The Ethical Barometer

Each day the Barometer muddles through four newspapers and scans in articles that involve ethical issues in government agencies, companies, nonprofits, NGOs, schools, etc. — anywhere humans are because where there are humans there are ethical issues. For futurists, where there are robots designed by humans, there will be ethical issues. The scanning is necessary because items disappear from the Internet. Also, some newspapers, in their online versions, update articles without explanation. Having the original often demonstrates ethical issues on the part of the journalists at the newspapers.

The Barometer is exhausted with the scanning. So, herewith is a plea to several companies, agencies, nonprofits, etc. to get some help. These organizations are in dire need of a review of their ethical culture. The hits just keep coming, yet they cannot seem to grasp that they have an issue. Herewith the Barometer’s list for ethical triage:

Facebook: From the privacy issues to the security breach that went undisclosed to its policies on pulling materials and closing accounts, this is a company struggling to find its way.

Tesla: Now facing a criminal investigation over its production numbers, which follows on the heels of the SEC settlement, which follows on the heels of accounting questions which follows on the heels of the conflicts in its purchase of a solar company run by Elon Musk’s brother– get some help quickly.

Goldman Sachs — with the criminal charges against two Goldman bankers in the Malaysian embezzlement prosecution and all the related and shady Jho Low activities, Goldman topped its previous issues. As the Justice Department phrased it, the Goldman fellows charged were focused on deals–“putting them ahead of the proper operation of its [Goldman’s] compliance functions.” This is a classic cowboy culture that still does not understand what its culture is. And it cannot be fixed with its fancy philanthropic and sustainability efforts.

Google– The “don’t be evil” gang surely struggles with ethical issues, from expanding into China to intolerance for diverse views to hiring practices to secret settlements to walk-outs — who exactly is running this company? An external review of its goings on and a slightly different perspective could help.

University of Maryland: Maryland’s Board of Regents is, in Shakespeare’s apt phrase, a piece of work. It recommended retaining the football coach under whom a player died. The president reversed the decision, but the Board was not pleased. The president agreed to retain the coach, but announced his retirement. Then the Board president resigned. The Board and the University need an external review. Without it, they both lose credibility internally and externally. The strongest and clearest communication any organization comes with this: Whom do you hire? Whom do you fire? Whom do you discipline? Who is quitting? Messages sent and received here, and the culture is affected and/or evidenced by both.

The tale of Geoffrey Weglarz is one that should give us pause. A man, troubled financially and personally, drank poison in his car, parked on a residential street in the East Village in New York City. His remains were finally found in the car one week later. One man said that he had passed by the car “half a dozen times” while Mr. Weglarz was in it.

His family in Florida were worried and tried to make contact with police, but rules, procedures, and cracks between both let time march on without finding the car. Mr. Weglarz had texted some troubling notes, but the responses from those who received them were too late to stop the suicide.

Mr. Weglarz visited with his son in the afternoon and then parked his car and took his life. Those in the neighborhood sensed a bad smell, but no one investigated. Friends were concerned with no responses on his phone, but waited.

Sometimes we don’t want to get involved. Sometimes we are too busy to notice. Sometimes we don’t pick up on signals from those we know and love. This sad story is a reminder that we may not be as concerned and connected as we need to be with those we love, those we know, and those we don’t know, except as a fellow traveler in this difficult world.

“Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.” John Donne

When current U.S. Senate candidate in Texas, Beto, nee Robert, O’ Rourke, was a member of the El Paso city council he represented a historic Mexican-American neighborhood. He proposed a revitalization of the tenements with restaurants, shops, and an arts walk (think San Antonio River Walk). He was married to the daughter of an investor’s daughter.

