The Ethical Barometer

USIS supervisor in an e-mail to a manager describing one of the company’s monthly, quarterly, and annual “dumps.” Dumping was the practice allegedly followed by those at USIS when they reached a goal milepost for processing security clearances for the federal government. If the time for the goal arrived and the files were not processed, the managers and supervisors “cleared out the shelves,” which meant that they would release all cases in the queue waiting to be reviewed. Those files were released to the federal government as certified complete Continue reading →

From @GSElevator — allegedly the Twitter account that posts what is overheard in the elevator at Goldman Sachs. Nothing is quite as charming as greedy cynicism.

Words every parent would rather not hear from a president . . . The Barometer has a few “individual consumers” she would like the president to meet if he is doing research on “impact.” Maybe our commander-in-chief could just play along with the federal laws on marijuana.

Frank DiPascali, former right-hand man to Bernie Madoff, describing the reality that be could be sentenced to 125 years in prison for his role in the $50-billion Ponzi scheme he helped Mr. Madoff to run — on and on — for 18 years. In his many days on the stand, Mr. DiPascali has been nothing, if not colorful. He expressed regret that he never got to speak personally with former Madoff client, actress Kyra Sedgwick, but could not muster much reaction when asked about snookering Nobel winner and former Madoff client Elie Wiesel out of millions, “I don’t have any feeling about it one way or the other.”

“SAC Trader Falsified His Grades At Harvard,” New York Times, January 10, 2014, p. B1.
“SAC Trader Expelled From Harvard Law School For Falsifying Grade Transcripts,” Wall Street Journal, January 10, 2014, p. C3.
“Indian Envoy Indicted on Fraud Charges,” Wall Street Journal, January 10, 2014, p. A7. Continue reading →

Dennis Kozlowski, former CEO of Tyco, who was convicted of theft of $100 million from Tyco while serving as its CEO. He served 8 years of his 8 1/3 to 25-year sentence, and will be released in January 2014. He was denied parole in April 2012 because the parole board found “his theft of over $100 million from Tyco,” and that such was not compatible “with the welfare of society at large.”

Mr. Winston won the trophy by 1,501 votes — the seventh-widest margin ever. Sports Illustrated, December 23, 2013. p. 38 Mr. Winston was investigated for rape, but no charges were filed. Perhaps clay beneath the feet of the figurine on the Heisman trophy would be an appropriate change to make at this point in its history.

CNN columnist L.Z. Granderson in discussing President’s Obama’s whoppers of “If you like your insurance, you can keep your insurance, period.”  The Barometer is speechless, except to ask, “Is this what we have come to?”

Mickey Sherman, criminal defense lawyer and ubiquitous “Court TV” presence.  A Connecticut court ruled this week that Michael C. Skakel was entitled to a retrial on his murder conviction because of Mr. Sherman’s failures in his representation of Mr. Skakel. The judge called Sherman’s efforts (or lack thereof) in the case  “fatal to a constitutionally adequate defense.” Mr. Sherman was paid $1 million for defending Mr. Skakel.

Lawyer for Rebecca Mairone, a former Countrywide executive who headed up the “Hustle” loan program, a program that resulted in $1 billion in bad mortgage loans that were subsequently dumped on Fannie Mae. A jury concluded on October 22, 2013 that the loans were indeed fraudulent and held Ms. Mairone civilly liable for the fraud. Her fines and penalties are yet to be determined.  JPMorgan Chase was lucky enough to scoop her up and now has her on staff.