Former FTE Networks CEO Michael Palleschi was arrested in New York for what authorities claim was a “years-long scheme to inflate FTE’s revenue, to conceal liabilities and expenses, and to embezzle company funds.” The company’s former chief financial officer, David Lethem, was arrested in Florida on the same charges. The pair of former executives was…
Tag: corporate crime
FirstEnergy Board Must Face Investor Suit Over Bribery Scheme
FirstEnergy Corp.’s directors and officers must face a shareholder derivative suit stemming from their alleged involvement in a bribery, racketeering, and pay-to-play scheme with Ohio politicians, after a federal court in that state found enough support Tuesday for allegations of false or misleading statements or omissions. The allegations that the leadership misrepresented or failed to…
How to Actually Prosecute the Worst Financial Crimes – The Atlantic
We agree with the diagnosis but would recommend a stronger proposal for change than “get smart people and try harder.” Too often, as in the financial meltdown, wealthy people are able to shape the law to make it impossible to prosecute them. I spent 27 years fighting white-collar crime and corruption at the Department of…
Public Citizen Report Finds That Corporate Prosecutions Plunged to a 25-Year Low Final Year of Trump Administration – Public Citizen
Corporate impunity increased to record levels during President Trump’s last year in office, when federal prosecutions of corporate criminals fell to just 94 – the lowest on record since the government started tracking corporate prosecution statistics in 1996 – while corporate leniency agreements increased to 45, the highest in Trump’s four years, a new Public…
Carlos Ghosn feared dismissal if Renault discovered scale of Nissan salary, court told | Financial Times
Carlos Ghosn feared Renault would sack him if the true scale of his Nissan salary were disclosed, according to court testimony by the whistleblower who triggered the downfall of the former automotive supremo. Hari Nada, the former head of legal affairs, appeared in public on Thursday for the first time since Mr Ghosn’s arrest in…
McKinsey Proposed Paying Pharmacy Companies Rebates for OxyContin Overdoses – The New York Times
Similar to the revelations about FTI Consulting acting on behalf of fossil fuel companies, the disclosures of McKinsey’s role in promoting opiate use for the now criminally convicted Perdue show a shocking disregard for the well-being of the consumers of their client’s products. The fact that they urged Perdue to destroy documents makes it clear…
Bausch Health Agrees to Pay $45 Million to Settle SEC Dispute – WSJ
Bausch Health Cos BHC -3.08% . agreed Friday to pay $45 million to resolve regulatory claims that it improperly booked some revenue and misled investors about the impact of a significant price increase on a single drug. The Securities and Exchange Commission said three former executives also agreed to pay penalties to settle the agency’s…
Ex-Bumble Bee CEO Gets 3-Year Prison Term, a Rarity in Antitrust – Bloomberg
Former Bumble Bee Foods LLC chief executive officer Chris Lischewski was sentenced to more than three years in prison for his role in a price-fixing racket, a rare outcome in a U.S. antitrust crackdown. In December, Lischewski was found guilty by a San Francisco federal jury of conspiring with colleagues and other industry executives to…
How Corporate Lawbreakers Get a Leg Up at the Justice Department
The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) revealed in August that top political appointees at the Justice Department’s headquarters in Washington, DC, overruled career federal prosecutors who sought to bring a felony charge against biotech giant Monsanto for illegally spraying a highly toxic pesticide in Hawaii. This happened after attorneys for Monsanto, including a former head…
For Facebook and Alphabet, Big-Ticket Fines Cause Limited Pain – WSJ
VEA Vice Chair Nell Minow is quoted in this Wall Street Journal story about whether the penalties Facebook will be paying is enough to discourage further abuses. Financial penalties typically are meant to discourage further misbehavior or make victims whole, said Nell Minow, vice chair of ValueEdge Advisors, a corporate-governance consulting firm for investors.“That second…
ValueEdge Advisors 