Carried Interest Canard: Romney’s Inane Bain Pain

January 23, 2012

Time to blow the whistle on a bit of journalistic ignis fatuus.  Multitudes of marginally-informed pundits — none of whom has seen Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s tax returns and most of whom know nothing about income taxes — have had plenty to say about Romney’s reported tax rate of around 15 percent.  Beltway commentators [...]

Read more →

Testimony: McQueary Did Not Tell Paterno Everything

December 16, 2011

Was the Jerry Sandusky story just a convenient excuse to get rid of Joe Paterno?  It’s possible.  Last month, I suggested that Penn State’s firing of Joe Paterno was unjustified in part because whatever Mike McQueary saw in the shower back in 2002, he did not tell it all to Joe Paterno. Today, despite contrary [...]

Read more →

Is House Agriculture the Best Committee for the MF Global Hearing?

December 8, 2011

In action before the House Agriculture Committee today, CFTC Commissioner Jill Sommers (pictured right) and James Kobak, lead counsel for the MF Global liquidation trustee, both acquitted themselves as well as can be expected under the circumstances.  Not so much Agriculture Committee members, those posing the questions. I get it that market players most hurt [...]

Read more →

Capital Irony: Jon Corzine Goes to Washington

December 8, 2011

Ready for more on MF Global?  Jon Corzine’s written testimony on the MF Global collapse suggests that the House Agriculture Committee’s hearing this morning (start time 9:30 a.m.) may be an interesting one.  MF Global is undoubtedly a complicated case which — judging from Corzine’s submission — appears to have been grossly oversimplified by the [...]

Read more →

McQueary Quandary: Did Penn State Misfire on Joe Paterno?

November 18, 2011

Did Penn State fire Joe Paterno too quickly?  Aspects of the Jerry Sandusky child sex story most damaging to Paterno are beginning to unravel.  One inflammatory (and likely inaccurate) popular belief:  Paterno failed to communicate to police or Penn State superiors the full, lurid details supposedly told him by whistleblower Mike McQueary the “morning after” [...]

Read more →

A Modest Defense of Joe Paterno

November 14, 2011

As a father, coach, college football fan and attorney for whistleblowers, I have watched the Penn State scandal unfold with equal measures horror and fascination.  Some have asked my opinion.  Others have offered theirs. One told me, “Paterno becomes the biggest human disappointment I remember…. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a drop so far [...]

Read more →

Companies should embrace whistleblowers, not ostracize them

August 29, 2011

In the corporate ethics arena, one of the most destructive tendencies is knee-jerk retaliation against whistleblowers.   Ann Kraemer argues convincingly that companies should go out of their way to encourage whistleblowing (especially the internal variety) for a variety of reasons.  Kraemer’s article, Embracing the Enemy, in the Summer 2011 Conference Board Review, offers a robust [...]

Read more →

SEC evidence-destruction scandal: WSJ covering (up)?

August 20, 2011

SEC insider Darcy Flynn has leveled an explosive, apparently well-documented accusation that the nation’s top financial markets cop has been shredding evidence of financial misdeeds since at least 1993. WSJ readers looking for insights will find more beef in Rolling Stone which has, yet again, one-upped The Wall Street Journal via reporter Matt Taibbi. Since the Darcy Flynn story broke [...]

Read more →

SEC & materiality: Not as easy as it sounds!

June 20, 2011

What misstatements or omissions are “material” and which are not?  With the recent roll-out of the SEC’s new whistleblower regulations, it is a popular question among companies and prospective whistleblowers.  This brief summary offers insights into this important topic as it applies to changes in accounting principle. First, despite recent IFRS rumblings, SEC regulations require [...]

Read more →

Pennsylvania Power Juicer court pans False Marking Statute

June 10, 2011

Thinking of filing a False Marking Statute qui tam?  Big Ten country is not looking so friendly these days. The essence of the False Marking Statute, 35 U.S.C. § 292, is summarized here: “[W]hoever marks upon, or affixes to, or uses in advertising in connection with any unpatented article, the word ‘patent’ . . . [...]

Read more →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →