Reaction was swift from the ethics, compliance and governance communities. Professor Ester Bonne from the Center for Ethics Statistics stated “What better way to haphazardly ruin a corporation’s reputation than to name them to the World’s Least Ethical Companies list?” She added “This will surely help reduce excessive executive compensation at these companies, albeit in a roundabout way”.

Ari Kidden, spokesperson for the Ethisphere Institute took a similar view. “We anticipate a lot of web traffic resulting from the publishing of our ‘World’s Least Ethical Companies™ ranking and plan to sell cleverly worded T-Shirts on the website that will make us all a lot of money” said Kidden.

“We are particularly excited about the World’s Most Kinda Ethical™ list as it is sooooo American to celebrate mediocrity, from trophies for Little Leaguers just for showing up, to grade inflation in college. We are excited to be extending this trend into the corporate world” Kidden added.

Some legal experts have already raised concerns about exposure that the Ethisphere Institute may be assuming in designating the world’s “least ethical” companies but others were impressed at the bold maneuver.

One outside counsel, who insisted on remaining unnamed in order to not jeopardize his client relationship with the Ethisphere Institute, called the development “Awesome!”. He added “I can only imagine how upset companies will be to see themselves on the ‘least ethical’ list… and my billings are going to skyrocket.” This individual was nonplussed however about the ‘kinda ethical’ list… deeming it “a waste of time.”

And if you have made it this far… APRIL FOOLS!

DISH did win the case, but didn’t get the 10 figure outcome that company lawyers hoped for. Instead, after one day’s deliberation by the jury, NDS was ordered to pay $46.69 for reverse engineering one of DISH’s smart cards and $1,000 in punitive damages.

Both sides are calling this a victory. DISH says they won the case, which they did, but their legal fees clearly outweigh what they earned. And, let’s be honest, this is going to do zero damage to NDS’ credibility. NDS claims a victory because they don’t have to pay one billion dollars to DISH. As NDS attorney Richard Stone said after the jury’s verdict came in, “We’ve been completely vindicated on this whole lawsuit.”

According to the article, the issue came about after various Adult Fire dancers told Lorelle Katelan, the owner of Adult Fire, that they wanted to be paid the same rate as Bombshells and Sex Bomb dancers. Adult Fire paid its female dancers only $290 per 20 minute show, while the other two companies both paid $320. The owner of Bomb Shells, Tracey Craig, points out that “strippers were not supported by a union and had not been awarded a payrise in years.”

And if you’re thinking about making that corny joke, first read the comment section of Yahoo’s report on the story, where you will find that many of them have already been said.

The department found that 3M was shaving six percent off its tape products (the company’s advertised one-inch tape actually came out to 0.94 of an inch), violating the state and federal Fair Packaging and Labeling Act, according to the Fresno County deputy district attorney who prosecuted the case. As part of the settlement, 3M agreed to pay $600,000 in civil fees, $75,000 to a state trust fund benefiting various California weights and measures offices and $18,000 to the Department of Measurement and Standards, according to one report.

As with most settlements, 3M didn’t admit or deny guilty, but in this case it won’t be that easy to get off the hook: one only needs a ruler to figure out that they were, in fact, misrepresenting the size of their tape. The company agreed to remove the one-inch and other inaccurate labels from its tape products. Crisis averted.

Indiana resident James M. DiBlasio woke up to more than a hangover the morning after a three-day drinking binge. At some point during the 72 hours that he was drunk he managed to hack into the Denver-based server of his employer, Ski.com, and change various data such as flight reservations and contact information. According to a statement by DiBlasio’s attorney, H. Michael Steinberg, he woke up the morning after “wondering what he had done, and trying to fix the area he had damaged.”

DiBlasio was convicted of two felonies for hacking into his employer’s computers. He originally faced 10 charges, fines between $100,000 and $250,000 and up to three years in prison if convicted, however that was reduced following a plea agreement. Fortunately for Mr. DiBlasio, he only has to pay $13,096 in monthly installments of at least $250 as well as spend six months under house arrest followed by three years of probation.

Ski.com president Harry Peisach took a soft-hearted tone when asked about the event. The Aspen Times reports:

“We’re happy there’s a resolution … I’m sorry what happened to him but it was important for us to present this to law-enforcement authorities and this was the appropriate course for them to take.”

On top of wearing an electronic monitoring device, DiBlasio “will not be allowed to have a cordless telephone, an answering machine, or any other ‘special services’ related to telecommunications,” the judge ruled.

