News Archive: January - April 2008

BACK TO ARCHIVES

• April 30 - New German Trademark Unveiled to Promote Corporate Responsibility. Germany’s labor minister announced that a new insignia will be released which companies could voluntarily adopt to indicate compliance with social and environmental standards, plus good labor practices and governance issues, such as anti-corruption policies, The Financial Times reported. He said that although Germany is the world's leading export nation, recognition of the need to combine business with corporate responsibility remains underdeveloped, especially among smaller companies.
  
  
• April 30 - Chinese Officials Bust Child Labor Ring. Chinese authorities in Guangdong Province said they had made several arrests and had already “rescued” more than 100 children from factories in the city of Dongguan, one of the country’s largest manufacturing centers for electronics and consumer goods sold around the world, The New York Times reported. The officials said they were investigating reports that hundreds of other rural children had been lured or forced into captive, almost slavelike conditions for minimal pay, a situation which experts in the country say is not uncommon.
  
  
• April 30 - Siemens Internal Report Reveals Violations and Infractions. The law firm hired by Siemens to investigate claims of corruption at the company said it had found evidence of compliance violations and other infractions throughout the company, and in several countries where it operates, The Associated Press reported. See more EthicsWorld coverage of German press reports.
  
  
• April 29 - Report Calls Chevron Complicit in Human Rights Abuses in Myanmar. EarthRights International claimed Chevron is complicit in human rights abuses along a natural gas pipeline in Myanmar in which the oil and gas company holds a stake, Reuters reported.  The report alleges that Myanmar's army has in recent years committed serious abuses including rape and murder while providing security for the pipeline.
  
  
• April 29 - Rockefellers Emerge to Express Need for Reform at ExxonMobil. The Rockefeller family, the longest continuous shareholder in ExxonMobil, is abandoning its behind-the-scenes role at the company to press for corporate governance reforms including an independent chairman and a stronger board, The Financial Times reported.  The family's role in Exxon has diminished over the years but its views have symbolic importance at a time of rapid change in the industry - symbolised by the growing power of state-owned companies over oil reserves.
  
  
• April 28 - Burger King at Center of Debate over Tomato Picker Rights in Florida. Farm worker advocates sought to present more than 80,000 signatures to Burger King officials urging the fast-food giant to join McDonald’s Corp. and Taco Bell to help boost the wages of Florida tomato pickers and improve conditions in the field, the Associated Press reported.  The presentation of the petitions came the same day that a newspaper reported that a top Burger King official used his young daughter’s e-mail address to spread misinformation about the farm worker group soliciting the signatures.
  
  
• April 28 - BP, Chevron, and ExxonMobil Singled Out for Poor Revenue Transparency.  At a time when major oil companies around the world are announcing record profits, the Financial Times’ analysis of a new Transparency International report states little progress has been made on making oil revenues more transparent. TI placed American companies BP and Chevron as well as France’s Total in a middle tier of revenue transparency; whereas ExxonMobil is in the bottom group. 
  
  
• April 28 – Editorial: US Should Better Understand Both Sides of the Oil Industry. An editorial from the Boston Globe highlights the need for the United States to focus more attention on the human rights and corruption abuses happening at “the other end of the pipeline.”  Specifically in the Nigerian River delta, numerous incidents have arisen recently where local residents have complained of oil company abuses and local militants have attacked industry facilities and kidnapped workers. 
  
  
• April 28 - Shareholder Resolutions on “Say on Pay” Increased from Last Year.  A Wall Street Journal column suggests “say on pay,” the right of shareholders to have a non-binding vote on executive compensation, is more complex than meets the eye.  More shareholders and even Congress have been supportive of say on pay, but some investors are still skeptical if it’s the best remedy.
  
  
• April 24 - UK Fraud Office Will Seek Court Appeal on BAE Systems Ruling. Britain's High Court said that it would allow the Serious Fraud Office to appeal a ruling that the agency acted unlawfully when it opted to abandon a corruption inquiry into an arms deal between Saudi Arabia and BAE Systems, The Wall Street Journal reported.  The fraud agency is questioning whether the judiciary has the right to intervene in the case.
  
  
• April 24 - New President of Taiwan Cleared of Corruption. Taiwan's Supreme Court cleared the island's president-elect Ma Ying-jeou of corruption charges less than a month before he takes office, AFP reported. Ma had been accused of misusing more than 11 million Taiwan dollars (nearly 340,000 US dollars) in expense accounts while he was Taipei mayor between 1998 and 2006, charges he strenuously denied.
  
  
• April 23 – Siemens Health Care Director Steps Down.  Siemens AG said that the head of its health care sector, Erich Reinhardt, will resign from the company after new findings by the law firm investigating corruption claims uncovered violations in compliance cases in the former Siemens Medical Solutions Group, reported The Associated Press. 
  
  
• April 22 - Samsung Chief Resigns.  South Korea's Samsung Group President Lee Kun-hee resigned after a special court charged him with tax evasion and breach of trust, Xinhua reported.  According to the prosecutors, Lee was suspected of trading Samsung shares with secret money and secured huge profits, while evading about 112.8 billion won (114 million U.S. dollars) worth of taxes.
  
  
• April 21 - CalPERS Steps Up Corporate Governance Standards.  The board of Calpers, the biggest U.S. pension fund, approved plans to put more emphasis on corporate board diversity and what environmental risks companies pose when it assesses corporate management and governance, Reuters reported.  The fund also endorsed a bill before California lawmakers that would specifically create, for publicly held companies that do business with the state, a standard on disclosing information about climate change-related activities.
  
  
• April 21 - For Business Students, CSR Takes A Back Seat.  A study from a U.S-based nonprofit says that many students getting their Masters in business administration do not believe corporate social responsibility has a significant impact on a company’s bottom line, BusinessWeek reported.  Students also said they felt recruiters didn't place a high value on personal integrity or students' understanding of social issues.
  
  
• April 18 - Chinese Banking CEO Attempts to Dispel Mystery Behind His Country’s Corporate Culture. The CEO of China’s sixth-largest bank by assets sat down for an interview with the Wall Street Journal for a rarely seen look into the traditionally non-transparent Chinese corporate culture.  Ma Weihua, the chief executive of China Merchants Bank, discussed conversations he had with leading American bankers and how in many ways, they view business in the same light. 
  
  
• April 18 - FBI Chief Suggests U.S. in Period of ‘Moral Crisis’.  The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation Chief expressed concern over the high number of public corruption and corporate fraud cases under investigation, the Associated Press reported.  The FBI has 2,500 cases of public corruption under investigation, an increase of 50 percent from five years ago, and corporate fraud cases have increased by more than 80 percent, the FBI chief said, pointing to the recent surge in mortgage fraud investigations.
  
  
• April 17 - Samsung Chairman Declared Guilty of Tax Evasion, but Will Go Unpunished. A special prosecutor in South Korea indicted Samsung’s Chairman for tax evasion and breach of trust, but found no evidence of bribery or slush funds, a ruling that sparked public outcry, The Wall Street Journal reported.  Furthermore, the prosecutor will not arrest the chairman of South Korea’s largest conglomerate because that would "cause enormous disruptions" to the 59 Samsung companies.
  
  
• April 17 - Bribe Paying in Mexico Up 42% from 2005, Survey Says. A survey, conducted by the non-profit group Transparency Mexico, showed that 197 million bribes were paid nationwide in 2007 — compared to 115 million in 2005, USA Today reported.  Corruption is so rooted and pervasive in Mexican culture that many people see nothing wrong with it, the article states. A continuum runs from tipping a waiter to bribing a politician, with no clear line separating what's acceptable and what's not.
  
  
• April 16 - WaMu’s Annual Meeting Sees Some Governance Reforms. In addition to the resignation of Washington Mutual’s director of the board finance committee over subprime-related losses, the Seattle-based company will revise its incentive-pay program that shielded executives' cash bonuses from some costs tied to mortgage losses and foreclosures, The Wall Street Journal reported.  Shareholders also voted to ask Chairman and CEO Mr. Kerry Killinger to give up his role as chairman, as the bank continued to take a financial beating.  Mr. Killinger is now under pressure to justify why he should remain in his job.
  
