News Archive: 2009 (June - December)

• Dec 16 - Credit Suisse to pay $536 million in U.S. justice Iran probe.
  
  
• Dec 15 - Pakistan's Supreme Court has ruled that a decree protecting allies of President Asif Zardari against charges of corruption is illegal. The controversial law granting senior politicians amnesty was brought in by ex-President Pervez Musharraf. The court's move opens the way to possible prosecution for Mr Zardari's political allies, although he is still protected by presidential immunity. Mr Zardari faces several pending court cases against him in Pakistan.
  
  
• Dec. 4 - New York State Pension Kick-Backs. The Wall Street Journal reported that California money manager Elliott Broidy has admitted to making nearly $1 million in gifts to benefit four former top officials in the office that oversees New York state's pension fund, including onetime state comptroller Alan Hevesi.State Attorney general Andrew Cuomo has been pursuing a multiyear probe into the $116.5 billion pension fund that has focused on whether decisions about how to invest retirees' money were wrongly influenced by bribes and politics.
  
  
• Dec. 2 - Siemens Former Directors Pay Cash for Corporate Scandal. reported that former top officers at Germany’s Siemens, which has had to pay record fines of over $1.3 billion to settle US and German corruption probes, have agreed to make personal payments to the company. Ex-Siemens Chairman Heinrich von Pierer agreed to pay the company 5 million euros (US$7.54 million) to partly compensate for the costs that the scandal caused Siemens. Former management board members Uriel Sharef will pay 4 million euros, Juergen Radomski and Johannes Feldmayer will each pay 3 million euros. Ex-CEO Klaus Kleinfeld, who is now CEO of Alcoa, would pay two million euros, while former chairman Karl Hermann Baumann would pay one million euros. Two top executives have refused to settle and are likely to be sued by Siemens.
  
  
• Dec. 2 - Wall Street Focus of Heightened Insider Trading Investigations. The Wall Street Journal reported that the US Securities and Exchange Commission has sent at least three dozen subpoenas to hedge funds and brokerages within the past month in an expanding sweep of potential insider-trading violations, according to people familiar with the matter. The SEC says it is now trying to better understand the flows of information on Wall Street—where traders, bankers, lawyers and others behind-the-scenes players swap information and favors. The SEC is using computer technology to examine these webs of relationships, especially when individuals or firms surface in multiple surveillance referrals.
  
  

• New York, Nov 30 – Forestry Corruption in Indonesia. Human Rights Watch has released “Wild Money” – a report on forestry in Indonesia. It noted exports from its timber sector were worth $6.6 billion in 2007, second only to Brazil and worth some $2 billion more than all African and Central American nations combined. “But in recent years almost half of all Indonesian timber has been logged illegally at a staggering cost to the Indonesian economy and public welfare. Human Rights Watch details these costs and their human rights impacts. Using industry-standard methodology, we estimate that the Indonesian government lost an average of nearly $2 billion annually between 2003 and 2006 due to illegal logging, corruption, and mismanagement.”

• Nov. 27 – India’s Satyam Scandal Much Larger Than First Stated. The Wall Street Journal reported that India's Central Bureau Of Investigation said the accounting fraud at Satyam Computer Services Ltd. is now estimated at 118.8 billion rupees ($2.58 billion), much larger than the earlier estimate of 71.36 billion rupees. the CBI said that former Satyam executives and some former auditors created fake customer identities and generated fake invoices against their names to inflate revenue by about 4.30 billion rupees. CBI also said that the accused forged board resolutions and obtained unauthorized loans worth 12.20 billion rupees on behalf of Satyam, and used the amount to buy property worth 3.50 billion rupees. (This is India’s largest corporate governance scandal and has prompted intense debate about the effective oversight of major stock exchange listed companies.)
  
  
• Nov. 26 - South African Government Says it is Serious About Tackling Corruption. AllAfrica reported that Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale stated, "We take a very serious view - not just to mouth slogans about corruption and zero tolerance, but to take appropriate and effective steps to stamp it out, with dire consequences for those who are caught in the act." A Special Investigations Unit has brought to book more than 800 government officials who had houses and subsidies they should not have had. Five lawyers in the private sector have also been struck from the roll for corrupt activities associated with housing. The Minister said, "More arrests are to follow. We are hot on the heels of identified companies involved in nefarious activities. We simply cannot allow people to turn the poor into a business. This is morally reprehensible."
  
  
• Nov. 25 – President Zadari May Face Corruption Charges as Crisis Deepens. Bloomberg reported that Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari may face renewed corruption charges once a law that protected him lapses on November 28. Zardari, who took office 14 months ago, had more than a dozen criminal and graft cases against him withdrawn under a National Reconciliation Ordinance drafted by former leader Pervez Musharraf to bolster a power sharing deal with Zadari’s late wife Benezir Bhutto.
  
• Nov. 24 - UK Charity Commission Warnes Charities About Crooked Hedge Funds. Third Sector Online reported that the UK Charity Commission has warned trustees to make sure their charities are not being used as vehicles for money laundering after an inquiry found that an inactive charity received $151m (£91m) from a fraudulent US hedge fund. The Humanitarian Coalition Aid Foundation was established in 2002. Its website claimed it was engaged in Aids relief and water safety projects, but the commission found no evidence of any charitable activities or income except what had been donated by its own trustees. The commission's inquiry report says that in 2005 the regulator discovered that $151m had been paid into an account in the charity's name under the reference "Bayou Securities". The charity's bank returned the money amid concerns about its origin. Bayou Securities was part of a hedge fund whose owner had pleaded guilty in the US courts of conspiracy and fraud in relation to the fund. The fund had siphoned investor money through various banks around the world before returning it to the US.
  
  
• Nov. 20 - Vast European Soccer Match Fixing Exposed. Bloomberg reported that German prosecutors and police arrested 17 people in European soccer’s biggest match-fixing investigation, targeting leagues in nine countries. The probe identifies 200 suspects who may have paid bribes to influence games in countries including Germany, Turkey and Switzerland, police and prosecutors said at a press conference. “We’re facing the biggest scandal in soccer,” Peter Limacher of the European soccer governing body UEFA said at the conference. “We’re content this is cleared up now, but we’re also devastated by the extent of the manipulation.”
  
  
• Nov 17 - Transparency International releases its 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index. Again, dozens of countries have very low scores in this global survey that ranks 180 countries. The weak performance in large population countries as varied as Russia, Egypt and Nigeria - quite apart from the very worst performers (Somalia, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sudan, Iraq) highlights very serious governance deficiencies in major public institutions. See the full ranking and TI's press release at our Transparency International Surveys page
  
  

• Nov 13 --- Nestlé chief Peter Brabeck-Letmathe attacks "well-fed activists" ahead of UN World Hunger Summit. He said “It is disheartening to see how easily a group of well-intentioned and well-fed activists can decide about new technologies at the expense of those who are starving.” FinFacts reported that speaking ahead of the major food conference in Rome next week, the Nestlé chairman said that the annual rate of growth in agricultural yields was 2 per cent between 1970 and 1990 while the rate of population growth was 1.7 per cent a year. However, since 1990 yields had been declining relative to population growth, and would continue to do so between 2009 and 2017, with the world’s population expanding at 1.1 per cent a year against agricultural yield growth of only 0.8 per cent. The FAO estimates that global food production will have to increase 70 per cent for an additional 2.3 billion people by 2050 while at the same time combating poverty and hunger, using scarce natural resources more efficiently and adapting to climate change.