In addition, his constituents, the residents and many of the owners of the small businesses in the area, were against the changes. Further, a study commissioned by the city referred to the residents of the area as “dirty,” “uneducated,” and “lazy.” Guadalupe Ochoa, a resident of the neighborhood, says that she voted for Mr. O’Rourke and then “he turned things around on them,” once he got close to the power. They filed an ethics complaint with the city, which was rejected. However, Mr. O’Rourke finally took the advice of an attorney to no longer be “tone deaf” to the appearance of a conflict, and recused himself from voting on the proposal. The plan eventually fell apart.

The folks in the neighborhood have not forgotten. It was not the appearance of a conflict. It was a conflict.

The New York Timesran a story about the payouts that Google made to exiting executives, those who exited under a cloud of sexual harassment allegations. In one case, Google paid an executive $90 million upon his exit despite finding the allegations credible.

There was insurrection in the ranks once Google employees read the article in the Times, albeit online since one cannot find a newspaper in the Silicon Valley. The employees demanded a meeting, as they do when Trump is elected, Google might sign contracts with the Department of Defense, and when payouts are given despite behaviors.

The “Do no evil!” credo has definitional struggles. The strongest communication a corporation has with its employees comes through it hires, fires, and disciplines. The silent payouts were one heck of a message on values to Google employees.

Tesla has voluntarily turned over documents to the FBI relating to the agency’s criminal investigation into whether Tesla misled shareholders and investors about its production figures. The Bureau has also been questioning former Tesla employees.

Elon Musk said in conference call with analysts in July 2017 that the company would be making 20,000 Model 3s a month by December 2017. Actual production for all of 2017 was 2,700, with 793 produced in the last week of 2017.

This investigation is separate from the SEC settlement for the Musk statements on the company going private. That settlement does not cover the production issues still under investigation.

We got big trouble here in Teslaville, that’s a capital T that rhymes with “P” and that stands for problems ahead.

Ryan D. Nelson, former general counsel for a nutritional-supplements firm, was just named to the bench of the Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals. Judge Nelson has no prior experience as a judge. He does, however, have plenty of court time. That time came as a result of his 28 speeding tickets as well as tickets for running traffic lights and stop signs, skipping auto inspection requirements, not registering his vehicle, and failing to carry proof of insurance. He was clocked going 100 mph in a 75 mph zone. The good judge is also amphibious. He was cited for failure to register his boat and to carry sufficient life jackets for the passengers on his 18-foot boat.

As one Idaho judge who handled two of Judge Nelson’s tickets (one for going 77 mph in a 35-mph zone), “You hope the person who is wearing the robe is going to follow the law.”

James V. Grimaldi and Alex CORSE, “Very Swift Justice: Judge Tangles With Traffic Court,” Wall Street Journal, October 20-21, 2018, p. A1 at A9.

Steve Penny, the former president of USA Gymnastics, who resigned in March because of the scandal involving Dr. Lawrence Nassar, who was convicted of abusing scores of young women, was arrested in his Tennessee cabin. Mr. Penny was indicted for allegedly removing evidence relating to the abuse of the young women gymnasts.

In addition, there are allegations that Mr. Penny offered a security job to an FBI agent while the Nassar case was under investigation. Mr. Penny’s lawyer says that Mr. Penny assumed that the case was with another FBI office when he offered the job to the agent. The agent had been working on the Nassar investigation.

Mr. Penny waited for five weeks upon learning of Dr. Nassar’s abuse to report it to the FBI. He resigned after he learned that 50 young women were molested by Dr. Nassar during that delay.

Mr. Penny has taken the Fifth in testimony before Congress. E-mails note din the indictment reflect Mr. Penny’s concerns about the harm to USA Gymnastics and whether it was possible to contain it.

Between Penn State, Ohio State, and now Michigan State (home base for Dr. Nassar), there is a pattern here. When you find out about untoward behavior and/or crimes: take your pain, get the information to those who can and will take action, and do not squirrel away documents.

Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital began a review of the work of Dr. Piero Anversa in 2013. In 2014, co-authors who had worked with Dr. Anversa wrote to a journal to complain that the data Dr. Anversa included in the article were not the data they had generated. By 2017, the hospital agreed to pay $10 million to the Feds to settle charges that Dr. Anversa had submitted false data to get research funding. Now, Harvard has notified the publishers of 31 articles by Dr. Anversa needed to be retracted.