  
• April 16 - Independent Panel in U.S. Encourages Hedge-Fund Transparency. The U.S. Treasury Department set up two committees, composed of senior executives of large hedge funds and major institutional investors such as pension funds, to address oversight and transparency, The Washington Post reported.  The committees proposed setting up independent bodies to oversee how fund managers are pricing hard-to-value financial investments and examine whether they are facing conflicts of interest.
  
  
• April 15 - New Accusations Arise that Merck Generated Biased Medical Reports. Two new reports claim Merck & Co. frequently paid academic scientists to take credit for research articles prepared by company-hired medical writers, The Associated Press reported. They claim Merck tried to minimize deaths in the research articles which showed that the now withdrawn Vioxx didn't work at treating or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
  
  
• April 14 - Serbian Defense Supplier to Iraq Under Fire. Controversy is spreading over a report alleging that a multi-million dollar Serbian arms deal with Iraq had been negotiated without the knowledge of U.S. or Iraqi military officials, The Associated Press reported.  The report described the weapons as “shoddy” and were negotiated without competitive bidding or proper anti-corruption safeguards.
  
  
• April 14 – Bribery, Undue Political Influence to Gain Funding Show Danger of Earmarks in US. Recent investigations into federal bribery and political conflicts of interest at the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command are once again raising the issue of earmarks, or congressional funding of special projects slipped into legislation, The Wall Street Journal reported.  Much of the criticism of earmarks has centered on whether they waste public funds, but they are also a problem because they are subject to less oversight and often are awarded without competitive bidding.
  
  

Debate over Tax Havens - An Asset for Growth or Breeding Ground for Dirty Money?

Raymond Banker, the Director of the Global Financial Integrity Project and guest-scholar at The Brookings Institution, has devoted his career to studying illicit financial flows and its effect on developing nations.  The Wall Street Journal recently published a debate between Mr. Baker and senior fellow at The Cato Institute Dan Mitchell.  Mr. Mitchell specializes in tax policy and is a great proponent of global tax competition and fiscal sovereignty.  While he argues that tax havens are an asset to international growth and freedom, Mr. Baker highlights the extreme damage that tax havens, and the financial institutions that operate within them, have on global democracy and the equitable distribution of wealth.


• April 14 - Siemen’s Probe Keeps Expanding. German prosecutors have begun investigating suspected bribery at Siemens's power-transmission division, expanding the scope of what is already the country's biggest-ever corruption probe, Reuters reported.  A trial of the suspected ringleaders at its once-mighty communications unit begins in late May.
  
  
• April 13 - Bulgarian Interior Minister Steps Down over Alleged Corruption. Bulgaria's influential Interior Minister Rumen Petkov resigned Sunday amid a snowballing corruption scandal that exposed links between top crime-busters and suspected criminals, AFP reported.  Petkov came under fire after admitting to having contacts with key organised crime suspects, which undermined several criminal investigations. 
  
  
• April 11 - Order to Drop BAE Probe ‘Invites Dismay, If Not Outrage,’ Say Top Judge. A British High Court has called the government’s scrapping of a probe into arms deals between BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia unlawful, The Financial Times reports.  The decision was made after the British Serious Fraud Office was told to suspend its bribery probe into BAE’s “Al Yamamah” arms program with the Saudi government – apparently after threats from Prince Bandar bin Sultan that Riyadh would withdraw cooperation on intelligence and cancel the £20bn deal.  Transparency International UK welcomes the court ruling.
  
  
• April 9 - Morgan Stanley CEO Wins Chairmanship Despite Governance Concerns.  Facing wavering support arising from the subprime turmoil and other corporate governance issues, Morgan Stanley Chairman John Mack won re-election as the company’s Chairman and CEO, The New York Times reported.  Different shareholder rights groups have questioned the independence of the board and suggested the role of the Chairman remain independent.  Investor outcry is overwhelming Mark’s and Spencer CEO, Stuart Rose, who was recently appointed as Chairman, according to an article in the London Times.   The dual role is not as easily accepted as best practice in UK corporate governance.
  
  
• April 8 - Former Nigerian President Faces Tougher Investigations. A Nigerian Parliamentary commission, as well as several official state bodies, are deep into investigations over former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s mismanagement of billions of dollars in oil money, over money spent on the improvement of the power sector, which never showed results, and how companies were sold off to cronies on the cheap, AFP reported. 
  
  
• April 7 - Establishing Ethical Guidelines A Challenge for Canadian Government. As a string of Canadian politicians are accused of improperly benefiting from government dealings, The Canadian Press reports how Canadians themselves are debating as to how best to enforce ethical conduct – through legislation or the ballot box? 
  
  
• April 7 - Two Major Chinese Websites to be Tried for Music Piracy.  The Beijing First Intermediate People's Court has agreed to hear cases that several music industry companies have brought against two China-based Internet heavyweights that offer illicit music downloading, The Wall Street Journal reported.  If awarded, the claims could amount to up to $16.5 million but more importantly, could set a precedent for further, far larger claims running into the billions of dollars, based on the total number of tracks that are illegally available online in China.
  
  
• April 6 - German Federal Report Claims Conflicts of Interest in Government Jobs. An internal report from the German federal audit commission says too many corporate executives were able to draft laws or take senior ministerial jobs in government, even though they remained on the payroll of their companies, The Financial Times reported.  The leaked audit commission report says the “potential [for the experts] to influence decision-making was very wide”, adding that the practice could undermine trust in the neutrality of government officials, given that there was no transparency on the background to the executives.
  
  
• April 4 - Samsung Head Appears for Questioning over Alleged Slush Fund. The head of South Korea's biggest business group Samsung appeared for questioning as part of a high-profile probe into an alleged multi-million dollar bribery slush fund, AFP reported.  The probe is controversial in Korea, but despite protests, the prosecutors have mounted an aggressive investigation.
  
  
• April 3 - Hewlett-Packard First in Technology Industry to Release Top Suppliers. Hewlett-Packard publicly released a list of its largest suppliers, representing more than 95 percent of the company’s procurement expenditures for materials, manufacturing and assembly of its products worldwide, according to a company press release. HP hopes the increased visibility will result in positive operational changes in supplier labor, health and safety, environmental and ethics practices and will encourage other companies to do more to advance supply chain responsibility.
  
  
• April 3 - Manila Losing Massive Amounts in Procurement Totals, Says World Bank. In a draft report presented to the Philippine Development Forum last week, the World Bank estimates that the government loses about P30 billion a year, or 20 percent to 30 percent of the total amount of every contract that Manila signs, as a result of corruption or procurement inefficiency, The Manila Times reported.  Although there are healthy legislative and regulatory frameworks in place, the World Bank stated, the actual procurement operations “still regularly fail to meet expectations.”
  
  
• April 2 - Government Leaders Worldwide Compelled to Step Down.  Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern has announced he will resign conceding that 18 months of growing criticism of his personal finances has taken a toll on the effectiveness of his government, the Wall Street Journal reported. Former government minister and Israeli legislator, Shlomo Benizri, was convicted of taking bribes in a court document Haaretz calls “shocking.” Under very different circumstances, The Associated Press reported that Finland's foreign minister Ilkka Kanerva was forced out due to a lack of trust after inappropriate text messages he sent to an exotic dancer were discovered.
  
  
• April 2 - Imprisoned Former Enron CEO Seeks Appeal. Enron Corp’s former chief executive, Jeffrey Skilling, will try to persuade a U.S. appeals court in New Orleans to void two 10-year terms he got for defrauding the seventh-largest U.S. company by sales, Bloomberg reported.  Skilling has already been sentenced to 24 years and four months for his role in Enron's collapse, and even if he wins the appeal, he may have to still spend more than four years in jail.
  
  
• April 2 - Amid Controversy, European Defense Industry Considers Ethics Code. Europe's aerospace and defense companies are being asked to sign up to a voluntary code of ethics as part of an industry-wide initiative to help defend its reputation against allegations of corruption, The Financial Times reported. Companies would commit themselves to ensuring that no money or other gifts are illicitly channeled to a potential government customer and that independent advisers used on foreign arms sales are properly vetted and their behavior audited.
  
  
• April 1 - American Oil Execs Defend Large Tax Breaks Before Congress. Senior executives from the five largest U.S. oil companies are appearing before a congressional committee to justify tax breaks on their companies that contribute to billion dollar profits when oil prices are rising through the roof, reported The Associated Press.  The oil industry has that the tax breaks are needed to assure continued investment in exploration, production and refinery expansions while many congressmen are arguing for investing in more alternative energy sources.
  
