Monthly Archives: January 2020

The Illinois Representative Who “Consulted” for Red Light Companies

Representative Martin Sandoval, 11th District in New York General Assembly, seemed to favor red-light cameras. We now know why. Representative Sandoval had accepted $250,000 in bribes from red-light camera companies. His wiretapped conversations with company representatives included tidbits such as, … Continue reading

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Bizarre Billionaire Bezos and the Text Messages: Truth Percolates

Right up there with “the dog ate my homework” is a new explanation from Amazon’s founder in the midst of a mid-life crisis, “The Saudis did it.” When suggestive text messages from Mr. Bezos to his girlfriend, Lauren Sanchez, showed … Continue reading

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Goldman Sachs and Its Nutty Approach to Customers

Goldman Sachs has announced that it will no longer have companies with exclusively white male boards as going-public clients. Unless those clients are in Asia, Latin America, or the Middle East. Along with that, Goldman Sachs also announced that it … Continue reading

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Former Wells CEO, John Stumpf, Is Banned for Life From Banking

Mr. Stumpf, who presided over the largest growth of bank accounts and services per customer in the banking industry, also agreed to pay a $17.5 million fine. The individual sanctions against a banker were unusual. Following the 2008 market and … Continue reading

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Insys’s Founder sentenced to 5.5 years For His Role in Marketing Fentanyl

Dr. John Kapoor, the founder of Insys, who was convicted in May 2019 of conspiring to bribe doctors and defraud health insurers, was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison. The Chandler, Arizona-based company had a market value of $3.2 billion … Continue reading

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Do CEOs Learn From Experience? Not At Best Buy

Let’s recap. In 2012 (April), former Best Buy CEO, Brian Dunn resigned (abruptly as the Wall Streeters say). The Board concluded that he had “an extremely close personal relationship” with a 29-year-old subordinate at the company that “negatively impacted the … Continue reading

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“Why didn’t you believe in me?”

Matteo Sloane, in confronting his father, Devin Sloane, who entered a guilty plea to paying $250,000 to a USC account and a charity to have his son admitted to USC as a water polo recruit. Mr. Sloane responded, “I lost … Continue reading

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“I haven’t been forgiven by god [sic] for the covering up what I did last night.”

A Boeing employee weighing in via e-mail on the pretense his company was creating that no additional training was necessary for pilots on the redesigned Boeing 737MAX with its Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). MCAS was the term used inside … Continue reading

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E-Mail Chatter at Boeing: Oops!

It remains unclear to the Barometer why employees feel free to spout off in e-mails. Feel free to schedule meetings, ask questions about shipments, and even grouse about the break room mess or someone swiping your lunch from the fridge. … Continue reading

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How about those Astros?

Enough said. Cheating.

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Alphabet (nee Google) Chief Legal Counsel Leaving Amidst Allegations

David Drummond, chief legal officer for Alphabet (Google, we’re talking about Google here), will be departing the company after 20 years. Mr. Drummond filed the company’s original articles of incorporation as an attorney with the law firm Wilson Sonsini. He … Continue reading

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McKinsey & Company: Semper Fi

The New York Times obtained a copy of McKinsey & Company from 2010, the high powered consulting firm compared its 90-plus-years of doing business as akin to the Marine Corps, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Jesuits. The report describes … Continue reading

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In This New Year: Honesty Brings Hope

An employee at a waste and recycling center in Misomer Norton, GB opened a box during his sorting work and found 15,000 pounds (about $20,000). The box had been left at the center by a couple who had just cleaned … Continue reading

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