Not In The Dog House

Reports of animal illnesses and deaths were first reported to Menu Foods in February as this video of the Menu Foods Press conference shows. Coincidence? I think not.....

The chief financial officer of Menu Foods Income Fund sold nearly half his units in the pet food maker less than three weeks before it announced a massive product recall, according to insider trading reports.

The reports show that Mark Wiens sold 14,000 units for C$102,900 ($89,700) on February 26 and February 27. As of Monday's close of C$4.46, the units would be worth C$62,440.

After the sale, Wiens owned 17,193 units and had options to buy 101,812, the trading reports show.

On March 16, the Mississauga, Ontario, pet food maker recalled 60 million containers of "cuts and gravy" style pet food amid reports of pet deaths due to contamination.

CEO

Stock Options

Corporate Crime

White Collar Crime

Criminal Capitalism

Productivity

Wealth


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Criminal Capitalism: OLGC

Report reveals fraud in Ont. lottery corporation

So what is the punishment a CEO gets for a culture of criminal fraud?

Ten years, twenty?

Nope.

CEO hit the $720Gs severance jackpot



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Corporate Crime

White Collar Crime

Criminal Capitalism

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If Wishes Were Horses

If wishes were horses; Odds are Black will go free

It seems the Black Lord has a cheering section in Canada, of course it comes from the right. Surprise, surprise. Or perhaps it is less sympathy for him than for Lady MacBeth his wife and outspoken fellow traveler of the right.

Also See:


Conrad Black

Criminal Capitalism


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Barbara Amiel No Libertarian

Columnist and author Barbara Amiel calls herself an extreme libertarian. Other journalists call her a provocateur. Critics call her the "Iron Lady of Wapping." Whatever you call her, there's no denying that Amiel has cut a broad swathe through the newspaper business (and gossip columns) in two countries.

Unless one considers Marie Antoinette a libertarian. Amiel's politics are not libertarian but neo-aristocratic. Amiel believes she should have her cake and eat it too just like Marie. As for the peasants they can eat cake too. As she reminds us in defense of Polish House Frau Inc.; Martha Stewart;

If Stewart had been living in ordinary times, it is unlikely so marginal a case would have involved the FBI and the Department of Justice. But Revolution has been sweeping the boardrooms of corporate America and the Terror is well under way. Last Friday night, Stewart's head was being held up high by its golden locks on television screens across the nation.

The neo-aristocratic airs of Amiel belie just another Conservative housefrau. In defending fascist revisionist David Irving she said;

" I would not hire Hitler to paint my house if there were other housepainters around, but if Hitler had simply written Mein Kampf and was an anti-semite, I would not ban him as a housepainter."

And her opinion of corporate malfeasance is clearly aristocratic; how dare the lowly peasants, the investors have any say. Let them eat their cake too. After all they are just ammunition in the revolt of the new bourgeois class against old money.

The revolution that Eisner and American business face comes from the once-silent partner of American public companies - the minority and institutional shareholder. After the huge bankruptcies and frauds of Enron and WorldCom, US business cried out for improved corporate governance but also became vulnerable to attack. A "Newly Emboldened Investor Class", as the New York Times calls it, rose up from their spreadsheets. The money managers for mutual funds, pension funds and insurance companies led by a handful of shareholder activists were in revolt: they were no longer content to remain confined to the dreary routine of analysts' reports and computations. The business world's atmosphere of shame and suspicion gave them a justification and an entry point into the companies in which they had invested. Now they had a chance to act like owners and have a say in operational decisions. Heady stuff.

Is it any wonder that the Queen Bitch of Cross Harbour, she of the Almeda Marcos school of self indulgence is so upset that hubby is facing racketeering and fraud charges in the U.S. Her gold digger demands on hubby are the reason for his criminal misuse of public company funds. And it is clear her outburst the other day was because like Marie Antoinette she is experiencing the revenge of the investors and the dreaded new bourgeois, the little people are clamoring for justice not cake.

CHICAGO -- From the moment Jeffrey Cramer, the 41-year-old prosecutor, stood up and began his opening argument in the trial by saying "Ladies and gentlemen, you see in the courtroom before you four men who stole $60-million," you knew he was going to make the whole thing simple.

And clear. There was no mistaking that. The four sleek, young U.S. prosecutors on the right side of courtroom 1241 in the federal courthouse in downtown Chicago, where Conrad Black and three co-defendants are on trial for fraud and related boo-boos, are the representatives not just of justice, but of a new moral order. They are the new gods of governance. The light of right seemed to shine off them.

She of aristocratic pretensions is no libertarian, she is a throw back like her husband to the neo-aristocratic conservatism of Edwardian Canada.