• Nov 11 - Pressure Mounts on Afghan President Hamid Karzai to Reform. AFP reported that

  Karzai will be sworn in on November 19 for another five years under the scrutiny of foreign leaders who Wednesday stepped up pressure on the Afghan leader to act against corruption. The huge fraud that marred the August 20 presidential election highlighted the scale of corruption in Afghanistan's government and has led to enormous international pressure on Karzai's new administration to clean up graft. On Wednesday, the visiting Swedish foreign minister, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, urged Karzai to make a strong commitment to reform.

• Nov 11 - We're Corrupt, Russian Policeman Tells World via YouTube...then He Is Fired. A Russian police officer has been sacked after exposing corruption among his senior colleagues in audacious video postings on YouTube. Guardian News reported that in a case that has prompted public debate in Russia about its scandal-prone police, Major Alexei Dymovsky has become a media sensation, with hundreds of thousands of people logging on to watch his videos. Tired of miserable pay, long hours and requests to solve fictitious crimes, Major Dymovsky took matters into his own hands. In two videos recorded while sitting on his sofa at home, he appealed directly to the Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, urging him to improve conditions for demoralised police officers. ''Vladimir Vladimirovich, let's together investigate the state of the police force across Russia. I'm not afraid of my own death,'' he says into the camera, occasionally stumbling over his words, and dressed in his dark blue Interior Ministry uniform.
  
  
• Nov 11 - Hundreds of Civil Society Organizations Call for UN Monitoring. As a key United Nations meeting opens in Doha to review the Convention Against Corruption, so civil society is leaving now doubt that an objective and effective monitoiring mechanism of the Conventioin is vital, said Transparency International and a coalition of over 300 civil society organizations.
  
  
• Nov 11 - Financial Reform Controversy In US. Bloomberg reported that the Federal Reserve faces the biggest blows to its authority and independence in five decades under legislation championed by its lead overseer in the U.S. Senate. The financial-regulation overhaul proposed yesterday by Senator Christopher Dodd would strip the Fed of its role as a bank supervisor and give Congress a greater voice in naming the officials who set interest rates. The measure opens the door to interference from politicians who might disagree with any move by the Fed to raise rates from record lows, former central bank officials said.
  
  
• Nov 6 - Fourteen Charged in US in Major Insider Trading Stock Market Probe. The Wall Street Journal reported that prosecutors in New York charged 14 people with crimes, including lawyers, a former Moody's Investors Service analyst and the founder of trading firm Incremental Capital, in an expanding insider-trading probe that had identified some $40 million in improper profits. The latest charges further paint a picture of unscrupulous executives and deal lawyers who advised companies on potential acquisitions passing along tips to hedge-fund managers and Wall Street traders about pending deals.
  
  
• Nov 4 - JPMorgan Chase Fined in Alabama Derivatives Scandal. Bloomberg reported that the major New York bank agreed to a $722 million settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to end a probe into sales of derivatives that helped push Alabama’s most populous county to the brink of bankruptcy. Local officials have been found guilty of various crimes and the SEC charged that former executvies at the bank had made more than $8 million in undisclosed payments to close friends of county commissioners.
  
  
• Oct. 30 - Missing Millions from Afghan Election Commission - ProPublica reported that the United Nations cannot account for tens of millions of dollars provided to the troubled Afghan election commission, according to two confidential U.N. audits and interviews with current and former senior diplomats. As Afghanistan prepares for a second round of national voting, the documents and interviews paint the fullest picture to date of the finances of the election commission, which has been accused of facilitating election fraud and operating ghost polling places. The new disclosures also deepen the questions about the U.N.'s oversight of money provided by the United States and other nations to ensure a fair election in Afghanistan. "Everybody kept sending money" to the elections commission, said Peter Galbraith, the former deputy chief of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan. "Nobody put the brakes on. U.S. taxpayers spent hundreds of millions of dollars on a fraudulent election." Galbraith, a deputy to the senior U.N. official in Afghanistan who was after protesting fraud in the elections.
  
  
• Oct 30 — Former French President Jacques Chirac To Stand Trial. AP reported that a PParis magistrate has ordered the trial of Chirac and nine others, including a relative of former President de Gaulle, on charges stemming from the 12 years to 1995 when Chirac was the mayor of Paris. Charges relate to embezzlement, nepotism, breach of trust. While the public prosecutor's office had argued against bringing charges, saying the statute of limitations had expired on many of the events in question, the judge decided to proceed. Chirac, 76, has always claimed to be innocent. Speculation about the case has for years related to secret funding for political campaigns.
  
  
• Oct. 30 - BP Fined $87 million for Plant Safety Failues. The US Occupational and Safety Administration has levied its highest fine in history, $87 million, on BP for failing to correct safety problems identified after a 2005 explosion that killed 15 workers at its Texas City, refinery. The New York Times reported this is The fine is more than four times the size of any previous OSHA sanction.
  
  
• Oct. 30 - Many US Congressmen Under Ethics Investigation. A leaked document from the US House of Representatives, revealed in the Washington Post, said ethics investigators have been scrutinizing the activities of more than 30 lawmakers and several aides in inquiries about issues including defense lobbying and corporate influence peddling.
  

• Oct. 29 - Madoff Losses Rise to over $21 billion.  Irving Picard, the government-appointed trustee put in charge of returning investors' stolen money from Bernie Madoff's fraud (Madoff is serbving a 150 year prison term), has so far identified $21.2 billion stolen from more than 2,300 investor accounts held by Madoff, the Washington Post reported. The total is substantially larger than the $13 billion reported by Picard in June and is based on analysis of Madoff’s books going back to 1983.

• Oct 27 – Frenchmen Guilty in Angolan Arms-for-Oil Payoffs: The Wall Street Journal reported that French businessmen Pierre Falcone and Arcadi Gaydamak have been sentenced by a Paris court to six years each for arranging the shipment of weapons valued at $790 million to Angola in the mid-1990s. The court handed down lesser sentences to 34 other defendants in this case. The verdicts could impact Angola's future oil deals with France. Judges found Mr. Falcone guilty of influence-peddling, saying he used proceeds from the arms-for-oil trade to pay commissions to French politicians and civil servants in return for favors. French conservative senator and former interior minister Charles Pasqua was sentenced to three years in prison, two of them suspended, for influence-peddling, while Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, son of late Socialist President François Mitterrand, was found guilty of abuse of company funds and fined €375,000 for collecting payments from Mr. Falcone.

• Oct 26 - US Bars Kenyan Official. AFP reported that the US has revoked the visa of a senior Kenyan official for obstructing key reforms, US Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Johnnie Carson would noname the official, but said, " Highlighting our seriousness on the need for reforms in Kenya, I am announcing today that the US government has taken the decision to revoke the visa of a senior Kenyan government official," he told reporters in Nairobi. He did not reveal the official's name, describing him only as a "senior government official of influence. Reuters noted, "We are considering similar action with three other government officials," Carson told reporters in Nairobi. Graft is a major deterrent to private sector investment in the economy. Watchdog Transparency International ranks Kenya as the most corrupt nation in east Africa.

