Purchase out of the money call options set to expire in two weeks, be an employee of the company acting as an adviser in the merger, not have any activity on that stock before, use an account in your name, exclusively use option when you have barely traded options in the account before, and quickly … Read more »
Social Media as a Risk Factor
It’s official. Social media is a risk factor. At least according to Estee Lauder and lululemon athletica. Over at Footnoted, Michelle Leder and her team dig through SEC filings digging up the dirt on bad corporate behavior. They were digging through the 10-K for Estee Lauder when Theo Francis came across a new risk factor. … Read more »
Can Companies Do Well by Doing Good?
Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal published a story by Aneel Karnani, Professor of Strategy at the University of Michigan’s Stephen M Ross School of Business with a controversial headline: The Case Against Corporate Social Responsibility. He manages to pull in some corporate governance arguments: “The movement for corporate social responsibility is in direct opposition, in such … Read more »
Roger Clemens and Lying to the Feds
Roger Clemens taught us another important lesson in dealing with an investigation. Never lie to the feds. Mark McGwire essentially proclaimed his guilt when he refused to answer questions about steroid use during his playing career at a congressional hearing. He may have lost in the arena of public opinion, but he will not have … Read more »
Compliance Bits and Pieces: Ground Zero Mosque Edition
One part of compliance is investigation. Find the facts. Don’t rely on opinion or self-interest statements. With all the hullabaloo about the Ground Zero Mosque I thought I would gather some factual information. First off. It’s not at Ground Zero. Just How Far Is the “Ground Zero Mosque” From Ground Zero? by Matt Sledge in … Read more »
SEC versus New Jersey
Fuggedaboutit! New Jersey became the first state ever charged by the SEC for violations of the federal securities laws. They gave up without a fight and agreed to settle the case, without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings. This matter involves the sale of over $26 billion in municipal bonds from August 2001 through April … Read more »
Criminal Provisions under Dodd-Frank
When thinking designing compliance programs, I pay extra attention to the issues that can result in jail time. It’s one thing to pay a fine, it’s a much bigger problem when you take someone’s freedom away. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform & Consumer Protection Act has added several new federal criminal offenses. The National Association … Read more »
EWWW! The Connections Between Disgust and Morality
What if our moral judgments are simply that a situation makes us feel like throwing up? Drake Bennett explores some of the new research and thinking in how our moral ideas may have evolved from our more visceral feelings of disgust in Ewwwwwwwww! The surprising moral force of disgust. The moral emotions model has another … Read more »
The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World
Niall Ferguson had the unfortunate luck of writing The Ascent of Money just before the unveiling of the 2008’s Great Panic. At the time he finished writing the book in May 2008, only $318 billion of write-downs had been acknowledged. I was interested in the book because of its focus on the development of our … Read more »
Compliance Bits and Pieces: Mark Hurd Special
Last Friday, the big news in compliance was the sudden resignation of Mark Hurd as the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Hewlett-Packard. I decided to put together a compilation of other stories I found interesting. HP and me: Coincidence or not? by Michelle Leder in Footnoted Of course, footnoted had done its own … Read more »