Well, it seems that his lustful ways have finally caught up to him. Now he’s facing lawsuits across the country from a number of these women, some accusing him of backing out of promises to give them boat loads of money and expensive items, and others accusing him of giving them STDs.

This all helps clarify why Wellpoint mysteriously fired Colby last spring, merely citing that some of his actions violated the company’s code of conduct and were of a “non-business nature” (most likely violating the manager’s responsibility of “Embracing the Wellpoint standards and casting the shadow of an ethical leader.” You can read their code for yourself, here).

Before that, he appeared to be held in high regard by Wellpoint and Wall Street analysts who labeled him as a straight shooter. “He would give you the good news along with the bad news,” stock analyst Thomas Carroll told the Associated Press. “If he said something, you could really hang your hat on it.” Colby was even a key architect in the $16.4 billion merger of Wellpoint and Anthem in 2004. In fact, after he was later passed over for Wellpoint’s CEO position, he was given a new title and pay-grade to convince him to stay with the company. Not too long after that, he was fired.

Now, it’s a little more clear why.

Odyssey Marine Exploration immediately passed out confidentiality agreements to its employees containing two simple stipulations: 1) Don’t tell anyone about the shipwreck, code named “Black Swan,” and 2) Don’t trade company stock until the discovery was announced. Well, Tapanes had his own idea: mutiny and take some of the profits for himself.

This story started out with a lot of promise, but what could have been a great tale of daring-do and high sea escapades ended up being really lame. He didn’t bury a large amount of the treasure to be found later, he didn’t try sneaking it out of the boat. Instead, he courageously logged into his E*Trade account and unloaded $150,000 of his savings to buy 42,000 shares of the company. That was just before Odyssey Marine Exploration, the otherwise obscure company, announced the find and enjoyed watching its stock value jump by 80%.

Blatant insider trading is a very easy criminal activity to discover. A computer program immediately flags any unusual stock movement and alerts the authorities. The SEC very quickly found out that Tapanes worked for the company and began an investigation. Tapanes settled the issue outside of court and agreed to pay a fine of just over $215,000. He could still possibly face lawsuits from other federal agencies, according to one report on the story, but no other charges have been brought.

Sure, buying a hybrid vehicle is a small step toward preserving the environment, but the company’s motivation for doing so is a tad suspect. Adding a single new hybrid SUV to a fleet of cars is not enough to justify a press release bragging about how “green” your company is.

A quote from the release:

“Going green in our business seemed like the logical way to move with our fleet, given that the decision is based on ecologically sound data,” said Marc Shpilner, president and CEO, Limousine Eighteen. “If we are going to start the movement as consumers, then we owe it to the environment to think of more ways to make a difference at the work place. Recycling paper, soda cans, more efficient light bulbs, etc. are a great start, but we wanted to go farther. This year, we started discussing getting a hybrid SUV for our fleet.”

They spent a year discussing the pros and cons of buying one hybrid SUV before deciding?

Unfortunately Limousine Eighteen isn’t alone; green-washing is becoming more and more common as consumers really do consider environmental issues when choosing where to spend their money. While it’s laudable (and increasingly profitable) for businesses to take a bigger role in curbing carbon emissions and upping their eco-friendliness, it’s counterproductive to try and grab publicity from relatively insignificant claims.

Today the bar has been raised by companies that spend hundreds of millions of dollars on everything from becoming carbon neutral to cracking down on suppliers for their wasteful habits. If Limousine Eighteen developed a plan to replace their entire fleet with hybrid equivalents by 2012, or discovered a way to run their vehicles on nothing but leftover chicken fat, then that would be something to brag about. These days, making a whole lot of noise about nothing just isn’t going to cut it.

That leaves about 30 to 50 percent reserved for beef, 75 percent of which must be “diced.”

At the heart of the case is Campbell’s new “Chunky Fully Loaded” line of soups. Hormel believes that there is not enough beef in Campbell’s “Chunky Fully Loaded Beef Stew” to constitute being labeled stew. Although Campbell does print “soup” on the label of the can, Hormel believes that it’s hidden and not likely to be read. Apparently they fear that some consumers will think they’re eating stew when in reality they will in fact be eating soup.

Julie Craven, spokesperson for Hormel, had this to say:

“[The U.S. Department of Agriculture] has standards that determine what products can be labeled as ‘stew,’ and the Campbell Soup product does not meet this standard. This is important because consumers rely on food product labels to be accurate.”

Apparently, a savory tart, or smörgÃ¥stÃ¥rta, is quite popular in Sweden … popular enough to bribe the law, anyway.