  
• April 1 - Colorado Proposes Tough Executive Accountability Measure. Prompted by the insider-trading scandal that damaged the reputation of Colorado-based Qwest Communications, the state has proposed a new law that would leave top business officers with unprecedented individual accountability, The New York Times reported. The measure would make business executives criminally responsible if their companies run afoul of the law and would permit any Colorado resident to sue the executives under such circumstances.
  
  
• March 31 - Investor Outcry at Marks & Spencer Raises Questions Over Governance. Growing criticism of British retailer Marks & Spencer’s move to make Sir Stuart Rose both chairman and chief executive, against corporate governance best practice, means non-executive directors at the company are likely to veto any pay rise for Rose, reported The Times of London.  M&S will seek this week to defuse further opposition to Rose’s appointment by writing to all shareholders with a detailed explanation of its actions.
  
  
• March 29 – Report Estimates Charities Losing Billions, Few Are Punished. Authors of a report published in the December 2007 issue of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly estimate that in 2006, an average of $40 billion was lost to fraud in the nonprofit sector, The New York Times reports.  If the $40 billion figure is accurate, then the money lost to fraud equaled the combined giving by corporations and foundations in 2006, said Diana Aviv, president and chief executive of the Independent Sector, which represents nonprofit groups.  The report also found that the typical profile of these thieves is a female employee with no criminal record who earned less than $50,000 a year.  
  
  
• March 28 – Puerto Rican Governor Charged with Misuse of Public Funds. The Governor of Puerto Rico has surrendered to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation after having been charged with accepting improper donations from four Philadelphia donors and a Puerto Rican business owner, all of whom were alleged to be seeking favors and introductions to federal and island agencies, The Washington Post reported.  No one involved in the investigation believes there was any political interference.
  
  
• March 27 - Recent Study Says NGOs Having More Influence on Consumer Decisions. A study from Peppercom and Media-Screen shows three in four consumers say their purchasing and, to lesser but growing degree, investment decisions are influenced by non-government environmental groups or NGOs, The Environmental Leader reported.  Although a number of companies have forged partnerships with NGOs, the study found that a significant percentage do not, citing lack of trust or common goals, and uncertainty on which NGOs to seek out.
  
  
• March 27 - Late Suharto Acquitted, but Charity Forced to Pay. An Indonesian court acquitted the late former president Suharto in a civil corruption case, but ordered his charitable foundation to repay more than 100 million dollars in state funds, AFP reported. The panel of judges said both Suharto and his Supersemar Foundation had engaged in "actions that ran against the law," but acquitted the former leader, saying he did so in his capacity as an executive of the charity.
  
  
• March 27 - Medvedev Announces New Anti-Corruption Policies for Small Businesses. Russian president-elect Dmitry Medvedev ordered a halt to arbitrary inspections of small businesses which he said are often an excuse to collect bribes, Reuters reported.   Medvedev also ordered the government to review legislation to protect small companies from being forced to enter dubious contracts with officials, but it is not yet clear whether any of these reforms will have a real impact on corrupt officials who have survived past attempts to curb corruption.
  
  
• March 26 - Top MBA Programs More Likely to Address Sustainability in Core Courses. American business schools are reflecting the changes in the marketplace by integrating studies of corporate citizenship into their programs, including environmental studies, reported U.S. News and World Report.  The UCLA Anderson School of Management offers electives centered on topics like social entrepreneurship, business and the environment, and ethical considerations in business, but sustainability themes are emerging in required classes like economics and strategy as well.
  
  
• March 26 - Two Nigerian Ministers First to be Fired for Graft. In a sign that Nigeria’s president Umaru Yar’Adua might be taking a tougher stand on graft, two ministers were fired for stealing public funds, reported The Financial Times.  Yar’Adua came to power in what many believe was a rigged election, but his recent actions have caused some to reconsider his reputation.  
  
  
• March 25 - Report Says Around 40% of Afghan Aid Ends Up in Donor Countries. A report released by an alliance of international aid agencies working in Afghanistan says the international community has pledged $25bn to Afghanistan since 2001 but only $15bn has been delivered, The Guardian reports.  A total of 40% of the money that has been delivered was funnelled back into Western firms engaged in the programs.
  
  
• March 25 - CalPERS Blackslists Five Companies for Poor Governance. California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), America’s largest public pension fund, named five companies that it will watch closely due to their poor governance standards, according to CalPERS .  “Besides having sub-par stock performance, these companies refused to address corporate governance issues that have a bearing on how they perform in the market,” said CalPERS board president. The companies include The Cheesecake Factory, a restaurant company; Hilb Rogal & Hobbs, an insurance-brokerage firm; Invacare, a health care equipment supplier; and La-Z-Boy and Standard Pacific, both in the household durables and homebuilding sectors. 
  
  
• March 25 - Updated “Corporate Manslaughter” Law Could See More Prosecutions in UK. A new UK law will make companies more vulnerable to acts of “corporate manslaughter,” The Financial Times reports. Higher fines, more police probes, and wider investigations are just some actions meant to make companies more accountable.
  
  
• March 24 - British Investment Fund Excludes Six Companies Based on Ethics. A major UK insurance company, which has £19bn under investment, is taking a tough stand on ethics by refusing to invest in several companies based on their environmental, social, and governance policies, The Guardian reported.  Co-operative Insurance Society excluded retailer French Connection, publisher Euro-money Institutional Investors, home shopping group N Brown, cruise line Carnival, technology company Amstrad and Asian miner Kazakhmys. Boardroom pay has also taken center stage in investment discussions.
  
  
• March 21 - Starbucks To Pay Back $100M in Tips to Employees . A California court judge ordered Starbucks to pay back $100 million in tips to California baristas, which the company used to pay its shift supervisors, The Associated Press reported.  California law prohibits managers and supervisors from sharing in employee gratuities, and the court ruled Starbucks illegally used tips to pay their supervisors instead of using money from its own pocket. 
  
  
• March 21 - “Impossible” Goal of Filling Board Seats with Women Has Been Met in Norway. When law was enacted in Norway in 2003 requiring companies to fill 40 percent of corporate board seats with women by 2008, “executives were quoted as saying it was a completely ridiculous law and it would never happen," the International Herald Tribune reported.  But now it has with some companies embracing the change enthusiastically. Now Norway's initiative is being followed elsewhere. The Spanish Parliament has passed legislation calling for 40 percent board participation by 2015, and a Dutch organization called TopBrainstorm is preparing a voluntary charter for corporations to sign that would commit companies to meet targets for getting women into the kind of senior executive positions that make it possible for them to become board candidates.
  
  
• March 21 - U.S. Dept. of Justice Investigates Alcoa for Alleged Bribery. The Justice Department is opening a criminal inquiry into allegations that Alcoa Inc. was involved in bribery in the Persian Gulf country of Bahrain, the Wall Street Journal reported.  The suit claims that for 15 years Alcoa systematically overcharged its long-time customer Alba for supplies of alumina, a precursor to aluminum used in smelting. Some of the proceeds of the overcharges were used to fund potentially improper payments to a senior Bahrain government official who is already under investigation in that country.
  
  
• March 20 - US, Singapore, and Abu Dhabi Agree on Guidelines for Sovereign Wealth Funds. The US announced on Thursday that it had reached an agreement with Abu Dhabi and Singapore on a set of principles for investment by sovereign wealth funds, The Financial Times reported.  The agreement stated that sovereign wealth fund investment decisions “should be based solely on commercial grounds, rather than to advance directly or indirectly the geopolitical goals of the controlling government,” the need for “strong governance structures” and internal controls for the funds and respect for host country regulatory disclosure rules. Washington also wants the agreement to serve as a stepping stone for wider-ranging efforts by the International Monetary Fund and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
  
  
• March 20 - Elections in Zimbabwe a Poor Show of Democracy, Says HRW. Human Rights Watch have expressed serious concerns over corruption in the Zimbabwean electoral campaigns, the Associated Press reported.  President Robert Mugabe is accused of continued violence against detractors; restricting freedom of assembly; using distribution of food and farming equipment to gain political advantage and denying opponents access to the media ahead of the March 29 poll.
  
