Archive for the ‘Business’ Category

It’s not a new state of affairs when corporate America confuses unethical or illegal activity with corporate governance rights and responsibilities. The self designated all-American business, Wal-Mart, which fired two executives for hanky-panky that violated company policy, had an employee who was busy tape recording telephone conversations with a New York Times reporter. The same employee eavesdropped on board of directors’ meetings. Wal-Mart fired Bruce Gabbard, member of Wal-Mart’s Threat Research and Analysis Group and then got a restraining order to keep him from talking about “Project Red”.

And now we are learning that paranoia has set in at Wal-Mart. The otherwise cost-conscious company spent millions to spy on employees and critics.

First we learned that a Wal-Mart employee taped phone calls between Michael Barbaro, a New York Times reporter, and Wal-Mart officials. This came after The Times reported on a Wal-Mart memo that suggested such clever tactics as forcing all shop clerks to spend some time hauling shopping carts in from the parking lot — the better to weed out unhealthy workers who might submit health insurance claims.

Wal-Mart fired the employee it said was responsible for taping the calls, a man named Bruce Gabbard, and said his actions were unauthorized. Then Mr. Gabbard started talking to The Wall Street Journal, saying the department he worked for had spied on critics. Wal-Mart quickly issued apologies to the critics and got a judge to order Mr. Gabbard to stop talking.

Mr. Gabbard said he told a Wal-Mart lawyer that “I’m the guy listening to the board of directors when Lee Scott is excused from the room.”

[Paranoia and Bugging at Wal-Mart, New York Times, subscription only access]

Lessons Counsel Can Learn From Hewlett-Packard’s Pretexting Scandal explores the dire consequences of unchecked internal company investigations and weak scrutiny of company retained private investigators. The authors offer education in the law and advise on proper investigative approaches.

That is not to say that engaging outside counsel will necessarily insulate an investigation from public scrutiny. First, when advising the corporation regarding any aspect of an internal investigation, counsel should be cautious not to offer business advice as opposed to legal advice; the former may jeopardize the attorney-client privilege. U.S. v. Davis, 636 F.2d 1028, 1044 (5th Cir. 1981). Second, absent a pending investigation or possible civil litigation, internal investigations are not protected by the work product doctrine. Binks Mfg. Co. v. National Presto Industries, Inc., 709 F.2d 1109, 1120 (7th Cir. 1983). HP is a case in point. Because the company was not facing the possibility of an investigation or civil litigation, documents related to the investigation are arguably discoverable. Finally, the attorney-client privilege and work product doctrine do not shield improper techniques used at any point in the investigation. U.S. v. Zolin, 491 U.S. 554, 556 (1989).

[Article via TVC]

Private investigators may discover new research sources and approaches reading, Gathering Competitive Intelligence for Litigators and Business Lawyers (April 2007, Wisconsin Lawyer), Tony Chan’s roundup of online personal information databases and Web sites for the legal field. Much of the article is directed to attorneys, and those in Wisconsin, related to legal business development or fee-based data sources. But he also mentions a few of the free public records through which you can find people in the military, verify a professional license or disciplinary actions, and develop competitive intelligence. The article also footnotes a posting I did on the trends in restricting access to public records.

On the theme of redacting public records, Arizona legislation SB 1169 is still pending. This bill , would require the Maricopa County Recorder to remove Social Security numbers from documents on its Web site and the other counties would do the same at the request of an individual, starting in 2009. Reported in the Arizona Daily Star, AZ bill keeps SS numbers off Internet.

The income received by executives in publicly traded Standard & Poor’s Super 1500 corporations is digested in the AFL-CIO PayWatch database.
[ via beSpacific]

Charities and non profit organizations are monitored by state agencies and the Internal Revenue Service, and tracked by many private advocacy groups. Even if you’re not particularly interested in a specific charitable organization you might want to know the people and other entities with which they’re associated. Business journalism reporter Bill Smith developed a guide to analyzing the IRS 990 forms that nonprofits are required to submit. He also links to the advocacy groups, Charity Navigator, BBB Wise Giving Alliance and Guide Star where you can get the document images of the IRS 990 forms filed by the charities. Ministry Watch and The Foundation Center have background on nonprofits that aren’t required to file IRS form 990.

Bookmark this IRS site that lists links to each states’ charity regulator, either the Attorney General or Secretary of State, where you’ll be able to lookup details on the charitable organization.

Search for a tax deductible organization by partial name in all 50 states at once.

The NASD securities broker database interface has been reworked and is much more usable for private investigators who are validating a license or developing background on a company or individual. The NASD describes itself as “the primary private-sector regulator of America’s securities industry.” In the past, a license lookup required the broker’s name and the brokerage, but now a search can be done by individual name only.

The National Association of Securities Dealers BrokerCheck is an online database of registered securities brokers and registered securities firms. The search mechanism isn’t as friendly as I would like, still with remnants of the former site. If you want to search last name only, select the basic search. This returns last names with that string of letters. The advanced search option allows you to search by partial first and last name, but you must enter letters into both fields, then select “begins with”, “sounds like” or “exact match”. Select “View Full PDF Report” in the left column to view details of disciplinary actions and disputes. The full report also lists employment, unemployment, non securities employment, military service and education for the past 10 years.

Detailed reports are also available on the firm name search but you have to request a NASD report if a firm’s registration was terminated before 1999. Call the NASD to get further details by phone.

If you haven’t gotten your free credit report yet this year now is the moment.

December is a good time of the year to brush up on the resources available for researching charitable organizations.

Check the status of a charity within an individual state by going to either the Web site for the Attorney General or the Secretary of State.