Unfortunately, the officer never got near the tart; he was off work the day the trombonist delivered it. However, he was still slapped with a fine of eighty days’ wages for the incident.

Read the story from Swedish newspaper ‘The Local’.

Lynn Brewer is very well known in the world of corporate compliance and ethics. She is a founding member of Open Compliance and Ethics Group (OCEG) and has given speeches on at least five continents. She was even recognized by the Nobel Peace Center in a freedom of speech exhibition for her “bravery” as a whistleblower.

Her fame came from giving speeches about the internal failings of Enron. She claims she was an executive there before its collapse. However, according to USA Today, she was a researcher and even her former bosses weren’t considered “executives.”

“EddieLynn is a good nurse who is trying to claim she was a brain surgeon,” Tony Mends said, a former boss of Brewer.

The article describes several inconsistencies and exaggerations in her book, Confessions of an Enron Executive: A Whistleblower’s Story, as well. One alleged tall-tale is Brewer’s association with a Texas natural gas deal the company put together. Brewer claims she discovered bank fraud. Her former boss said that never happened.

According to the article, Brewer was fired from Enron after she was sent to London to conduct a one-week training session for the company, but instead rented a car and traveled around England with her husband for most of the week.

Read the entire article here.

Commentary: Enron fraud continues even after its collapse…

U.S. District Judge Terence Kern determined that the law contradicts federal workplace safety requirements established in the 1970 Occupational Health and Safety Act.

The suit was initially filed by Whirlpool Co in 2004. Later Williams Co. and ConocoPhillips joined the suit, however both Whirlpool and Williams eventually dropped out, leaving ConocoPhillips as the sole plaintiff.

Soon after the suit was filed, the National Rifle Association (NRA) spearheaded a protest against Conoco Phillips by urging members to boycott Conoco gas stations. Conoco Phillips responded by reminding the NRA that retail gas stations that sell Conoco gasoline are not owned by the company, and therefore the boycott is affecting innocent businesses.

Similar gun laws have passed in Alaska, Kansas, Kentucky and Minnesota. All were created after eight Oklahoma employees were fired by Weyerhauser Corp. in 2002 after leaving guns in their cars parked in company parking lots. Although an appeal is likely, similar suits are expected to be filed in those states following Kern’s decision.

Tuesday’s incident at a school near London, Ontario revealed that sometimes students perform the act on each other.

“This is a fairly common thing around the province,” said Middlesex Ontario Provincial Police Constable Doug Graham.

Police believe that the victim consented to being lit on fire, although they have found the person who used the lighter.

Graham had this to say:

“It certainly wasn’t a case of bullying, but under the law it doesn’t matter if you agree to it or not. You can’t just say to somebody ‘Hurt me real bad.’”

Commentary: Ugh… We can only imagine the user warning labels that attorneys at Unilever are going to have to grapple with now: “WARNING: do NOT spray on yourself and set yourself on fire!” Not to mention this will have to be on top of Axe’s anti-huffing campaign already in place.

The information was presented at an evidentiary hearing after Hawaiian Airlines sued Mesa Air Group for allegedly starting a low-fare Hawaiian airline, Go!, based on illegally obtained information. Hawaiian Airlines accused Mesa of obtaining the information from one of its employees that posed as a potential investor during Hawaiian’s bankruptcy.

Sidney Levinson, attorney for Hawaiian Airlines, raised an eyebrow at the claim. He called the news “a transparent effort to distract the court’s attention and undermine the credibility of one of Mesa’s most senior officers.”

“You have to wonder why Mesa thinks that smearing their own star witness with allegations of pornography benefits them,” he said.

Christopher Pappaioanou, Vice President for Legal Affairs at Mesa, defended Mesa’s allegations. Pappaioanou testified that he discovered Murnane looking at pornographic websites when he came into work one Saturday morning.

Hawaiian Airlines is hoping for an injunction against Mesa Airlines, prohibiting the company from selling tickets for a year, as well as monetary compensation.

Ads for the products show cartoon caricatures of young girls and include sayings such as “I am committed”, “I am a citizen of the world” and “I am unstoppable.”

Bill Boraczek, senior vice president for marketing at Nair competitor Sally Hansen, had this to say:

“Hair removal skews higher with teens. 26 percent of the usage is with girls between 12 and 19, while it only represents 13 percent of the population; we’ve always been strong with this demographic.”

Commentary: WTF? Seems a little extreme and unfortunate to us.

The Michigan State Police expect to have a decision whether or not disciplinary action will be taken. So far Chamberlain-Gordon has not had any of her regular duties restricted.