• Oct 23 - Vatican Bishops to Corrupt African Leaders: Repent or Quit. AP reported that Bishops attending a Vatican meeting said Africa needs "saints" in government "who will clean the continent of corruption, work for the good of the people," and end the evils of war and poverty devastating the continent. They said, "Whatever may be the responsibility of foreign interests, there is always the shameful and tragic collusion of the local leaders: politicians who betray and sell out their nations, dirty business people who collude with rapacious multinationals, African arms dealers and traffickers who thrive on small arms that cause great havoc on human lives.

• Oct. 23 -news from the International Fundraising Conference for civil society as reported on Twitter
  
  
• Oct.22 - A Group of Countries and United Nations Act Against Human Rights Abuse in Conflict Zones. UN News Centre reported that John Ruggie, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative on human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, announced that a group of nations is joining forces with the UN to identify how to quash such violations in war zones.  Areas wracked by fighting “attract illicit enterprises who treat them as lawless zones,” he said. Countries that have agreed to take part include Brazil, China, Colombia, Guatemala, Nigeria, Norway, Sierra Leone, the United Kingdom and the United States. On criticism over the actions of Chinese firms in Africa and Latin America, Mr. Ruggie likened their situation to that of North American mining companies when they first entered the Andean region.
  
  Oct. 22 - US Attacks Bonus Culture. Bloomberg reported that compensation curbs announced by the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve thrust the US government into decisions about pay and performance traditionally reserved for corporate boards.  The US Treasury ordered 90% cuts in salaries of the most highly paid executives at seven companies that received taxpayer aid, including Citigroup and General Motors. The Fed’s action is designed to curb risk taking and sets clear guidance on pay for more than 6,000 banks, with a focus on the 28 largest.
  
  
• Oct. 22 - Special Squad to Tackle Quebec Construction Industry Corruption. The National Post reported that The government of Quebec’s government is establishing a special, 60-police squad with sweeping powers to chase down and prosecute offenders in an offensive on allegations of corruption, bid rigging, collusion and criminal infiltration of the province's construction industry. The net could embrace 30,000 firms.
  
  
• Oct.14 - Egyptians Decry Corruption. AFP reported that more than eight in every 10 Egyptians believe corruption is rife and nearly half lack confidence in the government, according to the results of a ministerial survey. Upwards of 87 percent of 2,000 people included in the ministry of administrative development survey said string-pulling and favouritism are widespread, Egypt's main independent daily Al-Masri al-Yom reported. It said 89.7 percent of those asked said it was not possible to sort out administrative matters without pulling strings. More than 42 percent said they had used influence in their dealings with government bodies, while 26.4 percent also admitted to paying a bribe for the same reason.
  
  
• Oct.14 - Wall Street Ready for Record Pay. The Wall Street Journal reported that major U.S. banks and securities firms are on pace to pay their employees about $140 billion this year -- a record high that shows compensation is rebounding despite regulatory scrutiny of Wall Street's pay culture. Workers at 23 top investment banks, hedge funds, asset managers and stock and commodities exchanges can expect to earn even more than they did the peak year of 2007, according to an analysis of securities filings for the first half of 2009 and revenue estimates through year-end by The Wall Street Journal.
  
  
• Oct 14 - Canadian Legislatioin on Extractive Industries. The Rabble blog reports progress in Canada's parliament on Bill C-300, An Act Respecting Corporate Accountability for the Activities of Mining, Oil or Gas Corporations in Developing Countries. The blog says this "represents the best chance we have as Canadians to assure that Canadian extractive companies follow human rights and environmental best practices when they operate overseas. It also represents our best chance to assure the accountability of our government to us, as taxpayers and citizens, by assuring that government financial and political support will not be provided to companies that breach human rights and environmental standards."
  
  
• Oct.13 - Chinese Trials Start on Massive Police Corruption. The Wall Street Journal reported that the first in a series of trials got under way in China's western municipality of Chongqing that may reveal how senior police officials conspired with local gangsters to run rackets in one of the country's biggest cities. It is also the latest reminder of the government's challenge in rooting out corruption. In a sensational sweep that started in June, authorities have formally arrested hundreds of government officials, police officers and alleged gang members in a crackdown on organized crime in Chongqing. Authorities have said they are investigating crimes including bribery and extortion, and have grabbed headlines by putting forward evidence of drug dealing and gun possession.
  
• Oct 9 - Judges Lift Berlusconi Immunity.AFP reported that Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi declared after a cabinet meeting that "I am absolutely the person the most persecuted by the judiciary of all times, in all history and of anywhere in the world." He says he will stay in office as a top level Milan court determined that he cannot claim political immunity to avoid a host of corruption charges that prosecutors have prepared.
  
  
• Oct 8 - UN Global Compact Delists More than 1,000 Firms. The UN announced that the( number of companies delisted since 2008 for failure to meet the Global Compact’s mandatory annual reporting requirement,has now passed 1,000 and it has published the names on its website. Businesses are required to report annually on progress made in the implementation of the initiative’s ten principles covering human rights, workplace standards, the environment, and anti-corruption. Failure to report can lead to delisting. The current total of active business and non-business participants standing at over 7,000 organizations in more than 135 countries.
  
  

• Oct 7 - Top Cop on Trial in South Africa. Jackie Selebi, former Interpol president, has pleaded not guilty to charges of corruption and defeating the ends of justice. He claims he is the victim of a conspiracy by the two former bosses of the country's prosecuting authority and accuses them of being crooked. Associated Press reported that the trial is opening a window into a shady world of criminal kingpins and alleged graft at the highest levels in law enforcement. The explosive trial now under way has riveted South Africans with salacious details of double-dealings, friends turning on each other, and shopping sprees in London and Hong Kong.
  
  
• Oct. 5 - IMF Cautioned on Angola Program. Global Witness said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) should not go ahead with plans for a multi-million dollar loan to Angola, whose oil-rich government is highly corrupt, without stringent conditions that require the opening up of the country's oil industry to public scrutiny.  The IMF said last month that it is negotiating the terms of a 27-month Stand-By Arrangement (a type of loan facility) to help Angola cope with the fiscal impacts of low oil prices. A press report says the loan facility could be as large as $890 million.
  
  
• Oct. 5 - BAE Systems ready to admit guilt over corruption allegations. In what is likely to be the largest corporate bribery case in UK history, The Daily Telegraph reports that BAE Systems is ready to plead guilty and accept what is expected to be a record fine in order to bring a swift end to the Serious Fraud Office's (SFO) six-year investigation into allegations of corruption in Africa and eastern Europe.
  
  

• Sept 29 - Small Fine in First UK Anti-Corruption Case.Reuters reported that the first firm to be prosecuted in Britain for overseas corruption and breaching United Nations sanctions is to pay 6.6 million pounds in fines and penalties, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said. Bridge manufacturer Mabey & Johnson was convicted of two corruption charges relating to contracts in Jamaica and Ghana between 1993 and 2001. It also pleaded guilty to applying for contracts under the Iraq oil-for-food programme in 2001-02 in breach of U.N. sanctions.
  

• Sept. 28 - Carol Marshall Dies at 56 - It is with very great sadness that we learned (Washington Post) of the death of Carol, a former leader of the Ethics Resource Center's Fellows program, top ethics officer at Lockheed Martin and a remarkable pioneer in corporate ethics. Her work, on the Defense Industry Initiative and at many corporations and in the ERC created new, higher standards. She was a wonderfully warm, generous and lovely human being.