  
• March 20 - Russian Government Could Embrace More Openness. Contrary to former Russian President Vladmir Putin’s policies, newly-elected President Dmitry Medvedev made statements that suggest his government will allow more participation from civil society groups, Reuters reported. "The voice of such groups should be heard in our society," Medvedev said. "There should be a practical mechanism for defending their rights and interests. Only in this way can our society can become truly harmonious."
  
  

• March 20 - Weiss Plea Deal in Kickback Scheme Likely Means Jail. Melvyn Weiss, the onetime powerhouse shareholders lawyer, has struck a deal to agree to plead guilty in a case alleging improper kickbacks, which will effectively end a long-time probe into his law firm, Milberg Weiss LLP, the Wall Street Journal reported.  Lawyers familiar with the case say that the two-year sentence of former lead lawyer in the firm, William Lerach, would likely establish a floor for a potential jail term for Mr. Weiss.
  
  
• March 19 - How Much Does Performance Count? Executive Pay in Petroleum Companies.  Ray R. Irani, Los Angeles- based Occidental Petroleum Corp.'s longtime chairman and chief executive, received compensation last year valued at $63.5 million, a figure some say was awarded not based on performance, but on factors beyond his control, The Wall Street Journal reported.  More than 90% of Dr. Irani's compensation was tied to performance, most of it in stock; only about $5.6 million was in cash, said WSJ.  However, Occidental's success has been because of surging oil prices, which have been driven by rising demand in Asia, security concerns in oil-producing nations and a flood of money from investors seeking refuge from the weak dollar – all beyond Mr. Irani’s control. 
  
  
• March 19 - Nepal Central Bank Governor Fired for Embezzlement. The central bank governor in Nepal was found guilty of corruption by Nepal’s supreme court and fired, but not jailed, reported The Associated Press.  Bijaya Nath Bhattarai was convicted of embezzling money while granting contracts to foreign consultants hired to help make managerial reforms, but the consultants never came to Nepal. The governor was unable to prove the money actually went to the consultants.
  
  
• March 18 – EU Fund Suspensions Put Bulgaria in Tough Spot. Bulgaria’s admission into the European Union just over a year ago was supposed to be contingent on the country’s willingness to clean up corruption, but according to BBC News, there are still significant problems.  Three streams of EU project funding have been suspended because of apparent fraud, and Bulgaria is beginning to pay the EU more than it receives.  There is a strong perception that Bulgaria is backsliding on anti-corruption measures, so the EU is trying to send a strong message by cutting funding.
  
  
• March 17 – When Crisis Hits Bankers Can Also Lose. Stock price at investment firm Bear Stearns has plunged. In a sale The New York Times reported “stunned” Wall Street, J.P Morgan Chase purchased the firm at just $2 a share, compared to the $170 price one year ago. One-third of all Bear shareholders are company employees.  In an unusual case, The NY Times noted that former CEO James Cayne, whose stock holdings in 2007 were worth around $1.2 billion, now finds his stock valued at just  $13.5 million, showing the risks involved in corporate compensation.  The financial crisis has caused many questions about executive compensation to resurface, including a recent U.S. Congressional hearing on the enormous severance pay received by some top Wall Street former CEOs after their firms reported record losses and they were ousted from their positions.
  
  
• March 17 - U.S. Dept. of Justice Probes Shell over Possible Violations of Anti-Bribe Law – Royal Dutch Shell said the U.S. Department of Justice was investigating its use of Basel-based logistics firm Panalpina which is suspected bribery in Nigeria, Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia, Reuters reported. Panalpina has quit its Nigeria operations following the probe and said last week in a statement that it had "certain indications that, in the past, violations of the FCPA may have occurred."
  
  
• March 16 - Key Buyer at Sainsburys Suspected of Accepting Kickbacks. John Maylam, a senior buyer at UK supermarket chain Sainsburys, was arrested last week over receiving irregular payments from Greenvale, which supplies nearly half of the chain’s potatoes, the London Times reported.  Mr. Maylam, the center of the £3m investigation, is one of the company’s most respected buyers in a potato market considered to be “cutthroat.”
  
  
• March 15 - High-Profile Lawyer Pleads Guilty to Bribery Plan. Richard Scruggs, a Mississippi class-action suit lawyer, plead guilty to conspiring to bribe a judge and faces up to five years in prison, The Wall Street Journal reported.  Scruggs made a name for himself fighting the tobacco industry.  His recent guilty plea exposes a more troubling side of the legal industry.
  
  
• March 14 - India and World Bank Agree on Project Reforms for Health Sector. The World Bank and the Indian government announced joint actions in response to clear indicators of fraud and corruption in the health sector, Xinhua reported. Agreed joint actions include comprehensive procurement audits and performance reviews by independent third-party agents, strengthened procurement and financial management in the Ministry of Health, increased use of community-monitoring and oversight, and intensified supervision for civil works and equipment and pharmaceutical procurement.
  
  
• March 13 - EU Legislators Conduct Inquiry over Iraq Aid Use. European aid to Iraq came under scrutiny yesterday as legislators demanded answers from the European Union’s external affairs commissioner, about the use of millions of euros for reconstruction, The Financial Times reported.  The problem is that the money is put into a central pot administered by the United Nations and the World Bank, and it is not possible to break down where every cent went. However, legislators say that violates the bloc’s financial rules, which state that all recipients must be identified.
  
  
• March 12 - Using In-Country Procurement Rules in World Bank Projects Raises Concern. The Bush administration, together with U.S. and foreign business organizations, challenged a World Bank proposal that would allow developing countries to use their own contracting rules for bank-funded projects, citing a likely increase in corruption, reported The Washington Times.  A revised version of a proposal introduced last year would organize a pilot program to use “country procurement systems” in bank-supported operations, but according to a WB representative, discussions are still taking place.
  
  
• March 12 - Families File Suit Against Chiquita for Role in Missionary Deaths. Relatives of five U.S. missionaries slain in the 1990s by Colombian rebels have filed suit against Chiquita Brands International for their alleged indirect role in the slayings, the Wall Street Journal reported.  Chiquita has previously admitted to secretly paying off the Colombian rebels in exchange for the protection of their workers and family members, but the victims’ families believe those payments contributed to the deaths. 
  
  
• March 11 – China Launches First Socially Responsible Investment Fund. A Chinese investment company is ready to launch the country’s first mutual fund which will invest “socially responsible” Chinese-listed firms, Reuters reported.  Analysts expect the fund to target companies engaged in environmentally friendly projects.
  
  
• March 11 - Sierra Leone Plans Mining Reviews to Clean Up the Lucrative Industry. Sierra Leone has recruited World Bank experts to do a three month review of all mining contracts in the country in order to root out corruption and stop illegal mining by firms which only have exploration permits, Reuters reported.  Mining accounts for 90 percent of the country's exports, but due in large part to civil war during the 1990s, Sierra Leone is sill ranked as the least developed country in the world by the United Nations.
  
  
• March 11 - European Commission Calls for CSR Proposals to Enhance Industry. The European Commission is starting a new funding program to enhance corporate social responsibility in European industrial sectors, according to the EC website. The EC is calling for proposals from new and existing partnerhips that will promote CSR in a particular sector.
  
  
• March 11 - New York Governor’s Dark Side Made Public.  New York state assemblymen were shocked to learn that federal prosecutors have linked the Governor of New York to involvement in a prostitution ring, reported The New York Times.  Ironically, Governor Eliot Spitzer won his position by a landslide on a pledge to bring higher ethical standards to the statehouse, and as the former Attorney General, oversaw the prosecution of at least two prostitution rings by the state’s organized crime task force. 
  
  
• March 10 - UK Considers Requiring “Equality Audits” for Employers. Britain's equality watchdog wants tough new powers to tackle employers who fail to hire or promote staff from "disadvantaged" groups, reported The Telegraph.  A Single Equality Bill is being drafted to replace 116 pieces of legislations that have been developed piecemeal to hold employers accountable for their anti-discrimination policies. The most controversial proposal would see big companies and public sector bodies required to produce annual "equality audits" of the number of staff they employ from disadvantaged groups.
  
