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corporate crime
by leon on March 1, 2008
Disgraced former Hollinger chairman Conrad Black has lost his last-minute appeal to stay out jail and will have to report to the slammer by Monday. He has been assigned to the US Bureau of Prison'...
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executive pay
by leon on February 29, 2008
Donations to charity are tax deductible. But what if they are in the form of backdated stock gifts?That seems to be the case in a new study from New York University finance professor David Yermack, r...
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corporate governance
by leon on February 28, 2008
More evidence that good governance delivers results.Portfolios with companies that have good corporate governance deliver 18% higher average share-price returns to investors than those without, accor...
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Information About
, markets
by leon on February 28, 2008
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke might be signalling more rate cuts to ward off recession but economists say the recession is inevitable. The only thing they can't agree on is what shape it...
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Ethics
by leon on February 27, 2008
How serious are private companies about saving the planet. Not very, according to a new global survey by accounting firm Grant Thornton.Grant Thornton's International Business Report 2008 has fou...
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SOX
by leon on February 27, 2008
How bad is the relationship between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board? What are the tensions? Can they actually work together to protect the mar...
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litigation
by leon on February 27, 2008
The enforcement division of the Securities and Exchange Commission brings between 400 and 500 civil enforcement actions every year for violations that include insider trading, manipulating market pri...
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risk
by leon on February 27, 2008
Fascinating figures out last week showing that Russia had eclipsed China as the world's biggest producer of malware. The US comes in at number three.As Joe Telafici writes in this latest McAfee n...
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corporate reputation
by leon on February 25, 2008
What impact do restatements have on the share price? Do investors pick up signals before the company decides to come clean? And how do companies that overstate their earnings perform before they actu...
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executive pay
by leon on February 25, 2008
In the past, I have talked about the appalling bonuses and huge pay packets handed out rewarding failure in the subprime crisis. Some examples here, here, here and here.But according to Nell Minnow, ...
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strategy
by leon on February 24, 2008
General Motors Corp Vice Chairman Bob Lutz has come out swinging after his put down of global warming in a closed-door session with journalists.At that session in January, Lutz described global warmin...
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markets
by leon on February 24, 2008
The subprime disaster is hitting insurers hard with Fitch Ratings saying US life insurers have an estimated $7 billion to $8 billion in unrealized losses on subprime, reports The Wall Street Journal....
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litigation
by leon on February 24, 2008
Move over wesley snipes. The Internal Revenue Service is suing Oscar-winning actor Nicholas Cage for using a Los Angeles-based company he owns "to wrongly write off 3.3 million dollars in person...
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Compliance
by leon on February 23, 2008
Société Générale has posted a massive fourth-quarter loss after maverick trader Jérôme Kerviel blew $7.2 billion in unauthorized trades but the bank seems to doing its best not to shoulder any of the...
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Compliance
by leon on February 22, 2008
Had a chat this week with Brett Curran, vice president of GRC and privacy practices at Axentis. He was in Texas, I was in Melbourne, Australia. But it was a great session. We talked about all the iss...
Read more of Interview with Brett Curran from Axentis
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litigation
by leon on February 21, 2008
Just another example of how out of touch the law is when it comes to technology with a US federal judge has tried shutting down the website Wikileaks.org. You can find details of the court order here...
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risk
by leon on February 21, 2008
With a top adviser warning the Australian Government that climate change is developing faster and more dangerously than previously anticipated, it's worth looking at how business leaders and gove...
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Compliance
by leon on February 21, 2008
At the beginning of this month, I did a blog entry on how foreign companies are now getting caught out in the increase in Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement actions brought by the Department o...
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corporate governance
by leon on February 20, 2008
Late last year, I did a blog entry on how media mogul Rupert Murdoch was rewriting the rules of corporate governance by appointing Natalie Bancroft, a 27-year old opera singer with little experience ...
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corporate crime
by leon on February 20, 2008
In the past, I have talked about delinquent communities here and here. The basic argument is that most corporate fraud involves a delinquent community of people aiding and abetting, either helping th...
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Accounting
by leon on February 20, 2008
I have always talked about how Sarbanes-Oxley has turned out to be a licence to print money for accountants. The last time I did that was here. The question is whether that would continue if or when ...
Read more of Are accountants recession-proof?
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risk
by leon on February 19, 2008
The fallout from the Société Générale implosion continues. Bloomberg reports that Standard & Poor's has downgraded the bank's long-term counterparty credit rating cut one level to AA- fro...
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Ethics
by leon on February 18, 2008
If you are looking around for ethical companies and business leaders, perhaps even scrounging around for some socially responsible investment, you could do worse than look at the latest edition of Et...
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SOX
by leon on February 18, 2008
Hat tip to the Whistleblowers Protection website for alerting us to a court ruling that a former senior employee of global consulting firm Accenture, who was stationed in Paris, can sue for damages u...
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Ethics
by leon on February 17, 2008
A huge scandal in Germany which is likely to roll right through the German corporate sector. Earlier during the week, German police raided the home and offices of Klaus Zumwinkel, the chief executive...
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SOX
by leon on February 15, 2008
Thought provoking piece Criminalizing Capitalism from Nicole Gelinas on the limitations of Sarbanes-Oxley.Gelinas makes the point that Sarbanes-Oxley not only failed to stop the subprime meltdown wit...