Commentary: Is it really a smart idea to cheat on a spouse who is also a professional forensics scientist?

Now the FBI is involved, and so are allegations of violations of the Judicial Code of Conduct.

Without getting into the sordid details, recently filed court documents show Colorado’s top federal judge, Judge Edward Nottingham, was too drunk to remember how he spent more than $3,000 at a strip club in two consecutive days. He also reportedly perused some very inappropriate Internet sites at work.

Judge Nottingham, who is is going through a divorce currently after his wife found the credit card charges from the Diamond Cabaret, recently presided over the insider trading trial of ex-Qwest Communications CEO Joseph Nacchio.

When asked in divorce court how he could have spent so much money, Judge Nottingham testified he could not recall, explaining, “I had had a lot to drink … and I don’t remember.”

The FBI has now gotten involved, looking into possible improper use of his federal computer.

Some are pointing out that Judge Nottingham appears to have violated the Judicial Code of Conduct and thereby may have to step aside. According to the code…

“Public confidence in the judiciary is eroded by irresponsible or improper conduct by judges. A judge must avoid all impropriety and appearance of impropriety. A judge must expect to be the subject of constant public scrutiny. A judge must therefore accept restrictions that might be viewed as burdensome by the ordinary citizen and should do so freely and willingly. The prohibition against behaving with impropriety or the appearance of impropriety applies to both the professional and personal conduct of a judge.”

Just a few weeks ago, Nottingham was presiding over the sentencing of Nacchio, in which he pointed out at great length how no one was above the law: “If it is perceived that there is one law for the rich and one law for everyone else, the law ultimately falls into disrespect.”

This is an unfortunate turn of events for the judge, who had been profiled by the Rocky Mountain News just a few months earlier as a “no nonsense” straight shooter.

Commentary: For those inquiring minds that need to know more…. go check out one of our favorite blogs, www.loweringthebar.net, where they try and decipher exactly how the judge could have blown $3,000 in two days and decide that it must have been roughly 20 hours of non-stop lap dances.

At issue was that in trying to protect competitive secrets, court officials didn’t sufficiently “black out” redacted portions of the court filings – and thereby the information could still be read.

Among the inadvertent disclosures was that Whole Foods prohibits its suppliers from doing business directly with Wal-Mart as Whole Foods “wants Wal-Mart to have to go through distributors because that raises Wal-Mart’s costs.”

The Rocky Mountain News has the best piece on what was supposed to be secret.

Commentary: Someone needs to get a better black magic marker.

Although the American Red Cross was created in 1881, while Johnson & Johnson started using the trademark in 1887, the American Red Cross did not receive its Congressional charter until 1900.

In the lawsuit Johnson &Johnson contends that even with the charter, the Red Cross was never granted use of their Red Cross logo for commercial activities which competed with private business.

Johnson & Johnson’s claims elicited an angry response from Red Cross president Mark Everson.

“For a multibillion dollar drug company to claim that the Red Cross violated a criminal statute … simply so that J&J can make more money, is obscene…The Red Cross products that J.& J. wants to take away from consumers and have destroyed are those that help Americans get prepared for life’s emergencies…I hope that the courts and Congress will not allow Johnson & Johnson to bully the American Red Cross.”"

According to the Red Cross these products were part of safety and health kits and the company only $2 million annually from sales of the products. Furthermore the Red Cross, in a rebuttal on its website, points out that it has been selling these kits commercially since 1903.

If Johnson & Johnson wins in litigation the Red Cross will have to turn over the remaining products to Johnson & Johnson for destruction and possibly pay punitive damages for the items sold.

Commentary: What is going on in the head of Johnson & Johnson? Even if J&J had a strong case, it is ALWAYS BETTER to reach a private settlement than to run to court. After a 100 years of cooperation on using a similar trademark it seems quite petty for a company with $53 billion in revenues in 2006 suing over $2 million in proceeds that went a non-profit to be used towards disaster relief.

As the company cuts jobs and confronts a whole host of other legal problems, it seems to us that the last thing that Johnson & Johnson needs is more bad publicity. We scanned the commentary and blogs on this story and overall it is running highly negative against J&J. They could lose more money in sales than they hope to gain in this lawsuit. Sometimes the best battles are the ones not fought and maybe right now Johnson & Johnson doesn’t seem to understand that.

Schetty, concerned that Rohm and Haas would steal Technic’s bid with Intel, convinced unnamed Technic and Amkor employees to sabotage Rohm and Haas’ test at an Amkor facility in the Philippines. Schetty is looking at a possible maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, 3 years probation and a $250,000 fine. He agreed to pay $15,536 in restitution to Rohm and Haas.