  
• March 10 - Venezuelan Millionaire Gives Details into Corrupt Business Class. In recent interviews with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, a Venezuelan multimillionaire who was arrested on charges of bribery and money laundering gave rare insight into the inner-workings of newly rich, often corrupt business class with connections to Hugo Chavez’s government, reported The Wall Street Journal.  The multimillionaire, Franklin Duran, was arrested in Miami for transporting a cash-stuffed suitcase to an Argentine airport from Venezuela, allegedly to be used for the presidential campaign of Argentina's Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.  
  
  
• March 9 – Nike Report Shows Concern over Chinese Labor Law Deficiencies. The Financial Times reported workers at Nike’s contract factories in China do not enjoy the same protection as their peers elsewhere because of “gaps” in the country’s labor laws, according to the global footwear giant.  Nike has produced a report as part of a larger effort to increase the transparency of its operations in China – where the company sources 35 per cent of its footwear – before this summer’s Olympic games in Beijing.
  
  
• March 7 - Exec Salary Hikes Featured in Wall Street Journal. The boards of Toll Brothers Inc. and KB Home are finding ways to grant sizable bonuses to their chief executives, even as the home builders' share prices and profits languish, WSJ reported.  The compensation committee has come up with a new bonus plan based on an undisclosed, set of criteria which could significantly increase their salaries.  This comes after Ford Motor Co. announced it will pay bonuses to all hourly and salaried workers despite its losses, in part to avoid any bitterness among the rank and file.  Another WSJ article said General Motors Corp. gave Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner a 33% raise for 2008 and equity compensation of at least $1.68 million for his performance in 2007, a year for which the auto maker reported a loss of $38.7 billion.
   
• March 5 - Corruption Allegations Against Zardari Dropped. A Pakistani court dropped five corruption cases against Benazir Bhutto’s widower, Asif Ali Zardari, who is also leader of the opposition party that won last month's parliamentary elections, reported The Associated Press.  He became known among Pakistanis by the nickname "Mr. Ten Percent" for allegedly pocketing kickbacks during the 1990s when his wife was in office.  There are two other outstanding corruption cases against Zardari in Pakistan, which Naek and government prosecutor Zulfikar Ahmad Bhutta said would likely be dropped next week. A money-laundering case is still pending against Zardari in Switzerland.
  
  
• March 5 - WaMu Approves Plan to Protect Exec Bonuses. Washington Mutual’s board committee said in light of the challenging business environment and the need to evaluate performance across a wide range of factors it will take a three-step approach to rewarding its executives including subjectively evaluating company performance in credit risk management, Reuters reported.  The plan will help protect its management's bonus targets from the impact of the subprime loan fallout.
  
  
• March 5 – Siemens’ Amnesty Program Generating Results, Company Says. General Counsel at Siemens said the employee amnesty program, which was offered to all employees except 300 top executives, prompted about 110 employees to offer information about alleged wrongdoing, The Wall Street Journal reported. The German engineering company has identified €1.3 billion in suspicious transactions between 2000 and 2006, in what could prove to be the biggest corporate-bribery case ever, but has yet to publicly name top executives who facilitated illicit payments.
  
  
• March 4 - Legal Challenge Issued to the European Parliament over Secret Expenses. The Daily Telegraph has obtained details of a letter sent by a secretive "bureau" of senior MEPs that refuses to publish details of how individual members have benefited from publicly-funded allowances, amounting to £180 million a year.  The argument is expected to generate controversy by linking future publication of MEP allowances to the practices of countries such as Bulgaria or Romania, new member states regularly criticised for corruption in EU reports.
  
  
• March 4 - Corruption Leads to Downfall of Australian City Council. The New South Wales Premier dissolved the Wollongong Council, governing body of the third biggest city in the state, at the request of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, reported The Australian. All elected officials were kicked out on allegations of bribery and corruption, and three appointed officials will govern until 2012.
  
  
• March 3 - Argentine Companies Now Required to Produce Sustainability Reports. Companies in Argentina with more than 300 employees will now have to produce annual sustainability reports based on their social, economic, and financial sustainability, the Global Reporting Initiative reports.  Companies of less than 300 employees will also be persuaded to voluntarily adhere to the upcoming reporting guidelines. In return for their transparency they will be eligible for financial benefits, such as promotional soft loans and technological investment incentives.
  
  

• Feb. 29 - Largest Protest Rally Yet Calls for Arroyo’s Resignation. Two former Philippine presidents, once bitter foes, joined tens of thousands of protesters at a rally Friday to press for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's resignation over a raging corruption scandal, The Associated Press reported.  It was the largest crowd yet since Arroyo's latest crisis erupted weeks ago when the Philippine Senate heard testimony, broadcast on live television, that linked her husband to multimillion-dollar kickbacks in a government telecommunications deal.
  
  
• Feb. 28 - Thaksin Returns to Thailand to Face Corruption Charges. The former Prime Minister of Thailand, returned from exile amid many cheering fans, but he is still accused of presiding over rampant corruption, Reuters reported.  Thaksin vows to stay out of politics, but some say he could use his political clout to circumvent the corruption charges against him.
  
  
• Feb. 28 - Key American Ally Accuses U.S. Company Alcoa of Bribery. A company controlled by the Persian Gulf state of Bahrain accused Alcoa Corp. of a 15-year conspiracy involving overcharging, fraud and bribery, the Wall Street Journal reported.  Bank records and invoices show that more than $2 billion in the Bahraini firm’s payments for alumina passed from Bahrain to tiny companies in Singapore, Switzerland and the Isle of Guernsey. The suit filed by the firm in the U.S. alleged that some of the money found its way back to Bahraini “senior government officials” involved in granting the contracts. It is highly unusual for a country to use U.S. courts to accuse an American company of bribery, WSJ reports.
  
  
• Feb. 27 - China Relinquishes Responsibility for Exported Drug Quality. The Chinese drug-safety agency issued a statement saying importing countries are responsible for quality checks, reported The Wall Street Journal.  The statement was also an attempt to distance China from an investigation the US Food and Drug Administration is undergoing regarding potentially tainted drugs produced by a Chinese-American joint venture company and sold by Baxter International. 
  
  
• Feb. 27 - Good Governance Equals Good Business, Survey Says. Forbes reported that companies with the best corporate governance levels in the FTSE All-Share have produced returns 18 pct higher than those with poor governance, according to new research by the Association of British Insurers (ABI).
  
  
• Feb. 26 - Opaque Banking Rules in Liechtenstein Causes International Concern about Tax Evasion. International pressure on Liechtenstein to relax its strict bank secrecy rules grew on Tuesday after the US said it was investigating more than 100 taxpayers suspected of using accounts in the Alpine principality to avoid tax, reported The Financial Times.  Other countries such as Australia, France and Sweden began investigating residents with money in Liechtenstein banks after Germany’s biggest tax evasion investigation that started two weeks ago.
  
  
• Feb. 26 - Argentina Considers Tax Breaks for Better Corporate Governance. Argentina may grant incentives such as lower tax rates to companies that improve corporate governance standards, part of an effort to attract investment to South America's second-biggest economy, Bloomberg reported.  Argentina is seeking to improve information disclosure and protect the rights of minority shareholders, and eventually, may introduce a classification system similar to Brazil's Novo Mercado, or New Market, whose governance rules mirror those of the U.S. and Europe.
  
  
• Feb. 26 - High-Profile Case Finds Five U.S. Execs Guilty of Fraud. Four executives working for insurance company General Re and a fifth formerly employed by AIG were all found guilty by a U.S. federal court of conspiracy, securities fraud, mail fraud and making false statements, reported The Wall Street Journal.  The verdict came in one of the highest-profile fraud cases to emerge from the accounting investigations following the collapses of Enron Corp. and WorldCom Inc. And “We’re not done,” said one federal prosecutor.
  
  
• Feb. 26 - Thailand’s Ruling Could Threaten Thaksin’s Return to Power. Thailand's Election Commission voted Tuesday to disqualify the speaker of Parliament's lower house for vote-buying ahead of December elections, The Associated Press reported.  The ruling could dissolve the People's Power Party, which supports the ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra accused of corruption.
  
