What do AT&T, Boeing, Com-verse Technology, Prudential Financial, Medtronic, Schering-Plough and Tenet Healthcare have in common?
In recent months, they have all been charged with fraudulent conduct by the US Justice Department's Corporate Fraud Task Force, or with serious misconduct by government prosecutors.
Among other charges, the companies were accused of deceptive stock trading, improper billing, falsification of drug prices, kickbacks to doctors and the creation of a "secret stock options slush fund."
The total cost of their misconduct in fines and effective penalties to shareholders? A cool US$2.6 billion.
Enron aftermath
Almost five years after the Enron scandal first came to light, corporate crime involving major US companies appears to show no sign of abating, despite a government crackdown on corporate malfeasance.
Set up after Enron's collapse, the Corporate Fraud Task Force has taken the lead in prosecuting bad executive behavior.
Critics concede it has notched up major victories, notably the convictions of Enron's two former top executives, but some securities lawyers and investor advocates say corporate fraud has become so endemic that harsher penalties are needed to defeat it.
Jacob Zamansky, a New York lawyer whose firm, Zamansky and Associates, has filed securities lawsuits against big Wall Street brokerages, says more top executives need to be held accountable to deter corporate fraud.
"If the Justice Department is serious about showing enforcement, go after some top guys on Wall Street, in Corporate America," he said.
Slack prosecution
Zamansky believes the government did an "excellent job" in prosecuting the Enron case and other cases until last year but says that prosecutions have slackened overall this year.
A senior Justice Department official, who requested anonymity, argued, however, that the task force has been clamping down aggressively and that the flurry of recent cases was somewhat of an aberration.
"From July 2002 to March 2006, we've had more than 1,000 guilty pleas; more than 160 of those have been chief executive officers and [company] presidents," the official said.
Key members of the task force, which also groups Securities and Exchange Commission and FBI officials, met just last month to swap notes and plot strategy.
"We certainly seek to recover [money] vigorously and to the maximum extent we can consistent with the facts," the official said, adding that there are no plans to disband the task force.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
WARNING: From Jan. 1 last year to the end of last month, 89 Taiwanese have gone missing or been detained in China, the MAC said, urging people to carefully consider travel to China Lax enforcement had made virtually moot regulations banning civil servants from making unauthorized visits to China, the Control Yuan said yesterday. Several agencies allowed personnel to travel to China after they submitted explanations for the trip written using artificial intelligence or provided no reason at all, the Control Yuan said in a statement, following an investigation headed by Control Yuan member Lin Wen-cheng (林文程). The probe identified 318 civil servants who traveled to China without permission in the past 10 years, but the true number could be close to 1,000, the Control Yuan said. The public employees investigated were not engaged in national
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the