Read the full article.

Commentary: Talk about going to extremes to stop the competition. Schetty actually convinced Technic employees that it was ‘good business’ to destroy a rival’s product. Another example of how one employee can ruin an entire company (even their own).

Police confirmed the deaths which were caused when at least twenty billboards collapsed as heavy winds pounded different parts of the city…

Another massive-size billboard on Korangi Road fell on a rickshaw, injuring three persons. Eyewitnesses said that the billboard didn’t fall down right under its location but due to the high pressure of wind, it fell about 30 ft far away from where it was actually fixed…

The City District Government Karachi (CDGK) had banned oversized billboards for a year but allowed them following intense pressure from advertisers…

At the same time, citizens have expressed extreme annoyance with the city’s statement that has asked the citizens to stay in their homes. “I am sure no where in the world citizens have had experienced what we did today,” said one, adding that the citizens of this mega city feel threatened from the ‘mega’ hoardings that have covered the whole city like monsters who can kill anyone, anywhere, and anytime.

Commentary: Now that’s reporting (cover the whole city like monsters who can kill anyone, anywhere and anytime)! Hey Hollywood… see anything interesting here as a movie plot?

Sometimes we are just plain happy for simple things… like not living in Kararchi. Life is complex enough without having to worry about attacking billboards. On a serious note, the pressure from advertisers is real as the Pakistani economy has been on fire over the past few years (growing at nearly 10% annually) – in part due to the ‘global war on terror.’

Gary Shipman, a Wilmington lawyer who led the suit, countered by arguing that the order was error-ridden, served out of the blue (as the case is two years old), and that Tennille did not have jurisdiction to rule on the case.

The class action suit accused Sears of overcharging patrons – charging each for four-wheel alignments on cars that can only be serviced with a less expensive two wheel alignment. Although the inflation only amounted to a few dollars per customer, it meant millions of dollars in revenues for the retail giant. Tennille claimed in his order that for each plaintiff that received a $10 check or a $4 coupon, their counsel would pocket nearly $3,000.

The 53-year-old Nigerian man told De Standaard he arrived at the Belgian’s wrought-iron business and was immediately confronted by the barking dog.

The Belgian turned the man away before he could even enter, wrote on his labour office letter that he could not hire the man because of his colour, and noted the probability that the dog would bite the Nigerian.

The local labour office has concluded that the Belgian was racist and has removed him from its list of potential employers.

“My dog is racist. Not me,” the Belgian told De Standaard.

He told the newspaper that he did not wish to file a formal complaint because he did not wish for his family in Nigeria to hear about the case.

Commentary: Discrimination is rife in Belgium and continues to be so. The Nigerian applicant in this case, who has resided in Belgium for 32 years, noted that he had been rejected from jobs before due to his color – although other potential employers were “more subtle” about it.

This article from the San Francisco Gate detailed the claims:

[A] secretary’s allegations that the board chairwoman tried to pay her $10,000 to have a baby for her – and then punished her when she wouldn’t – [has] set off a charge that had everybody from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to state Senate leader Don Perata scrambling for cover this past week.

As Connelly tells it, Richardson called her into her office in September and explained that she wanted to have a child, but was already in her 50s. So she asked whether Connelly, a 31-year-old single mom, would be interested in being paid $10,000 to become a surrogate mother – although it would have to wait until Richardson was done with her board term so it wouldn’t conflict with her job as Connelly’s boss…

Connelly thought it over for a few days, then declined, she says. Richardson promptly turned sour toward her and began berating her regularly over the job she was doing in the office, Connelly says.

Once, she said, Richardson brought her dog to the office and told Connelly to walk it and clean up after it.

Commentary: You have got to love Governor Schwarzengger’s response to this suit (remember, California is the home of AB 1825, which mandates 2 hours of sexual harassment training for all managers every 2 years): “I will soon appoint a new chair for the board.” Schwarzenegger also mandated that the entire board “receive additional (sex harassment) training before its next meeting.”

The problem?

A typo and proofing goof led to all 50,000 tickets declaring the ticket holder as the $1,000 grand prize winner when scratched off.

The general manager of the dealership, Jeff Kohn said that the dealership is “making a full-faith effort” to investigate the mistake, which he said is “not how we portray ourselves or our community.”

Commentary: As if the car dealership industry didn’t already have enough credibility problems with their marketing techniques. Move along people… not much to see (or learn from) here – but funny all the same.