Turns out that the doc’s research was bogus. The injection of bone marrow stem cells into hearts does not repair heart damage. The doc had crashed onto the research scene with his study on bone marrow injections into the heart as a means of regenerating tissue. Docs and researchers around the country were trying to duplicate the results and could find no miracle or even movement. When they questioned the studies they were told, “You’re not doing the injections correctly.” No one in the field was ever able to do it right.

Yet, people are still signing up for the program and companies are still selling stem cells. And why did it take so long to get this all out in the open? Some say they wanted to believe. Some say they felt the, “Who I am to question?” syndrome because this was Harvard, after all.

Took almost two decades, but the truth emerged. However, along the way the questions should have been made public. 2013 would have been the latest date, not the earliest for a little candor.

We know about the social science research frauds — are people who ride the subway more likely to make charitable donations and do people who like Popsicles vote independent. Those types of falsified data just fueled discussions and USA Today p. 1A data charts in the lower left-hand corner. These studies put patients at risk, cost millions, and did nothing. Stunning is the only word that comes to mind.

Meghan Markle in an interview. Recognizing that this is the Duchess’s first child, she may not realize that starting a family is a tad more than an item to check, like a trip to New Zealand. Or, if we hold to the exact wording, is the bucket-list item just the starting of a family and then proceeding to the travel? It could have been worse. Other items on her bucket list? “Run a marathon. Stop biting my nails. Stop swearing. Re-learn French.”

There is a draw on the heartstrings in this statement. The commitment to shepherd another life through the shoals of this world is part of the folklore of a Morgan Freeman movie. The quote is a commentary on values: Starting a family is right up there with bungee jumping and running with the bulls. The latter are one-time activities, the former is anything but. The latter fuel more wanderlust. The former grants the blessing of expunged wanderlust as joy is found at home in a tiny being.

All good wishes to The Duke and Duchess of wherever as they start this journey — may they dump the bucket list when they discover what it means to have a family, not just start one.

In yesterday’s New York Times, the Ethicist tackled another letter from a young ‘un who was witnessing a colleague cheating and wondered what to do. This time, the two students are seniors (last time the cheating involved the entrance exams to prestige high schools and a merry band of cheating middle-schoolers). One senior has seen his/her best friend cheating on tests and plagiarizing work (several times). The cheating best friend says that it is not cheating but “outsmarting the system.”

In response, the Ethicist recommends saying nothing because “That would get you in trouble with your peers and violate the norms of friendship.” Besides, adds the Ethicist, the cheater “has already lost out. When your putative successes are faked, you’re not entitled to self-respect.” There’s more, “Worse, his cheating amounts to abusing the trust of others and fraying the social bonds that sustain us. To cheat, after all, is to take advantage of students who don’t.”

How exactly does the Ethicist think norms are created? By tolerated behaviors, which is how we got into the cheating thing in the first place. Without consequences, yes, the norms shift. The issue is: Which way do you want the norms shifting to more cheating or less? How does remaining quiet and threatening cheaters with loss of self-respect instill fear in the hearts of high-schoolers?

By saying nothing, this best friend sets up his/her cheating best friend for a comeuppance at some point that will be far more consequential. The Barometer’s advice? Talk to the friend one more time — discuss disclosure, threaten disclosure, suggest voluntary disclosure, and explain why remaining best friends is dangerous for both of them. One because of guilt by association (others have, without a doubt, seen the cheating — perhaps participating as well) and the other because they are now and forever prisoners of each other. One knows about the cheating and the other knows about his/her tolerance. Those who know each other’s failures to act know secrets untold and acts unconfessed that bind them forever in deception and distrust. That’s the fabric of friendship, eh?

