With all of the focus in the United States on the collapse of Bear Stearns, AIG, Lehman Brothers, and Merril Lynch, we may be a bit myopic in not noticing other issues around the world. Iceland stands out as a country that has really run into trouble. As Michael Lewis wrote in Wall Street on … Read more »
Year: 2009
Madoff’s Auditor Arrested
With Madoff in jail, it is time for the rest of his crew of fraudsters to join him. Next up…. David G. Friehling, the sole practitioner at Friehling & Horowitz, CPAs, PC, has been charged with securities fraud, aiding and abetting investment adviser fraud and four counts of filing false audit reports with the Securities … Read more »
You’re a Victim of a Ponzi Scheme, But What About Your Taxes?
You missed the warning signs and got suckered into a Ponzi scheme. Can the IRS help by giving you some tax relief? This is a critical issue for long-term Ponzi scheme investors (like some of the Madoff victims) who have paid taxes on gains from the investment. After all, they have been paying real taxes … Read more »
Can You Prevent Ponzi Schemes?
With Madoff, Nadel and Stanford in the news, people are wondering why the government does not prevent Ponzi schemes. The government should protect us from these frauds. How can they? Ponzi scheme sponsors are thieves. Common criminals. They just wear suits instead of black masks. The government has not been able to prevent bank robberies, … Read more »
Dilbert on Risk Management
Dilbert and company and looking at risk management software this week. Does any of this sound familiar? Ethical issues and bad data? Misunderstanding what it can do? Read more »
France Decides Not to Criminalize International Bribery
“France has severely restricted its jurisdiction and its ability to prosecute cases with an international dimension, which, given the country’s importance in the international economy and the scale of many of its companies, is very regrettable,” according to a report by GRECO. The Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) was established in 1999 by the … Read more »
Approaching the Sphinx: The DOJ’s Opinion Release Procedure under the FCPA
Alexandra Wrage of the WrageBlog shares her experiences using the Department of Justice’s opinion release procedure under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: Approaching the Sphinx: The DOJ’s Opinion Release Procedure. Ms. Wrage takes us through the experiences of TRACE International in obtaining FCPA Opinion Procedure Release 08-03. The opinion release procedure for the Foreign Corrupt … Read more »
Betting the Corporation: Compliance or Defiance
Lawrence D. Finder, Ryan D. McConnell & Scott L. Mitchell drafted a paper surveying the sixteen corporate deferred prosecutions and non-prosecution agreements entered into by the Department of Justice in 2008. Betting the Corporation: Compliance or Defiance? Compliance Programs in the Context of Deferred and Non-Prosecution Agreements – Corporate Pre-Trial Agreement Update – 2008 In … Read more »
Let’s Get Ethical!, Ethical!, I Want To Get Ethical…
Those of you that watch NBC’s “The Office” see some of the best examples of what NOT to do in business every week. They also tackled what not NOT to do in an Ethics Training course. The clip shows some of the worst training skills (reading from the binder, HR-speak, etc.). It also provides an … Read more »
Twitter and Presentations
At President Obama’s State of the Union address, there was a fair amount coverage by the media and by the Congressman in attendance. Several dozen Congressmen have twitter accounts and many were sending out messages during the address. Is this Good or Bad? What about people in the audience when you are giving your next … Read more »