  
• Feb. 25 - EU Plans Code of Conduct for SWFs. EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the European Commission plans to lay out "a set of principles for transparency, predictability and accountability" for sovereign wealth funds due to increasing concerns about their governance standards, reported The Wall Street Journal.  Mr. Barroso said the EU will then push the International Monetary Fund to set up a global code of conduct for sovereign wealth funds and their owners by the end of this year, while the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is also coming up with recommendations for recipient countries.
  
  
• Feb. 24 - Survey Finds Cost of Transportation in West Africa Worst in World. The Economic Community of West African States says it has been collecting information along the region's most heavily traveled roads for the past year and has found that due to corruption costs, transportation is the most expensive in the world, reported Voice of America.  The problem is hard to solve because there are so many people involved, according to the Ghana Ministry of Transportation. The problem is not only corrupt policemen, but also drivers who willingly offer bribes to stay on the road illegally.
  
  
• Feb. 22 - Arizona Representative Indicted for Using Public Money Illegally. U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi was indicted on 35 counts of extortion, embezzlement, money-laundering and other crimes after nearly a year of court inquiry, reported the Arizona Republic.  If convicted, Renzi could get up to 20 years in prison on each of the most serious charges, plus fines of $250,000.
  
  
• Feb. 22 - Novartis Establishes Groundbreaking Institute for Developing Countries. Novartis Vaccines Institute for Global Health (NVGH) is the first institute with a nonprofit mission established by a major vaccine manufacturer which will exclusively focus on vaccines for diseases of the developing world, according to the company website.  The NVGH's goal is to address the unmet medical need for vaccines for diseases of the developing world by researching vaccines specifically tailored for developing country needs and introducing them first in those countries.
  
  
• Feb. 22 - U.S. Freezes Assets of Key Syrian Businessman. The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Syrian businessman Rami Makhluf, a powerful behind-the-scenes middle man for the Syrian government, under an executive order citing Syrians for alleged corruption, The Washington Post reported.  The move freezes any assets Makhluf holds in the United States and restricts his transactions through U.S. financial institutions. The impact, however, may be largely political and psychological, as he is unlikely to have identifiable U.S. holdings, experts said.
  
  
• Feb. 22 - Former Volkswagon Exec Gets Prison Time. A German court convicted the former head of Volkswagen AG's employee council for his role in the scandal that included employee representatives receiving illegal privileges, among them trips abroad involving prostitutes, reported The Wall Street Journal. 
  
  
• Feb. 21 - South Korean President Vindicated, But Doubts Remain. An independent counsel has cleared South Korean President-elect Lee Myung-bak of all allegations concerning a financial scam and corruption, reported The Korean Times.  Opposition and other civic groups called it a cosmetic probe in an attempt to vindicate him. The team did question Lee, the Times reported, but the questioning took place at a Seoul restaurant lasting only three hours, including dinner, which the investigators and Lee had together.
  
  
• Feb. 21 - Philippine Police Take Tough Stand as Arroyo Protests Intensify. The Philippine police force threatened Thursday to fire members who join mounting opposition and church-led protests calling for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's resignation amid worsening corruption scandals, reported The International Herald Tribune.  Many Catholic churches and key universities have set up "truth centers" to collect signatures and cash donations from the public to back a key corruption witness, and other officials exposing government corruption.
  
  
• Feb. 20 – Google Kicks Out Corruption News Site. A small online news site, which often reports on internal corruption at the United Nations, was removed from the powerful Google search engine after nearly two years of prominent coverage, reported Fox News.  Google alleges that the website, Inner City Press, violated a Google News ground rule, but Editor Matthew Lee believes UN personnel pressured Google to find a way to remove his site.
  
  
• Feb. 20 – US Defense Contractor Gets Prison for Bribing Congressman. A California defense contractor and prominent Republican campaign contributor was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison on 13 counts of bribery, conspiracy and fraud, reported The Washington Post.  Contractor Brent Wilkes gave the gifts to former representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.) in exchange for $90 million worth of work at the Pentagon.  Cunningham is serving an eight-year prison term for accepting millions in bribes from Wilkes and others.
  
  
• Feb. 19 - Australia First to Make Sovereign Wealth Funds More Transparent.  The Australian Treasury Department announced six principles for regulating investments by foreign sovereign wealth funds, Forbes reported.  Amid growing public concern about the opaque nature of these funds, Australia is the first country to try to make its screening process for investment more transparent and predictable.
  
  
• Feb. 18 - Chinese Mine Officials More Concerned about Profit than Safety. Despite serious safety concerns, mines in the Linfen region of China have reopened amid concerns over a coal shortage, reported The Washington Post.  Other privately-owned coal mines are resuming operations without authorization, according to a Washington Post source, and the safety officials in the area are too corrupt to stop them.
  
  
• Feb. 17 - New Tanzania Finance Minister Takes Strong Stand Against Corruption. Tanzania's newly-appointed Finance Minister Mustafa Mkulo said one of his first tasks in his position will be to make changes to ensure that the central bank is less prone to corruption, Bloomberg reported.  Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete fired central bank Governor Daudi Ballali last month after an audit found the bank improperly paid $116 million to 22 companies between 2005 and 2006.
  
  
• Feb 15 - U.S. Court Expands Whistleblower Rights To Overseas.  Employees of U.S. stock exchange listed companies who blow the whistle on fraud that took place in the U.S. can be protected under the Sarbanes-Oxley law even if they are based beyond U.S. shores, according to a landmark court ruling, the Financial Times reported. It said that the decision involving the Accenture consulting firm, overturns years of refusal by U.S. courts to allow the extra-territorial application of the 2002 post-Enron crisis Sarbanes-Oxley Act’s whistleblower protections. A new York judge found that Rosemary O’Mahoney, a Paris-based Accenture employee who claimed that Accenture had carried out tax fraud, could be protected because measures allegedly taken against her by the company were orchestrated in the U.S..
  
  
• Feb 13 - Deloitte Launches $50 million Pro Bono Program. The major global auditing firm announced that the aim of the new program is to transform the way the organization supports charitable organizations and strengthens the nonprofit sector. Deloitte said the strategic program establishes a formal budget, as well as the policies and procedures to support non-profit organizations over the next three years. It will be particularly focused on helping nonprofits deal with the business and operational issues that challenge their capacity to address social problems.
  
  
• Feb. 12 - Top American Lawyer Sentenced to 2 Years Prison. Bill Lerach, known as the “King of the Shareholder Suit” received a two year sentence as a result of actions through his law firm, Milberg Weiss, of secretly paying people to participate in huge class-action claims against companies. The San Diego Union Tribune reported that the judge said Leach had, "“corrupted the law firm and corrupted it in the most evil way.”
  
  
• Feb 14 - VALENTINES DAY
  Making Chocolate Sweeter …Cocoa Verification Board Set to Improve Labor Conditions. 
  The introduction of an independent, transparent and credible process to build public confidence that labor conditions in cocoa production will meet international standards was announced at the end of 2007.  The Cocoa Verification Board will select, train and hire individual, independent verifiers who will critique and report on the robustness of the national surveys undertaken by the governments of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.  See a critique of the initiative in The Huffington Post.
  
  
• Feb. 11 - Tanzania New PM Appointed After Corruption Scandal. Tanzania's President Kikwete moved fast to win parliamentary approval for local government minister Mizengo Pinda to replace Edward Lowassa as Tanzania's Prime Minister following a major corruption scandal, Reuters reported. Major corruption in power supplies was revealed last week in a parliamentary report, according to AFP.  President Kikwete announced that he has fired the entire cabinet, BBC reported. The scandal involved Texas-based firm Richmond, which reportedly cost the country 140,000 dollars a day. The U.S. firm denied the charges, according to Associated Press.
  
• Feb 8 - British Ambitious Aid Plan At Risk, Says Audit Office. The British National Audit Office’s recent report raised significant concerns that the government’s expanded budget support for fighting HIV/AIDS is being exposed to “significant risks,” reported The Independent.  Many of the worst countries for corruption included some of the biggest recipients of budget support, a strategy that has received support because it helps governments create more ambitious plans and programs to reduce poverty.
  
  
• Feb. 6 – Top Chinese Official in Olympic Host City Gets Life for Graft. The former communist party boss of Olympic host city Qingdao was sentenced to life in prison for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, The Associated Press reported. Thriving Qingdao has spent enormous funds to relocate a former shipyard in order to host sailing events for the August Games, creating fertile opportunity for officials to collect bribes and kickbacks from developers. 
  