It’s a wonder to behold. A father, Brian Bowen Sr., testifying that he made the arrangements for payments totaling $100,000 in exchange for having his son, Tugs Bowen, a star basketball player, choose Louisville for college. When asked if his son was involved in the meetings, Mr. Bowen responded, “Of course not, no.” When asked why, Mr. Bowen responded, “I mean. I don’t want him to be involved in something that’s wrong or something like that.” There’s a defense lawyer’s nightmare when it comes to a client’s testimony. Admissions of accepting commercial bribes is one of those Top Ten moments when you know the trial is not going well.

However, these defense lawyers are not disputing the payments or arrangements for Tugs to go to Louisville. Defense lawyers are building their case on a theory of, “There’s no criminal behavior here,.” because there are no victims. The colleges benefited from the Adidas “program,” under which assistant coaches worked together with Adidas reps to talk high-school players into going to colleges that had Adidas sponsorships. Defense lawyers maintain that the colleges benefited by obtaining top talent.

But there is Tugs. He has been banished from NCAA sports. He tried the NBA draft, but withdrew and is now playing in Australia. The kid carries the burden because the adults were looking out for, well, sales and cash.

This is not your father’s FBI. This is not even Kevin Costner’s FBI. The FBI issued a “recall” of several agents in Asia whilst the agency investigates reports of “parties and interactions with prostitutes.”

Let’s recap the past 18 months of FBI activity:

25 FBI agents and Department of Justice officials have been fired and/or demoted and/or resigned (although not in that order)

These were not run-of-the-mill agents who were partying. The list is long and troublesome (Thanks to Seamus Bruner and the Epoch Times for keeping track of the comings and goings (mostly goings) https://www.theepochtimes.com/strzok-joins-list-of-25-top-fbi-doj-officials-who-have-been-recently-fired-demoted-or-resigned_2624607.html::

From the FBI:

James Comey, director (fired)
Andrew McCabe, deputy director (fired) (grand jury investigation into his activities is pending)

Peter Strzok, second in command at FBI counterintelligence (demoted to HR and then fired)
Lisa Page, attorney (demoted; resigned)(to add to the drama, Strzok and Page were paramours and used their work phones to send thousands of texts to each other in a discoverable way under Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) (kind of the epitome of counterintelligence, wouldn’t one say?) including the following disturbing messages.

In a text message on August 8, 2016, Page stated, “[Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!”
Strzok responded, “No. No he’s not. We’ll stop it.

And after Mr. Trump won the election:

09:38:14, FBI Attorney 2: “I am numb.”
09:55:35, FBI Employee: “I can’t stop crying.”
10:00:13, FBI Attorney 2: “That makes me even more sad.”
10:43:20, FBI Employee: “Like, what happened?”
10:43:37, FBI Employee: “You promised me this wouldn’t happen. YOU PROMISED.”
10:43:43, FBI Employee: Okay, that might have been a lie…”
10:43:46, FBI Employee: “I’m very upset.”
10:43:47, FBI Employee: “haha”
10:51:48, FBI Attorney 2: “I am so stressed about what I could have done differently.”
10:54:29, FBI Employee: “Don’t stress. None of that mattered.” 10:54:31, FBI Employee: “The FBI’s influence.”
10:59:36, FBI Attorney 2: “I don’t know. We broke the momentum.” 11:00:03, FBI Employee: “That is not so.”
11:02:22, FBI Employee: “All the people who were initially voting for her would not, and were not, swayed by any decision the FBI put out. Trump’s supporters are all poor to middle class, uneducated, lazy POS that think he will magically grant them jobs for doing nothing. They probably didn’t watch the debates, aren’t fully educated on his policies, and are stupidly wrapped up in his unmerited enthusiasm.”