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corporate crime
by leon on February 15, 2008
The BAE bribery scandal grows grubbier by the day.As the Guardian reports, secret files show that Saudi Arabia's rulers threatened to make it easier for terrorists to pull off another attack on L...
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markets
by leon on February 14, 2008
Credit crunch? Credit default swaps? Honeymoon loans? NINJA loans? Negative pledge? The subprime crisis is upon us and investors are confronted with jargon designed to baffle and keep them in the dar...
Read more of Subprime explained - crunch time glossary
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corporate crime
by leon on February 14, 2008
With Conrad Black, due to report to prison March 3, asking the court the delay the start of that sentence, spare a thought for his wife Barbara Amiel.Now that hubby is heading off to jail, Amiel is c...
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litigation
by leon on February 13, 2008
Late last month, I did a blog entry looking at Donald Trump's legal woes with Las Vegas property management company suing him for $4 billion, accusing The Donald of monopolistic practices, violat...
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markets
by leon on February 13, 2008
Warren Buffett triggered a Wall Street rally when he offered to bail out troubled bond insurers in the US. But when you look at the deal closer, it's actually better for Buffett and Berkshire Hat...
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markets
by leon on February 12, 2008
With a US recession looming, the question is how bad is it going to get?Certainly a recession is now an even money bet, according to a Bloomberg news survey, with the US housing industry in trouble, ...
Read more of The R-word: how hard a landing?
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corporate crime
by leon on February 12, 2008
Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia, the former Saudi ambassador to the US, has been one of the key figures in the BAE-Saudi bribery scandal. One of the biggest allegations was that Britain's Ministry ...
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corporate governance
by leon on February 12, 2008
Corporate raider and shareholder activist Carl Icahn plans to set up a corporate governance blog, according to news reports. There is nothing on The Icahn Report yet but Icahn says he plans to use th...
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SOX
by leon on February 12, 2008
In their haste to pass Sarbanes-Oxley into law following the spate of scandals headed up by Enron, politicians and regulators neglected to look carefully at the issue of whistleblowers. Who actually ...
Read more of Who exposes corporate fraud?
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strategy
by leon on February 9, 2008
One of the great myths about management is that there are universal rules. There is a dogma, championed by American business schools, that there is only certain sure-fire ways to manage organisations...
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corporate crime
by leon on February 8, 2008
The long arm of international law is catching up with companies caught bribing. Not only have there been an increase in Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement actions brought by the Department of ...
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corporate crime
by leon on February 8, 2008
At the beginning of this week, I did a blog entry looking at a court hearing into the proposed $50 million penalty for BP over its negligence that resulted in the 2005 Texas City refinery explosion t...
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regulators
by leon on February 7, 2008
At the end of last month I raised the question of why it had taken the Securities and Exchange Commission so long to tackle the subprime issue. It was at the time that the FBI announced it was conduc...
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corporate crime
by leon on February 7, 2008
Questions continue about what motivated Jérôme Kerviel, 31, the junior banker who bought Société Générale to its knees, costing it $7.2 billion with his wrong bets and fraud.The man himself has told ...
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executive pay
by leon on February 7, 2008
Here's a note to CEOs: do you think you're paid too much? Some of the people on your board do.That seems to be the suggestion in a Heidrick & Struggles survey which showed that one in thr...
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Compliance
by leon on February 6, 2008
Despite Sarbanes-Oxley and the UK Combined Code, most corporate boards remain clueless about setting up the proper governance of their information technology systems.A survey, reported here, has foun...
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regulators
by leon on February 6, 2008
Which works better: carbon trading or a carbon tax?Most economists that I speak to seem to agree that a carbon tax is better because it's more efficient, transparent and simple. Cap-and-trade sch...
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corporate crime
by leon on February 6, 2008
L. Dennis Kozlowski, who was sentenced in 2005 to 25 years in jail for grand larceny, securities fraud and other crimes, for stealing $137 million in unauthorized bonuses from Tyco, abusing company l...
Read more of Prisoner Dennis Kozlowski: still unrepentant
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corporate crime
by leon on February 5, 2008
Late last year, I did a blog entry looking at whether BP was getting off too lightly with the proposed $50 million penalty for the negligence that resulted in the 2005 Texas City refinery explosion t...
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SOX
by leon on February 5, 2008
Another sign that the Securities and Exchange Commission is pulling back from Sarbanes-Oxley. On Friday, the SEC announced that it's giving yet another delay to the implementation of Sarbanes-Oxl...
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regulators
by leon on February 4, 2008
The big news at the end of the week was that action man Wesley Snipes has been cleared of federal tax-fraud and conspiracy charges on Friday, but was convicted on three misdemeanor counts of failing ...
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corporate crime
by leon on February 3, 2008
Bad news for Conrad Black with reports that he is likely to start jail in four weeks time when Chicago judge Amy St. Eve dismissed his motion to remain free on bail while he appeals his criminal conv...
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corporate crime
by leon on February 1, 2008
BAE - it might stand for Bribery Allegations Everywhere - has been pilloried for secretly paying Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia more than £1bn ($US1.98 billion) in connection with Britain's bigges...
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corporate crime
by leon on February 1, 2008
Much has been written about Société Générale's maverick trader Jerome Kerviel who, despite costing the bank $7.2 million, still hasn't been fired, reports The Wall Street Journal.Trouble is s...