• Sept 21 -- Top US Commander in Afghanistan Decries Corruption. The Washington Post published the confidential report to President Obama by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal. In the assessment he describes an Afghan government riddled with corruption and an international force undermined by tactics that alienate civilians. The assessment offers an unsparing critique of the failings of the Afghan government, contending that official corruption is as much of a threat as the insurgency to the mission of the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, as the U.S.-led NATO coalition is widely known. "The weakness of state institutions, malign actions of power-brokers, widespread corruption and abuse of power by various officials, and ISAF's own errors, have given Afghans little reason to support their government," McChrystal says.
  
  
• Sept 21 - Siemens Pressures Former Top Executives. The Financial Times reported that

  Siemens' battles over damages payments for a multi-billion euro bribery scandal will reach a crucial stage this week when the engineering group's supervisory board is expected to issue an ultimatum to eight former executive board managers. Siemens' supervisory board is set to decide on Wednesday on a final deadline for a settlement with former managers, including ex-chief executives Heinrich von Pierer and Klaus Kleinfeld. Siemens accused the former managers of having failed to stop illegal practices and wide-ranging bribery in a scandal that involved about €1.3bn ($1.9bn) of suspected payments to officials around the world to win contracts.

• Sept. 18 - Getting Tough on Bank Pay.  European Union leaders on Thursday agreed to use the Group of 20 Summit on September 24/25 in Pittsburgh to press for binding global rules on bankers’ pay and new controls on bonuses, but avoided any explicit call for a ceiling on remuneration. The International Herald Tribune said the accord, supported by all 27 European Union nations, called for the major part of bonuses to be deferred over time, ensuring that they “could be canceled in case of a negative development in the bank’s performance.”

  The Wall Street Journal reported that policies that the US Federal reserve Board is developing detailed plans to set the pay for tens of thousands of bank employees by requiring financial services firms to seek approval from the Fed omn pay plans. The aim is to rein in risk-taking at financial institutions.

• Sept. 18 - Former VW Union Boss Jailed for Corruption: AFP reported from Berlin that a former Volkswagen trade union leader has been sentenced to nearly three years behind bars for his part in a corruption scandal involving slush funds, exotic travel and prostitutes. Klaus Volkert was jailed after an affair that saw him pocket some two million euros (three million dollars) over 10 years in backhanders from management to smooth industrial relations at the car giant.
  
  
• Sept. 16 - Global Investors Call for Binding Climate Policy. Reuters reported that banks, pension funds and other investment groups representing more than $13 trillion in assets called for a strong global agreement on climate policy on Wednesday, saying it would lead to a flood of investment into the low-carbon economy. "Without the policies to encourage clean energy, investors are stuck at the starting gates," Mindy Lubber, the president of Ceres, a Boston-based coalition of investors and environmentalists, and the director of the Investor Network on Climate Risk. More than 180 investor groups called for a global target of emissions reductions of 50 to 85 percent by 2050, including higher cuts by wealthy countries, and plans in developing countries to make measurable emissions reductions.
  
  
• Sept 14 - Taiwan Public Approve Life Sentence for Former President. Xinhua news reported that several polls indicated Taiwan residents approved of sentences on former Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian.    A poll conducted by local TV channel TVBS showed that 50 percent of respondents thought the life-imprisonment sentences on Chen and his wife were not too harsh, while 29 percent said they were too harsh. Chen was sentenced to life imprisonment by the court Friday afternoon after being convicted of embezzlement, money laundering, bribery and document falsification, and fined 200 million New Taiwan dollars (six million U.S. dollars). Chen's wife Wu Shu-chen had previously been sentenced to life imprisonment by the court.
  
  
• Sept 21 - Siemens Pressures Former Top Executives. The Financial Times reported that

  Siemens' battles over damages payments for a multi-billion euro bribery scandal will reach a crucial stage this week when the engineering group's supervisory board is expected to issue an ultimatum to eight former executive board managers. Siemens' supervisory board is set to decide on Wednesday on a final deadline for a settlement with former managers, including ex-chief executives Heinrich von Pierer and Klaus Kleinfeld. Siemens accused the former managers of having failed to stop illegal practices and wide-ranging bribery in a scandal that involved about €1.3bn ($1.9bn) of suspected payments to officials around the world to win contracts.

• Sept. 18 - Getting Tough on Bank Pay.  European Union leaders on Thursday agreed to use the Group of 20 Summit on September 24/25 in Pittsburgh to press for binding global rules on bankers’ pay and new controls on bonuses, but avoided any explicit call for a ceiling on remuneration. The International Herald Tribune said the accord, supported by all 27 European Union nations, called for the major part of bonuses to be deferred over time, ensuring that they “could be canceled in case of a negative development in the bank’s performance.”

  The Wall Street Journal reported that policies that the US Federal reserve Board is developing detailed plans to set the pay for tens of thousands of bank employees by requiring financial services firms to seek approval from the Fed omn pay plans. The aim is to rein in risk-taking at financial institutions.

• Sept. 18 - Former VW Union Boss Jailed for Corruption: AFP reported from Berlin that a former Volkswagen trade union leader has been sentenced to nearly three years behind bars for his part in a corruption scandal involving slush funds, exotic travel and prostitutes. Klaus Volkert was jailed after an affair that saw him pocket some two million euros (three million dollars) over 10 years in backhanders from management to smooth industrial relations at the car giant.
  
  
• Sept. 16 - Global Investors Call for Binding Climate Policy. Reuters reported that banks, pension funds and other investment groups representing more than $13 trillion in assets called for a strong global agreement on climate policy on Wednesday, saying it would lead to a flood of investment into the low-carbon economy. "Without the policies to encourage clean energy, investors are stuck at the starting gates," Mindy Lubber, the president of Ceres, a Boston-based coalition of investors and environmentalists, and the director of the Investor Network on Climate Risk. More than 180 investor groups called for a global target of emissions reductions of 50 to 85 percent by 2050, including higher cuts by wealthy countries, and plans in developing countries to make measurable emissions reductions.
  
  
• Sept 14 - Taiwan Public Approve Life Sentence for Former President. Xinhua news reported that several polls indicated Taiwan residents approved of sentences on former Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian.    A poll conducted by local TV channel TVBS showed that 50 percent of respondents thought the life-imprisonment sentences on Chen and his wife were not too harsh, while 29 percent said they were too harsh. Chen was sentenced to life imprisonment by the court Friday afternoon after being convicted of embezzlement, money laundering, bribery and document falsification, and fined 200 million New Taiwan dollars (six million U.S. dollars). Chen's wife Wu Shu-chen had previously been sentenced to life imprisonment by the court.
  
  
• Sept 9 - Global Witness Slams Norway on Oil Cooperation With Sudan - Global Witness in the UK has released a new report claiming that Norway’s Oil for Development programme does not have sufficient safeguards in place to ensure that the money does not end up fuelling conflict and corruption. Sudan is one of the Norwegian Oil for Development programme’s long term ‘core cooperation’ countries, but Sudan fails to meet basic conditions, says the UK investigative organization in ‘Fuelling Mistrust: the need for transparency in Sudan’s oil industry’

• Sept. 8 – Venzuela’s police have become a law unto themselves. The Guardian, in an analysis, reported: “In Venezuela, police violence – and corruption – has reached extremes. Recently, the justice minister, Tarek El-Aissami, said 20% of all crime was committed by police, a startling admission. The public have little confidence in the force. In one poll, 70% said "police and criminals are practically the same". There are daily killings. Between January 2008 and March 2009, police were implicated in 755 homicide cases.”
  