Mr. Strzok was working on Robert Mueller’s team that was investigating the presidents for possible collusion. He was removed from that tema when the Inspector General found these texts. You can view the Inspector General’s full report on all of this: https://www.justice.gov/file/1071991/download

Other FBI employees:

James Rybicki, chief of staff (resigned)
James Baker, general counsel (resigned)
Mike Kortan, assistant director for public affairs (resigned)
Josh Campbell, special assistant to James Comey (resigned)
James Turgal, executive assistant director (resigned)
Greg Bower, assistant director for office of congressional affairs (resigned)
Michael Steinbach, executive assistant director (resigned)
John Giacalone, executive assistant director (resigned)

From the Justice Department

Sally Yates, deputy attorney general (fired)
Bruce Ohr, associate deputy attorney general (twice demoted) (working with Andrew McCabe)
David Laufman, counterintelligence chief (resigned)
Rachel Brand, deputy attorney general (resigned)
Trisha Beth Anderson, office of legal counsel for FBI (demoted or reassigned — remains unclear)
John P. Carlin, assistant attorney general (resigned)
Peter Kadzik, assistant attorney general, congressional liaison (resigned)
Mary McCord, acting assistant attorney general (resigned)
Matthew Axelrod, principal assistant to deputy attorney general (resigned)
Preet Bharara, U.S. attorney, SDNY (fired along with 45 other U.S. Attorneys)
Sharon McGowan, civil rights division (resigned)
Diana Flynn, litigation director for LGBTQ civil rights (resigned)
Vanita Gupta, civil rights division (resigned)
Joel McElvain, assistant branch director of the civil division (resigned)

If one were to diagram connections between and among these folks, there would be a lovely web. Regardless of where one sits on the political spectrum, there are serious issues at the FBI. The tone at the top is awful, the enforcement is slow and lax, and the rank-and-file need better leadership. This top-notch law enforcement agency, the one we could count on when organized crime escaped state and local authorities, is now an organization with serious ethical lapses and possible pending crimes. A top-to-bottom ethical culture assessment is the ticket for solving this crisis.

Nikki Fiske taught Stephen Miller in third grade. Ms. Fiske thought it appropriate to share with Hollywood Reporter that Mr. Miller was a “strange dude” in third grade. Weren’t we all? The Barometer had cat-eye glasses and a seriously flawed hair style that came from a barber shop (cheaper than having a trim in a beauty parlor).

It is tragic that the political environment (Mr. Miller is a Trump adviser on immigration issues) has seemingly allowed a teacher to feel comfortable disclosing not just a childhood issue but what she wrote in school files about this “strange dude.”

There are student privacy rights, and Ms. Fiske, who is now on “home leave” did not just breach the standards of teacher professionalism. She violated the law. Beyond both of those issues, what was disclosed was just hurtful.

As a former third-grader, as a mother of four former third-graders, and as a teacher, here’s a plea: Could we all just take a deep breath once in awhile before spouting off insults about those with whom we disagree politically?

When exactly is the statute of limitations on dredging up youthful indiscretions? Is there no limit to what is said about those with whom we disagree? Surely we are better than this.

Nicholas De-Meyer was a former assistant to Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon. One of his responsibilities was to receive wine deliveries at Solomon’s Manhattan apartment and then transport them to Solomon’s East Hampton home. De-Meyer allegedly lifted some of the bottles and sold them to a North Carolina wine dealer. Some of the wine cost as much as $133,650 per bottle. Hence, the total alleged of having pilfered a total of $1.2 million — ten bottles tops at that rate.

Mr. De-Meyer was scheduled to appear in federal district court in Manhattan at 2:30 on Tuesday, October 10, 2018 to enter a guilty plea. However, he jumped from the 33rd floor of the Carlyle Hotel, landing on a 15th floor balcony where he was pronounced dead at 2:38 PM.

Police arrived quickly because his sister had received texts from her brother about committing suicide. His sister notified the police and went directly to the Carlyle Hotel where they found him on the 15th floor.

Such a tragic case. Liquor is known to be a vice, and its draw, particularly at these prices, is so powerful. A 41-year old is gone, his family grieves. The temptations and desires that come with wealth and power and all those in that orbit seem inexplicable. .