Chrétien in particular was contemptible in Black's eyes. Black saw in Chrétien only an ignorant peasant with no class at all who stood in the way of Black's lordship. Like Citizen Kane, Black used his newspapers to blacken his opponent's reputation at every twist and turn. It was Black's National Post that created the Shawinigate scandal. The Black press ridiculed Chrétien's defence that he was acting as an MP in aid of a constituent.

When exposed in public for the political harridan she is, Lord Black, true to form, sues.

The embattled former owner of the Telegraph, Conrad Black, is suing for almost £5m in libel damages over a critical biography that depicts the fallen press baron as an overweight teenager from a loveless home who grows up to be a "criminal sociopath".

Lord Black has taken particular exception to the book's treatment of his wife. His lawsuit says it portrays her as "grasping, hectoring, slatternly, extravagant, shrill and a harridan", and a "Nazi apologist".

An Ottawa-based legal analyst, Stanley Kershman of Perley-Roberts, Hill & McDougall, said the lawsuit was typical of Lord Black: "He has done this throughout his career - suing people to keep them from saying things he doesn't like."

And like many of the new right liberals of the Post War era she dabbled in Trotskyism before turning to the right. And like all anti-Stalinist liberals, she mistook State Capitalism for Socialism.

When Black met Barbara Amiel it was like the sky opened up for both of them. Now Black had added true love to his repertoire. It was a real meeting of minds and bodies. The beautiful Amiel was as conservative as Black, as Ayn Randish, as Zionist, as rugged an individualist. And even better, she was a convert to Black's conservatism before she ever knew him.

When I first met Barbara Amiel she was a funny, quirky Jewish lady of the Trotskyite persuasion hanging around University College at the University of Toronto. At the time, she had a well-off boyfriend reputed to have connections to organized crime. He bought her cashmere sweaters and skirts by the dozen.

Then, ever so slowly, right before our very eyes, Amiel began her Road to Damascus. Freidrich Hayek's The Road to Serfdom replaced Trotsky's Permanent Revolution. Soon Barbara was University College's number 1 conservative. Her conversion was accompanied by a nose bob and chest lift, which really made her look special.

But the marriage has been extremely successful. Lord and Lady Black are among the world's leading couples. Lord Black and his retinue of neo-cons, Kissinger and Richard Perle, have the ears of Tony Blair and George Bush any time they want.

See

Conrad Black

Criminal Capitalism


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Not His Peers

Former Canadian, remember he renounced his Canadian citizenship, Conrad Black, Lord Black of Crossharbour, will be judged in the United States by the working class. Which belies the old adage; of being judged by your peers.

• Video: Jury selection at the Black trial

Since he has a peerage, I guess they could have held court in the House of Lords. But then they would have acquitted him being good old boys and all.

The mask of invulnerability has begun to slip. For months, Conrad Black has scatterbombed his assailants with bombastic bravado and patronising put-downs. But as he arrived in Chicago to face a criminal trial which could consign him to dotage in jail, the scandal-hit media mogul looked tired, pale and faintly fearful.

The former Telegraph owner and friend of Lady Thatcher faces charges of racketeering, fraud, money laundering, tax evasion and obstruction of justice. With his bulky frame leaning on a courtroom table, he has spent two days listening to childcare niggles, health woes and financial hardships which jurors need settling in order to spend three months on a $40-a-day (£21) stipend sitting in judgment over him.

It is a window on to the life of ordinary folk which Black has never been near. He admits as such, complaining that his Rolls-Royce lifestyle of vintage wine, tuxedos and multiple homes is key to his downfall: "Since biblical times, and probably before, the wealthy have been envied and condemned."

But instead of throwing himself on the mercy of the Queen and her Lords, Lord Black high tailed back to the country he despises, that of his birth, the one he renounced his citizenship of.

And promptly hired crackerjack Canadian lawyer Eddie Greenspan to represent him in the United States. Which didn't go over well last week. Judge Is Not Amused by Conrad’s Black’s Lawyer

And there is further irony here, for the Black Lord is fan of that other famous racketeering Chicagoan; Al Capone

Jeffrey Cramer, the young prosecutor who is expected to deliver the government's opening argument today, even looks like Eliot Ness, who put Al Capone in jail for 11 years for tax evasion.

So perhaps to truly be judged by his peers Lord Black would not appear before his fellow British Lords but the Lords of Crime, like Capone, who like Black were busted on Rico charges.