  
• Sept 4 - Rising Kenyan Protests on Reappointment of Anti-Corruption Chief. In an unfolding drama, inclduing a public protest leter from the American Ambassador, opposition is mounting to President Kibacki's reappointment to a second 5 year term of Justice Aaron Ringera as head of the country’s anti-corruption body. The Daily Nation and Reuters report that the dispute is seeing independent MPs lining up with members of the unity government against Kibaki and his cabinet allies.
  
  
• Sept 2 - Pfizer Pays Historic Record Level Fine. - The world's largest drug company agreed to a $1.2 billion criminal fine and a felony plea by a subsidiary to close an investigation into what US government lawyers described as fraudulent marketing of drugs. Bloomberg reported that the fine, over sales practices for a painkiller since pulled from the market, makes up the biggest single share of a record $2.3 billion settlement, announced today, between the U.S. Justice Department and New York-based Pfizer. The deal includes $1 billion in civil penalties, the largest non-criminal fraud case against a pharmaceutical company. Pfizer entered into a five- year integrity agreement with the US Health and Human Services Department as well. The criminal case revolved around allegations that the painkiller Bextra and three other medicines were promoted for uses other than those approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.
  
  

• Sept 2 - Grand Theft in Cuba Spawns Reform.  The Cuban government is considering easing its stranglehold on the retail sector in an effort to legalize the underground economy and reduce massive theft, the Financial Times reported. It is President Raul Castro's second big economic reform after last year's decentralization of agriculture and the leasing of idle state land. Policymakers believe that up to 20 per cent of supplies flowing to thousands of retail businesses and cafeterias are stolen - from bags of rice and beans, wheat and yeast to merchandise and tools, parts and cement.

• Sept 1 - New York Stock Governance Commission Established. The NYSE Euronext (NYX), parent of the New York Stock Exchange, said it is forming an independent advisory commission to examine U.S. corporate governance and the overall proxy process.  This advisory commission will take a comprehensive look at strengthening U.S. best practices for corporate governance and the proxy process. This advisory commission will work with policymakers and other interested constituents to foster a comprehensive and constructive approach to corporate governance and proxy reform. 
  
  

• Aug 27 - Stanford CFO Pleads Guilty to Fraud. The chief financial officer of Stanford Financial Group has pleaded guilty in connection with a $7 billion international Ponzi scheme, the Wall Street Journal reported. James Davis, 60 years old, is cooperating with federal prosecutors, who are mounting a case against the chief executive of Stanford, R. Allen Stanford. Mr. Davis is facing up to 30 years in prison and the government is seeking $1 billion from Mr. Davis.

• Aug 26 --- India's PM Attacks Corruption. The Business Standard reports that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said corruption is hurting India’s economic growth and discouraging foreign investors from coming."Pervasive corruption in our country tarnishes our image. It also discourages investors, who expect fair treatment and transparent dealings when dealing with public authorities. As the country grows and integrates with the world economy, corruption continues to be an impediment to harnessing the best of technology and investable resources,” the PM said.
  
  
• Aug 26 – Zambia Fires Anti-Corruption Chief. The BBC reports that the head of Zambia's anti-corruption task force, Maxwell Nkole, has been removed one week after the acquittal of former President Frederick Chiluba. Last week a judge said funds Mr Chiluba was accused of embezzling could not be traced to government money. Afterwards, Mr Nkole went against government advice to prepare an appeal.
  
  
• Aug 24 --- Civil Rights/Transparency International Leader in Niger is Arrested Without Charges - TI reported that Wada Maman, Board Member and Secretary General of TI chapter, the Association Nigérienne de Lutte contre la Corruption (ANLC) has been arrested by the Republican Guard in Niger and held without charges at a police camp.UPDATE 27 August: Wada Maman provisionally released; Marou Amadou remains in detention Wada Maman is Secretary General of Transparency International’s chapter in Niger, the Association Nigérienne de Lutte contre la Corruption (ANLC). He is one of six civil society members of the EITI*** multistakeholder group in Niger who recently announced their decision to suspend participation in the national EITI process in protest at increasingly serious incidents of harassment and intimidation against Nigerien activists campaigning for good governance and transparency. On 10 August 2009, Marou Amadou, president of the United Front for the Safeguard of Democratic Assets (FUSAD), and member of the ROTAB/PWYP Niger was arrested for “undermining state authority” following the publication of a declaration by FUSAD denouncing President Tandja’s regime. Amadou is currently being held in the Koutoukalé high security prison and is awaiting trial.
  
  
• Aug 21 --- Human Rights Leader Out of Prison in Congo. Publish What You Pay reported that Golden Misabiko, President of the African Association for the Protection of Human Rights in Katanga province (ASADHO/Katanga) and a member of Publish What You Pay (PWYP) in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has been released from prisonon on bail after being arrested a month ago by the Congolese intelligence services.
  
  
• Aug 21 - Lawyer and former Top UBS Executvie Now Indicted in Bank Secrets Case - Within 24 Hours of a Settlement of the UBS Secrets Case. US authorities announced indictments of two Swiss citiens, a lawyer and a former top UBS executive, for allegedly organizing schemes to enable Americans to evade taxes by opening secret offshore accounts, Reuters reported. More indictments form the ongoing investigations of the UBS account-holders are widely expected.
  
  
• Aug 21 - Insider Trading Probe at Porsche-Volkswagen. The Wall Street Journal reported that the former two top executives of Porsche are being investigated for insider trading, marking another setback for the once-celebrated managers after the company's failed attempt to acquire Volkswagen. German prosecutors and Germany's securities watchdog, Bafin, said they were examining evidence that the two executives -- former chief executive Wendelin Wiedeking and chief financial officer Holger Härter -- manipulated the market in connection with Porsche's ill-fated attempt to acquire VW.
  
  
• Aug 19 - Swiss Government Agrees to Provide US with Names of Americans with Accounts at UBS bank. Reuters reported Switzerland has agreed to hand over details of about 4,450 UBS AG bank accounts to U.S. authorities to settle a tax dispute that challenged Swiss banking secrecy and now threatens to spill over to other banks. "This announcement today should send a signal - no matter what institution you're with, the IRS is willing to pursue both the institution and the individual," US Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Doug Shulman told reporters. The accounts were at one time worth $18 billion, Shulman said, though he could not provide a current figure. Reaction from Global Financial Integrity - "This is a serious blow to Swiss banking secrecy," said GFI Director Raymond Baker. "From now on, it's going to be very difficult for any American evading taxes to trust a Swiss bank to keep his or her identity secret."
  
  
• Aug 19 - Major Western Firms Seen as Beijing's Big Water Polluters. Agence France Presse reported that the Beijing plants of US soft drink giants Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have been listed as among the top 12 factories causing major water pollution in China's capital, the city government has announced. The list issued by the Beijing Development and Reform Commission, the capital's economic planning agency, was published along with the top 15 energy users in the capital, which included the Beijing Benz-DaimlerChrysler plant.
  
