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 Settles the Latest in Ortho Evra Related Death Suits

Posted on October 25, 2007
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...

Companies Not Always Recognized for ?Green? Efforts

Posted on October 24, 2007
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...

Hormel Sues Campbell over Misrepresentation of ?Stew?

Posted on October 24, 2007
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...

Rude Awakening for Cisco Systems When Over 600 Federal Agents Knocked on the Door

Posted on October 19, 2007
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...

Ongoing Price Fixing Scandal ends with Pratt?s Admission of Guilt

Posted on October 18, 2007
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 [...

SEC Steps up FCPA Enforcement and International Companies Feel the Burn

Posted on October 17, 2007
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 companies, [...

Former LDK Solar Co. Employee Blows Whistle On ?Inconsistent? Finances

Posted on October 17, 2007
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 [...

Swedish Policeman Avoids Donuts, Goes Straight for the Savory Tart

Posted on October 17, 2007
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)...