Given my practice as an ethics and compliance lawyer, white-collar defense lawyer, I am getting barraged with questions on the college scandal: Why would someone pay a bribe like this? Why would someone accept a bribe? Where are the people with integrity? Did they not think they would get caught? How did the colleges “let”…
I cannot look back on the happenings of corporate crime these past few years without commenting on the best bond revocation of possibly ever. Pharma Bro posted $5 million in bond to remain free pending his trial. (See 2018’s Most Noteworthy Conviction) However, while out on bond, on his Facebook page, which has about 70,000…
How a company treats employees who bring forth concerns is strong evidence of that company’s propensity to make legal and ethical decisions. A company that welcomes hearing about concerns and issues breeds trust with its employees and other stakeholders like investors and regulators. As a result, employees may share their concerns with an organization before…
From my worldview, one of the most noteworthy “when the writ hits the fan” convictions of the year was the conviction of Pharma Bro’s (Martin Shkreli) lawyer and big law partner Evan Greebel. A jury convicted Mr. Greebel of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud for his actions in helping…
Sports apparel company Under Armour instituted a new policy in 2018 that in my opinion wins as the best new corporate policy of 2018. According to the Wall Street Journal, Under Armour’s chief financial officer sent employees an email explaining that Under Armour would no longer reimburse expenses for adult entertainment, limousine services and gambling….
Over the last couple of years, media reports about Uber exemplified a corporate culture without concern for following the law, acting ethically or just otherwise being a decent corporate citizen. Some examples: Uber has faced allegations of sexual harassment in its executive ranks and allegations of failing to manage drivers accused of improper behavior. …
Agency inspector general offices investigate complaints from persons in the federal government ecosystem who complain about waste, fraud, abuse of authority; violations of law, regulations or policies; or danger to public health or safety; and, suffer some type of adverse employment action for doing so. Since the enormous Department of Defense (DoD) gets so…
In my line of work, I collaborate with risk management executives a lot. I have learned much from them since they are indispensable to the process of conceptualizing and mitigating business risks and legal risks. When working through a challenging legal issue that may cause the &$%* to hit the fan, many risk management leaders…
It kills me to delete files or to shred files. I am not alone in my pack rat ways – many of us hoard our files (and other “stuff”). Businesses try everything under the sun to get their employees to comply with well-crafted, legally appropriate document destruction policies. Some businesses have a designated document destruction…
It is difficult to keep a company on the path of legal compliance and to maintain its reputation especially since following the law does not necessarily protect an organization’s reputation. Recently, AT&T and Novartis experienced the pain a bad decision can have on reputation and financial value. The CEO’s for both Novartis and AT&T gave…