  
• Aug 19 – Precedent Set in Zambia as President Found Not Guilty. Former Zambian president Frederick Chiluba has been cleared by a Lusaka court of corruption charges in what was seen as a landmark corruption case against an ex-African head of state, according to a report by This Day of Tanzania. Chiluba claimed his funds came from private donors, not the government and the judge accepted this, although each of the two co-defendents in the case were found guilty and sentenced to three year prison terms. In a separate trial, Chiluba’s wife, Regina, was found guilty and sentenced to three-and-a-half years for receiving stolen property. She is appealing the sentence. This Day noted, the case “was closely watched in Tanzania and elsewhere in Africa, and various legal experts have said they believe it could set a precedent for bringing other once-untouchable ’’big men’’ to justice in other African countries.” Chiluba has already lost a civil case in the UK that found he had laundered about $50m to fund lavish personal spending. During the London case, the judge pointed to Chiluba’s extravagant tastes and said Zambians should know that Chiluba’s flashy suits were paid for with money stolen from them by their former president.
  
  
• Aug 18 - Michael Oxley to Lead ERC Board. The Ethics Resource Center in the US announced that one of the leading ethics reform legislators in the US in the Congress in recent years, retired Republican Congressman Michael Oxley has become the Chairman of the ERC's Board of Directors. Oxley, who promoted the Sarbanes-Oxley Act after the Enron crisis, said he is proud to now lead the ERC's Board and he noted, " "ERC is devoted to the study and practice of organizational ethics, a topic that has been at the forefront of my work for nearly a decade." (The ERC has recently upgraded its website to provide greater information and clarity for its readers).
  
  
  
• MORE PRISON FOR AUNG SAN SUU KYI
  Aug 11 - 13 - the Christian Science Monitor reported that a court in Burma (Myanmar) sentenced the opposition leader to 18 more months of house arrest for violating the terms of her detention. The trial was widely viewed as a sham. Ms. Suu Kyi was convicted of breaching the terms of her current house detention after John Yettaw, an American tourist, swam across the lake and stayed two nights. International Protests: The Associated Press reported that the U.N. Security Council agreed after two days of talks to issue a statement calling on Myanmar's military government to immediately release Aung San Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners. The council's 15 member nations voiced "serious concern" at the conviction and sentencing. The BBC reported that the European Union said it would "respond with additional targeted measures against those responsible for the verdict." Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd described the verdict as "a new low for the Burmese regime." The Wall Street Journal reported that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on Myanmar's ruling generals "to immediately and unconditionally release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and to engage with her without delay as an essential partner in the process of national dialogue and reconciliation."
  
• Aug 13 - Dysfunctional Russian Legal System. The Washington Post runs a major story on financial crime and corruption in Russia and the forced exile and imprisonment of Russian lawyers who, accidentally discovered a $230 million theft (possibly by government officials), as they sought to defend a once foreign owned company.
  
  
• Aug 12 - Rio Executives Charged in China. The Chinese government formally charged four Rio Tinto Ltd. employees with bribery and infringing trade secrets. CBC reported that China stopped short of laying politically explosive espionage charges in a case that has strained ties with key trading partner Australia. Rio, a UK-Australian giant minerals company, is alleged by the Chinese of obtaining commercial secrets about China's steel and iron industries through "improper means" involving bribery. Rio says its executives are not guilty.
  
  

• governance news/top pay
  July-August - from the European Commission in Brussels, to various legislative bodies across Europe, to the desk of the powerful U.S. finance committee chief in the House of Representatvies, Barney Frank, a host of proposals are about to be made to impose limits on what bankers get paid. The U.S. House of representatibves has now passed new rukles on pay at banks and Congressman Frank declared "“There is a risk to the system when the incentive structure is huge,” as his committee approved legislation that Bloomberg reported "would let regulators ban incentive pay at banks and give shareholders a vote on bonuses in response to public outrage over Wall Street pay." The influential New York Times calls for action and warns in an editorial of big bonus payments.
  
  The Associated Press reported that the UK's Fimnancial Services Authority laid out has laid out plans to curb risky pay practices in banks but dropped some of the tougher measures that had been proposed. It said banks should spread two-thirds of the bonuses of senior employees over three years. But its code of practice, to be introduced next year, excludes specific measures on deferred bonuses as well as the linking of payouts to the performance of banking groups as whole.

  Sir David Walker has just finalized a report called for by the UK Government where he stresses that controls on pay need to be viewed in terms of broad reforms of corporate governance. His report is remarkable. The guiding theme is important and simple: “In an open market economy in which, in normal times, most companies are either listed or in private hands, the achievement of good corporate governance reflects successful balancing among an array of influences which is probably at its widest in case of banks. A critical balance has to be established between, on the one hand, policies and constraints necessarily required by the regulator and, on the other, the ability of the board of an entity to take decisions on business strategythat board members considerto be in the best interests of their shareholders.” (...see Executive Compensation). Sir David Walker has said that among the 39 major proposlas in his report are : ' Recommendations on remuneration that are as tough or tougher than anything to be found elsewhere in the world.'

• Aug 12 - UBS Deal on Secret Bank Accounts. The Wall Street Journal reported that Swiss and U.S. authorities have reached an agreement to resolve a U.S. charge that the UBS banking group should provide the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with the names of 52,000 Americans alleged to have secret bank accounts in Switzerland. IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said, "We will release more details when the Swiss government signs the agreement as early as next week."
  
  
• Aug 12 - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Talks Tough in Nigeria. Secretary Clinton offered up a blunt assessment of problems in Nigeria on August 12, National Public Radio, and blasted the Government of Kenya on corruption and on failing to promote justice at the start of her African trip (see the transcript and Associated Press) - GLOBAL WITNESS says "Resource Curse should be key focus of Clinton’s Africa visit,"..see Views and Analysis. Also see comments from Revenue Watch Institute.
  
  
• Aug 5 - GE Fined for Boostuing Accounts. One of the world's largest corporations, General Electric Co., has agreed to pay $50 million as a civil penalty to settle charges by the U.S. Securities and Exchange for alleged improper accounting in order to make its financial results appear more attractive to investors. AP repoted that the SEC said it found multiple cases of wrongdoing.  "GE bent the accounting rules beyond the breaking point," said Robert Khuzami, head of the SEC's enforcement division.
  
  
• Aug 4 - Multiple Woes at Bank of America. The major global bank has paid $33 million to the SEC which alleged, according to a Washington Post report that it lied to investors about the details of its acquisition of Merrill Lynch. Then, on July 28, the Reuters reported that the bank agreed to pay Parmalat $100 million to resolve a lawsuit accusing it of helping the Italian dairy company hide debt, causing its Parmalat’s collapse.
  
  
• Aug 3 - Israel's Foreign Minister May Face Corruption Charges. Avigdor Lieberman, the powerful nationalist in the Israeli cabinet, said he will step down if he is charged after police recommended that he be indicted for a string of alleged corruption offenses. AP reported that police say they have enough evidence to charge him with accepting bribes, fraud, money laundering and other offenses. The country's attorney general must now decide whether to indict him. Lieberman said he did nothing wrong.
  
  
• July 31 - US Drug Firm Pays to Settle Case In Nigeria for testing on Children. The Washington Post reported that Pfizer signed a $75 million agreement with Nigerian authorities to settle criminal and civil charges that the pharmaceutical company illegally tested an experimental drug on children during a 1996 meningitis epidemic. Nigerian authorities say Pfizer's test of the antibiotic Trovan killed 11 children and disabled scores more. Pfizer says the deaths and injuries were the result of meningitis.
  
  
• July 31 - USB Action Resolved as U.S. and Switzerland Settle Case. Bloomberg reported The U.S. and Switzerland reached an agreement in principle to settle a Justice Department lawsuit against UBS seeking the names of 52,000 account holders, a lawyer told a federal judge in Miami. Details have not been revealed. (Swiss official allegedly took bribes - see NEWS.)
  