  
• Feb. 6 - High-Profile Anti-Corruption Trial in Bangladesh Thrown Out. The extortion trial of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was declared illegal by Bangladesh's High Court on Wednesday, throwing the high-profile case and government efforts to crack down on corruption into turmoil, reported the Associated Press. The Attorney General's Office quickly appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court.
  
  
• Feb. 5 - Legal Protection for Journalists Demanded at UN Conference. At the close of the UN anti-corruption conference last week, a coalition of civil society groups, called upon the UN itself to establish a procedure within its system to protect anti-corruption advocates, reported The Bangkok Post. Meanwhile, journalists from all over the world participating in the conference adopted a media statement urging all governments to ensure comprehensive legal guarantees for the right of access to information and physical safety of journalists.
  
  
• Feb. 5 – Corruption in Moldovan Schools Breaks Record. A survey conducted by Michigan State University shows corruption in the Moldovan educational system has reached record highs, reported The Tiraspol Times, a Moldovan daily newspaper.  Largely seen as a failed state, many children growing up in Moldova have given up on the system and are only looking for ways to leave, usually by paying off teachers and administrators to ensure graduation.
  
  
• Feb. 4 - Victims of BP Plant Blast to Tell Their Side. A decision is still pending as to whether British Petroleum will be fined $50 million for its criminal conduct in a 2005 plant explosion in Texas, which killed 15 people and injured more than 170 others, reported BusinessWeek.  The highly criticized plea deal will be accepted or rejected based on victims’ testimony, many of whom do not believe the deal does enough to punish BP.
  
  
• Feb. 4 - EU Criticizes Bulgarian, Romanian Anti-Graft Policies. The European Union threatened penalties if recent EU members Romania and Bulgaria don’t do more to clean up corruption, reported BBC News.  The release of the European Commission’s interim report did not show convincing results in either country which would indicate their efforts to fight corruption are working.   
  
  
• Feb. 3 - Afghan Government Doing Little to Stem Corruption Fueling Drug Trade. President Hamid Karzai’s refusal to appoint a new counter-narcotics minister to deal with the increasing problem of Afghanistan’s corruption-fueled drug trade reveals the government's priorities, reported AFP.  Farmers see less than a quarter of the four billion dollars that the annual trade earns, which is equal to more than half of the legal gross domestic product, and often ends up in the hands of Taliban insurgents.
  
• Feb. 1 - Debate Emerges Over Rogue Trader’s Image.  French trader Jérôme Kerviel, who lost Société Générale $7.2 billion, the largest banking loss by an individual in history, has recently gained a strangely large amount of support as a “hero of the finance industry,” reported The Wall Street Journal.  Some French and American groups are having a hard time condemning a man who cheated the rich playing by his own rules.
  
  
• Jan. 31 - UK Workers Could See Extended Rights to Full-Time Caregivers. The European Court has issued an opinion that would give UK employees who care for disabled family members “unprecedented rights” in the workplace, reported The Financial Times. So-called third-person discrimination or “discrimination by association’’ is already prohibited in Britain in areas such as race, sexual orientation and religion, but not disability, age and gender discrimination.
  
  
• Jan. 30 - Indonesian Central Bank Governor Targeted for Graft. Indonesia's central bank governor has been named as an official suspect in an investigation into the alleged bribery of legislators, reported The Financial Times. If prosecuted, the governor would become the most senior serving official to face corruption charges since the anti-corruption commission was formed five years ago.
  
  
• Jan. 29 – Lawmakers Condemn Bush’s ‘Empty Rhetoric’ on Political Spending. In the U.S. President’s annual State of the Union address, George Bush declared the executive branch will no longer honor earmarks, but the initiative will commence only after Bush leaves office, reported The Boston Globe. Bush decided not to touch more than 11,000 earmarks totaling about $16 billion that Congress added to the just-completed 2008 budget, as watchdog groups had urged him to do.
  
  
• Jan. 29 - SEC Not Satisfied with Corporate Pay Reporting. The US Securities and Exchange Commission is still unhappy with the level of disclosure most companies report on executive compensation and sent out a new round of letters telling them so, reported The Wall Street Journal.  The increasing SEC scrutiny could spur changes in how companies calculate compensation, including moving away from individual performance as a measure of success in favor of companywide financial targets, such as earnings or stock prices.
  
  
• Jan. 29 - Iran Getting Tough on Corruption? Iran has executed a customs contractor for corruption and three customs employees have also been sentenced to death in a rare use of capital punishment for economic crimes, reported Reuters.  It is the latest sign of Iran carrying through on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s vow to combat corruption.
  
  
• Jan. 28 - Former Indonesian President Dies, Corruption Charges Pending.  Former President Suharto’s long illness was the occasion for a national debate over his legacy and over calls to dropcorruption charges against him, but the negative voices were mostly quiet on Sunday during funeral proceedings, reported The New York Times. Mr. Suharto had avoided trial on corruption charges because his lawyers argued that a series of strokes had weakened his mind too much for him to participate; however, the civil case, which seeks $1.4 billion in compensation for money said to have been stolen through a charitable foundation, could proceed against his heirs.
  
  
• Jan. 28 – UN Meetings Will Urge More Countries to Adopt UN Convention. More than 100 countries met in Bali for a U.N. Anti-Corruption Conference to find ways of clawing back some of the billions of dollars in assets stolen by corrupt leaders, Reuters reported.  Former leaders in attendance who have been accused of corruption in their own countries are expected to be scrutinized.
  
  
• Jan. 27 - Top Exec at Largest Asian Oil Company Charged with Corruption. Chen Tonghai, former Chinese general manager of Asia's largest oil refiner Sinopec, has been charged with corruption and expelled from the Communist Party, the AFP reported.  Chen was accused of taking bribes, making unlawful profits and leading a corrupt life.
  
  
• Jan. 24 - Bill Gates Calls for Creative Capitalism. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Gates issued a challenge to world business leaders "to use their power and intelligence to serve a wider circle of people." He sees the potential for business to be a far more powerful engine to reduce global poverty. Read full text of speech.
  
  
• Jan. 23 - Thaskin’s Wife Announces Husband to Return in May. The wife of deposed Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, appeared before the Supreme Court on charges that she used her husband's political influence to buy prime Bangkok real estate from a government agency at a third of its estimated value, reported The Associated Press.  She also announced that her husband will return from self-imposed exile to face corruption charges in May.
  
  
• Jan. 23 – Corruption in NY Police Force Raises Tough Questions. Four police officers in Brooklyn, New York have been arrested for paying off narcotic informants with the same drugs they taken from the dealers who were arrested after the informants pointed them out, reported The New York Times.  Police corruption, especially in narcotics, has become widespread - nearly 100 cases are being investigated – but some argue the tactics are necessary for success.
  
  
• Jan. 21 - FTSE Corporate Governance Compliance Still Low. Only four in 10 FTSE 350 companies claim full compliance with the UK's Combined Code, reported the Financial Times.  On the positive side, the 110 companies that did not claim full compliance have provided robust explanations instead. But 4 per cent still gave no explanation and 34 per cent only a minimum, suggesting a significant number "may need to revisit their attitude to the principles of governance", said the head of accounting firm, Grant Thorton.
  
  
• Jan. 19 - UN Anti-Graft Force’s Tough Tactics Win Success. The success of the two-year-old UN Procurement Task Force, which fights corruption inside the UN, has garnered the support of Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon to remain a permanent part of the UN after its mandate expires at the end of the year, reported The Washington Post.  The team’s white-collar, anti-fraud tactics have resulted in an unprecedented number of misconduct findings against 17 U.N. staff members, and have led to the conviction of a procurement officer who steered more than $100 million in contracts to a state-owned Indian company.
  
  
• Jan. 18 - Google Launches Groundbreaking Corporate Philanthropic Initiative. The new corporate philanthropic arm at Google, Inc. has set aside assets valued at nearly $2 billion, the largest of any in-house corporate foundation in the U.S., reported The Wall Street Journal.  The massive philanthropic endeavor, which WSJ says erases the usual boundaries between the for-profit and nonprofit worlds, will create systems to help predict and prevent disease pandemics, to empower the poor with information about public services and to create jobs by investing in small- and mid-size businesses in the developing world. Philanthropy experts consider Google to be among the leading edge of donors experimenting with this hybrid for-profit/nonprofit model.
  