  

• July 30 - Swiss Banking Official Bribed. Swiss prosecutors said they are investigating allegations that an unnamed high-ranking Swiss official took a bribe from a U.S. client of UBS to help cover up tax fraud, Reuters,reported. The client of UBS, which is at the centre of a U.S. tax fraud case, pleaded guilty to using Swiss bank accounts to hide money from the U.S. taxman and said he paid a Swiss official $45,000 to help cover up the fraud.

• July 29 - EADS (European Airbus) Insider Trading May See Fine for US Executive. Reuters reported that EADS declined to comment on media reports that senior executive and US citizen John Leahy could face a possible 3.6 million euros ($5.10 million) fine in a French probe into suspected insider trading.

• July 23 - New Jersey's Biggest Corruption Arrests - Mayors, Officials and Rabbis. USAToday reported, "It's one of the biggest corruption cases in the history of a state that's famous for them — three mayors, two state legislators and several rabbis were among those charged Thursday in what authorities described as a "dual-track" investigation united by a single undercover operative." The sting that resulted in 44 arrests began with an investigation of an international money laundering ring that trafficked in everything from fake Gucci and Prada handbags to human kidneys, which might be bought from a financially strapped donor for $10,000 and resold for $160,000.
  
  
• July 20 - Walmart Ethics Winners. Walmart announced that five associates received the company’s fourth annual “Award for Ethical Courage.” The Walmart Global Ethics Office presents the award to recognize extraordinary ethical courage and integrity in the workplace. The winners who did courageous acts that for important breasons the company does not wish to reveal publicly, are Lourdes Juttner, Adult Apparel Merchandise Supervisor, Sunrise, Florida; Rod Liston, Senior Leasing Manager, Arkansas; Adriana Calabrezi Colombo Lopes, Store Manager, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil; Galen Gao, Asset Protection Manager, Langfang, China; Anastacio Tovar, Store Manager, Chihuahua, Mexico. The Global Ethics Office selected this year’s award recipients from more than 2,200 nominations.
  
  
• July 21 - Peru's Former President Alberto Fujimori Guilty of Corruption. The BBC reported that the 70-year-old was convicted by Peru's Supreme Court of giving US $15m in state funds to his spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos, who is in prison on a host of charges. Fujimori admitted making the payment. Last April, he was sentenced to 25 years in jail for ordering killings and kidnappings by the security forces.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• July 21 - Kenyan Authorities fail to Stop Sale of Book. The Financial Times reported that book shops in Kenya refuse to sell Michela Wrong's new book "Its Our Turn to Eat," for fear of defamation suits, but still 1,300 copies have been sold since June by street hawkers, who can sell them as swiftly as they can obtain them - and the original source, aiming to sell 5,000 copies is the US embassy in Nairobi. It has masterminded a guerrilla distribution programme to challenge the political elite by promoting an exposé of its failings.
  
  
• July 16 - Chechen Rights Campaigner Is Killed. The New York Times reported that human rights activist Natalya Estemirova, 50, who had become a central source of information on abuses in Chechnya, has been assassinated. Her work met with threats and denunciations from Chechen authorities. In March 2008, for example, she was threatened by the authorities in Chechnya for being critical of a law requiring women to wear head scarves.
  
  
• July 15 - Number of companies worldwide reporting on their sustainability performance reaches record high. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) said the number of companies and other organizations publicly disclosing their performance against a range of key sustainability indicators has risen markedly over the last year.  The GRI is now aware of over 1000 organizations worldwide who issued sustainability reports based on the GRI G3 Guidelines in 2008 – the highest number ever recorded.  The figure represents an increase of 46 per cent on the 2007 figure of 685. Furthermore, many companies listed in the world’s leading stock markets now issue GRI-based sustainability reports including 64% of Germany’s DAX 30, 48% of France’s CAC 40, 22% of the UK’s FTSE 100 and 13% of the US’ S&P 500. 
  
  
• July 14 - UK Charities Hit Harder Than expected By Recession. The "Third Sector" reported that

  more than half predict a decline in income this year, says research by the Institute of Fundraising, Charity Finance Directors' Group and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The recession is turning out to be worse for charities than fundraising and finance directors predicted, according to a survey published today. In December, 39 per cent of respondents said they expected their income to fall in the coming year. But in May, 45 per cent of the 198 respondents reported that there had been a decline in the intervening six months and 56 per cent predicted there would be a decline in the coming year.

• July 9 - 8 Summit on Climate Change and Anti-Corruption: “Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. As leaders of the world's major economies, both developed and developing, we intend to respond vigorously to this challenge, being convinced that climate change poses a clear danger requiring an extraordinary global response.”(more at The Guardian) Corruption - G8 makes broad general pledges to uphold the highest standards of transparency and accountability with regards to the implementation of their anti-corruption commitments. Transparency International’s Managing Director Cobus de Swardt stated, however, “Until the most economically powerful countries truly enforce their commitments, their political will remains doubtful.”
  
  
• July 8 - Pope Decries Corruption on Eve of G8 Summit. The Daily Telegraph reported that ahead of the G8 meeting in Italy, Pope Benedict XVI warned that globalisation risked triggering a worldwide crisis. He condemned the "corruption and illegality" of politicians and businesses across the world as he called for a new order based on the common good. "Corruption and illegality are unfortunately evident in the conduct of the economic and political class in rich countries, both old and new, as well as in poor ones."
  
  
• July 8 - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono Set for 2nd 5 Year Term in Indonesia. The Christian Science Moinitor, reporting that Yudhoyono is winning the election, said, Yudhoyono has a strong image as a clean pair of hands in a country awash in corruption. But critics say his probity doesn't extend to his Democrat Party, the largest in Parliament. The party recently proposed legislation that would hobble an independent anticorruption agency that had begun to make headway against graft.
  
  
• July 7 - President Obama to Civil Society in Moscow - "Through the work that you do, you underscore what I believe is a fundamental truth in the 21st century: that strong, vibrant nations include strong, vibrant civil societies." (see full text)
  
  
• July 6 - UN Sec. General fails to meet Aung San Suu Kyi. Tthe Financial Times reported that Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary-general, attacked Burma's military rulers after the army chief rebuffed his plea to meet the jailed opposition leader. "Allowing a visit to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi would have been an important symbol of the government's willingness to embark on the kind of meaningful engagement that will be essential if the elections in 2010 are to be seen as credible," the UN chief told his audience. "I am deeply disappointed."
  
  
• July 1 - US Securities & Exchange Commission Proposes Stronger Corporate Governance. The Commission proposed requiring public companies receiving money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to provide a shareholder vote on executive pay in their proxy solicitations. It also voted to propose better disclosure of executive compensation at public companies in their proxy statements, and approved a New York Stock Exchange rule change to prohibit brokers from voting proxies in corporate elections without instructions from their customers.
  
  
• June 30 - Stanford Stays in Prison. AFP reported that texan Charles Stanford, accused of stealing $7 billion from investors, will stay in prison until his trial later this year. the judge ruled that he is a flight risk.
  
  
• June 29 - Madoff Gets 150 Years - Maximum Prison Sentence by New York Judge (Bloomberg)
  
  
• July 1 - Ezra Merkin Forced to Sell Art.