  
• Jan. 18 – Documents Suggest UK Officials Knew of Illegal Payments to Saudis. New evidence emerged in the ongoing investigations of weapons negotiations between Saudi Arabia and the UK that shows the Saudi royal family demanded secret commissions on arms sales from the British government, reported The Guardian.  The documents also suggested that UK officials were conscious about the use of public funds and the need to "restrain payments" during negotiations in the 1970s.
  
  
• Jan. 15 – Corporate Deals in U.S. Raise Questions of ‘Cronyism.’ The chairmen of the U.S. House and Senate Judiciary committees are concerned about the growing number of ex-government officials who are profiting off large, and often secretive, corporate contracts, reported The Washington Post.  The lucrative arrangements entail a “monitoring” firm to come into a troubled company to expose corruption and change business practices, while allowing scandal-plagued companies to avoid criminal charges. The Project on Government Oversight has questioned whether the deals reward "cronies" who share political affiliations with the U.S. attorneys handing out the deals.
  
  
• Jan. 15 - Britain Struggles With Corporate Governance Listings. The London City regulator is suggesting creating a "tier one listing" on the stock market and "tier two listing" to differentiate between those companies who adhere to stricter corporate governance standards and those that only comply with European Union rules, reported The Guardian. The Federal Services Authority is also trying to tackle the inequality faced by a British company listing in London and one from overseas which can choose whether or not to comply with the stricter rules.
  
  
• Jan. 15 – Corporate Deals in U.S. Raise Questions of ‘Cronyism.’ The chairmen of the U.S. House and Senate Judiciary committees are concerned about the growing number of ex-government officials who are profiting off large, and often secretive, corporate contracts, reported The Washington Post.  The lucrative arrangements entail a “monitoring” firm to come into a troubled company to expose corruption and change business practices, while allowing scandal-plagued companies to avoid criminal charges. The Project on Government Oversight has questioned whether the deals reward "cronies" who share political affiliations with the U.S. attorneys handing out the deals.
  
  
• Jan. 15 - Britain Struggles With Corporate Governance Listings. The London City regulator is suggesting creating a "tier one listing" on the stock market and "tier two listing" to differentiate between those companies who adhere to stricter corporate governance standards and those that only comply with European Union rules, reported The Guardian. The Federal Services Authority is also trying to tackle the inequality faced by a British company listing in London and one from overseas which can choose whether or not to comply with the stricter rules.
  
  
• Jan. 14 – Report Urges Coke to Help Improve Indian Water Supply. After mounting pressure from activists criticizing Coca-Cola’s management practices in their bottling plants in India, a report was released by Energy and Resources Institute to show that no pesticides were found to exist in water bottled by Coke, but the company could do more to help improve local water supplies, reported The Wall Street Journal.
  
  
• Jan 11 - Extensive Ethics Cases at the UNITED NATIONS - The UN's auditing agency said it is investigating some 250 corruption cases including alleged sexual abuse by peacekeepers and financial irregularities, and it has found the extent of misbehavior surprising, Reuters reported. "Our caseload has been very steady over the last three months, around 250 cases," said Inga-Britt Ahlenius, head of the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS). She added, "We can say that we found mismanagement and fraud and corruption to an extent we didn't really expect."
  
  
• Jan 10 - Tanzanian President fires central banker over corruption: President Jakaya Kikwete, who had ordered an Ernst & Young audit of the Central Bank has fired the governor, Daudi Ballali, AP reported as published in The International Herald Tribune. The auditors discovered that false entries had been made at the bank for payments worth over $120 million to 22 local firms, many of which did not exist.
  
  
• Jan. 9 - Number of US Bribery Cases in 2007 Doubled from 2006. The Financial Times reports that US enforcers brought a record number of 38 civil and criminal corruption cases against multinational companies accused of paying bribes in foreign countries. The US has dramatically stepped up enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in the past couple of years, particularly against non-US companies with an American presence.
  
  
• Jan. 9 - Prosecutors’ Appeal Could Shake Up Taiwanese Election. Taiwan prosecutors are making a final appeal to overturn non-guilty verdicts of the presidential candidate of the opposition party who has been accused of diverting part of a special allowance to his own account while serving as Taipei mayor, reported Reuters.  If the Supreme Court overturns the high court ruling, the impact of the decision would depend on timing, as the new president will take office on May 20. Under the constitution, the president is immune to most prosecution.
  
  
• Jan. 8 - Battle Against Curbing Exec Pay Slows Down in Canada. The powerful Canadian Coalition for Good Governance will not press regulators to introduce mandatory shareholder votes on executive pay packages, reported The Globe and Mail.  The group recently produced a paper concluding Canadian companies appear to be taking positive steps to improve their executive compensation practices, so shareholder votes are not necessary at this time.
  
  
• Jan. 7 - Ecuador Oil Company Has A Lot to ‘Clean Up.’ The results of an ongoing review of oil contracts made by Ecuadorean state energy company PetroEcuador, reveal “tens of millions” of dollars were stolen, reported Bloomberg.  The lack of in-house cleanup capacity has cost PetroEcuador $350 million over the past three years as private-sector companies have billed it to handle oil spills.
  
  
• Jan. 6 - Suharto Off the Hook? After slipping into “critical condition,” allies of former Indonesian dictator Suharto urged the government to drop the corruption cases against him on “humanitarian grounds,” reported AFP on Suharto, who led an often brutal regime, is accused of looting 1.4 billion dollars through a charitable foundation that he chaired.
  
  
• Jan. 2 - Another Exec Cashes in Big, Despite Poor Performance. Mitchell Caplan, will step down as chief executive of E-Trade amid large losses in the company's mortgage business and is to receive $10.9 million in severance pay, reported Reuters.  Caplan's severance payment is two times his 2006 base salary and bonus, according to the E-Trade statement.
  
  
• Jan. 2 -Lockheed Pays $2.5M to Settle Discrimination Case. The United States’ largest defense contractor, Lockheed Martin, made a settlement, which the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission called largest amount ever received for a single person in a racial discrimination case, reported The Pacific Business News.  Charles Daniels, a former Lockheed Martin employee and African American, claimed he was subjected to "persistent verbal abuse" by his fellow crew workers and immediate supervisor, and the company took no action.
  
  
• Jan. 2 - “Traditional” Amnesties in South Korea Draw Criticism. Kim Woo-choong, the founder of the former Daewoo Group who was convicted of serious financial crimes related to South Korea's biggest corporate failure, was pardoned yesterday, along with more than 70 other businessmen and politicians as part of the outgoing South Korean president’s traditional New Year amnesty, reported The Financial Times. The scale of the latest amnesties sparked strong criticism from the opposition party that the president was abusing his powers.
  
  
• Jan 1. - Saudi Blogger Arrested for Denouncing Government Corruption. A popular blogger in Saudi Arabia, Fouad al-Farhan, who regularly criticized corruption has been detained by the government for questioning, making it the first known arrest of an online critic in the kingdom, reported The Washington Post.  The Saudi news media have not yet reported the arrest, but more than 200 bloggers in the kingdom have criticized Farhan's detention, The Post reports.
  
  
• Jan. 2 - Nigerian Anti-Corruption Fight to End? Nigeria’s President Umaru Yar’Adua has decided to send Nuhu Ribadu (pictured), the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and his deputy, Ibrahim Lamorde, on year-long police training courses after the EFCC ordered the arrest of an increasing number of high-profile politicians, including ex-governors. Nigerian Tribune columnist Abiodun Raufu wrote: “By easing Ribadu out of EFCC obviously to give fraudulent ex and current political office holders a breathing space, the message we are passing to the international community is that Yar’Adua’s government does not possess the political will to fight corruption.”
  
  
• Jan. 2- Major British Export Firm Under Fire for Suspect Payments. A former sales manager, Jonathan Danos, of the British family-owned, steel bridge exporting company has accused the firm of circumventing UK anti-bribery laws, reported The Guardian.  In his court filings, Danos paints in rarely seen detail a picture of a company that regularly paid huge sums to confidential agents to make sales around the world. In a counter attack, Danos is also being sued by the firm for pocketing illegal kickbacks from the deals.

 

Back To Top