  Madoff friend and supplier of hundreds of millions of dollars of other peoples’ cash to Madoff, Ezra Merkin, has been forced to sell $310 million of art, include works by Mark Rothko, as he faces investor pressures, the New York Daily News reported.

• June 30 - Madoff Losses Lessons. In a new White Paper, listing the losses of all foundations that invested with Bernie Madoff, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy says major reforms of boards are needed to guard against criminals - it notes that 105 foundations lost between 30%-100% of their assets by investing with Madoff.
  
  
• June 26 - Most Countries Not Enforcing Anti-Corruption Law. Transparency International reported in its fifth annual OECD Anti-Corruption Convention progress report that only four out of the 36 signatory countries to the Convention are actively enforcing laws to curb corporations from bring foreign government officials - the four are the United States, Germany, Norweay and Switzerland.
  
  
• June 25 - Politkovskaya case to be retried. The BBC reported from Moscow that Russia's Supreme Court has overturned the acquittal of three men accused of involvement in the 2006 killing of human rights campaigner and journalist Anna Politkovskaya. A retrial has been ordered after Sergei Khadzhikurbanov and brothers Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov were acquitted in February after a trial that critics said was farcical. Politkovskaya was a staunch critic of the Kremlin and her supporters allege official involvement in her death. The Supreme Court decision came after prosecutors appealed against the not guilty verdicts handed down by a Moscow court.
  
  

  June 26 -- Key Victory for Panama Workers. Cultural Survival reported on a June 19 a decision by the the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in support of the Ngöbe Indians of western Panama that calls on Panama to suspend all work on a hydroelectric dam that threatens the Ngöbe homeland. The Chan-75 Dam is being built across the Changuinola River by the government of Panama and a subsidiary of the Virginia-based energy giant AES Corporation.

  June 25 - Greeks Press Siemens Case. AP reported that Michael Christoforakos, a former senior executive of German industrial conglomerate Siemens AG, was arrested in Germany and faces charges in Greece of money laundering and bribery. This is part of an investigation into Greek telecom contracts.

• June 24 - Ikea, Citing Corruptions, Halts Investing in Russia. The New York Times reported Ikea said it is suspending further investment in Russia. The company’s founder, the secretive billionaire Ingvar Kamprad, 83, said on Swedish radio that Ikea had decided not to solve problems by slipping money under the table. The decision is particularly damning for Russia because Ikea runs outlets in dozens of countries around the world and is hardly thin-skinned when it comes to dealing with bureaucracies.

• June 24 - Too Many Chinese Complain. A Chinese website set up so people can inform on corrupt officials has been inundated with so many visitors that it crashed shortly after launching. the BBC reported the website was designed to cope with a maximum of 1,000 people making a complaint at the same time. But the number of people using the site far exceeded this when it was launched on Monday.

• June 22 - Swiss Bankers Bow to Pressures. The Financial Times reported that Switzerland’s private bankers are close to accepting their traditional business model of managing the undeclared wealth of foreigners cannot be sustained in a world of greater transparency. Leading members of the Swiss Private Bankers Association have recognized they may have to raise tax compliance with clients and, if necessary, encourage them to declare previously hidden assets. The change in attitude has come after international pressure this year forced Switzerland to dilute its almost impenetrable bank secrecy.
  
  
• June 19 - Stanford Indicted on $7 billion fraud. US prosecutors filed criminal charges against banker R. Allen Stanford, accusing the Texan and several officials of his firm of multiple counts of wire and mail fraud, and conspiracy to launder money. Much of the alleged fraud flowed through Stanford International Bank, the offshore bank headquartered in the Caribbean island-nation of Antigua and Barbuda, which attracted funds from well-heeled investors from Latin America and the U.S. At the same time the Securities & Exchange Commission announced a new complaint saying the fraud by Stanford International Bank was continued over 10 years and involved the sale of more than $7.2 billion of what investors believed were high-yielding certificates of deposit. Many were seeking safety amid the tumult of the unstable financial markets, instead the SEC said the Stanford companies "misappropriated billions of dollars of investor money" and squandered the funds on "speculative, unprofitable private businesses controlled by Mr. Stanford."
  
  
• June 19 - Complete Records of UK Cabinet Expense Claims Published. The UK scandal deepens as the Daily Telegraph, which broke the original news of widespread misuse of expenses by UK members of Parliament, today released comprehensive details of expense claims by every Cabinet minister. It said the uncensored copies of documents and receipts submitted by senior members of the Government contain crucial details which were covered up in the official data released by Parliament, and which hold the key to abuses such as flipping and tax avoidance. The newspaper said that in the coming weeks the expense claims of every MP, searchable by name and constituency, will be published on its website.
  
  
• June 18 - New ERC Fellows Vice Chair. The Ethics Resource Center announced that Steve Prosser, director of business ethics and compliance at Starbucks Coffee Company in Seattle, has been named vice chairman of the Ethics Resource Center's respected Fellows program, ERC President Patricia J. Harned, Ph.D., announced today. As vice chair, Prosser will work with ERC Fellows Program chair Jacqueline Brevard, chief ethics and compliance officer and vice president of Merck & Co., Inc.
  
  
• June 18 – G8 Governance Pledge. Group of 8 Finance Ministers have pledged to create a new international code of corporate governance, recognizing that poor board governance was a major cause of the financial crisis. Compliance Week said the final recent G8 declaration committed the members to creating a global set of common principles and standards for governance. Governance is top of the agenda, but the framework also covers market integrity, financial regulation and supervision, tax cooperation, and transparency of macroeconomic policy and data.
  
  
• June 18 -Former KBR Employee Guilty of Taking Bribes in Afghanistan. AP reported that a former employee of military contractor KBR Inc. has been convicted in the US of taking bribes at a military base in Afghanistan that cost the Army more than $800,000 worth of fuel. A jury in U.S. District Court in Alexandria convicted Raschad L. "Sean" Lewis of Houston who prosecutors said took bribes from Afghan truck drivers to supply them with fuel meant for use at Bagram Airfield. Lewis is the third KBR employee to be convicted in the conspiracy.
  
  

• June 4 – Shortfalls Still in Corporate Social Responsibility. ITPRO reported that a new IBM survey shows major gaps in sustainability strategies with many companies lacking both the knowledge and initiative to incorporate CSR. Companies are becoming more interested in beefing up their corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies, but they are still stalling when comes to actual execution. Businesses do not compile and analyse enough CSR data to implement real changes that could increase efficiency, lower costs, reduce environmental impact and improve their reputation with key shareholders and customers, according to the survey.

• June 1 - Stealth Oil deals Signed by Azerbaijan State Oil Company. Publish What You Pay reportedhas two oil development deals were signed “in the dark”: one for the development of the “Kurovdag” field, with the operator Global Energy, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, and the other for the “Neftchala,” “Khilli” and “Durovdag-Bazanan” fields, to be operated by Neftchala Investment, a subsidiary company of Global Energy.
  
  
• June 1 - UK's Gordon Brown to Propose Ethics Code. Amid revelations of widespread abuse of official expenses by hundreds of UK Members of Parliament, Prime Minister Brown is now seeking to build broad support for a new ethics code for the legislators. The Wall Street Journal reported that he also faces pressure to replace Treasury chief Alistair Darling and Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, both of whom have come under fire for dubious expenses.
  
  SEE ARCHIVE - NEWS - JANUARY-MAY 2009