Also See:

Conrad Black

Criminal Capitalism: Black Lord Dodges Tax Man

Criminal Capitalism: Black & Radler,Thick as Thieves

Criminal Capitalism: Lord Black Fugitive

Criminal Capitalism: Black gets his comeuppance

Criminal Capitalism: Hollinger's Black Eye

Criminal Capitalism: Black Out

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Canadian Ponzi Scheme Funds Republicans

While the headline for this story emphasized the fact that there was some spurious connections with terrorism the real story is that a Christian Businessman from Canada and his American partner bilked Christian investors in a ponzi scheme that helped finance the Bush Regime. The good thing is that when he goes to jail he won't have to find Jesus.

The portly Mr. Anderson seems an unlikely financier of Islamist terror. A born-again Christian, he has actively fundraised for evangelical groups and worked at Trinity Western University until the late 1980s.

"During the time he was employed at the university, his role was in the fundraising office," said Ron Kuehl, senior vice-president of External Relations at the Christian university in B.C.'s Bible belt.

"It seemed that there was a bit of a variety of [job] titles but I would say that the function that he took at the university was clearly in the area of development."

Mr. Anderson’s troubles stem from the business ventures he launched in 2001, Frontier Assets and the Alpha Program, which securities regulators say were "Ponzi schemes" that conned investors
into handing over money that was never actually invested.

A lawsuit filed by nine people who claim they were scammed by Mr. Anderson says he deliberately sought out investors who "held strong Christian values and beliefs."

"Anderson told Plaintiffs that he was offering some very lucrative and confidential investment opportunities that would, while providing a good financial return to Plaintiffs, also benefit Christian organizations and projects throughout the world," the lawsuit says.

According to the FBI and the B.C. Securities Commission, Mr. Anderson collected at least $7-million from his backers, but the money was never invested and the investors were left empty-handed.

Mr. Anderson is tied to terror-financing allegations through his business partner Mr. Alishtari, a 53-year-old American of Moroccan origin who has donated generously to Republican election campaigns.

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Nortels Chickens Roost

It takes the American SEC to actually charge the folks behind Enron North. Investors got tired of waiting for the Ontario Securities Commission to do anything. Another reason for having a single national regulator.

And Nortel has been a bigger loss for more seniors and retiree investors than the Income Trusts.

SEC files charges against former Nortel execs

The securities regulator alleges the execs at the Toronto-based telecom maker repeatedly engaged in accounting fraud "to bridge gaps between Nortel's true performance, its internal targets and Wall Street expectations." "Each of the defendants betrayed Nortel's investors and their misconduct gave rise to billions of dollars in shareholder losses," said Linda Thomsen, director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement.

In the go go world of a long bull market like we have seen, the only house rule for casino capitalism is that rules are meant to be broken. The wave of criminal fraud cases that have hit the market are a result of the politics of Greed that we saw in the eighties and before that in the seventies and early sixties.

Gekko: Greed - you mark my words - will save Teldar, and that other malfunctioning corporation, the U.S.A.

During bull markets the movers and shakers of real existing capitalism, not the Von Mises /Hayek fiction, find accomplices like Accounting firms to do their bidding, which is to hide money away from the government, and also to make as much money as quickly as possible. Both of these ends then require a means, which is fraud, pure and simple.

The use of back dated shares, accounting practices to pump up market prices, accounting practices to avoid taxes, hedged bets on mutual funds after closing, these are all business as usual until they are declared fraudulent by those who are supposed to be regulating the market.

It is the political dominance of finance in the marketplace.

Nortel is not Canada's only criminal capitalist on trial in the U.S.

Establishment-watchers eagerly await Black's trial

See

Nortel Slash & Burn

NORTEL: REDUX

NORTEL: Canada's Enron

Dalai Canuck

Criminal Capitalism

We Need a Living Wage

The Phoney Debate On Net Neutrality

CEO


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Criminal Capitalism Business As Usual

Yesterday the Chairman of RIM, makers of the Blackberry stepped down as the company was caught up in the scandal of back dating shares. This was prior to any actions taken by the SEC, against RIM, which is looking into the back dating scandal.

No indication was given if they gave shares to deceased members of the board however.

Once again this in not a quirk of the boom times or an oversight, it is another company caught playing fast and loose with accounting loopholes in order to avoid taxes. Business as usual.

Research in Motion Ltd. (RIM) will search for a new chairman of its board after CEO Jim Balsillie stepped down from the job Monday, taking blame for his role in a stock-option scam that will cost the company US$250 million in restated earnings.

RIM, which makes the BlackBerry smartphone, will restate its annual earnings statements for fiscal years 2004, 2005 and 2006, and its statement for the first quarter of 2007. The changes could also affect its second and third quarter statements for 2007, which are not yet filed, since RIM's internal audit is not complete.

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Nortel Slash & Burn

Since the nineties Nortel has been cutting its workforce and shipping jobs off shore, 56,000 workers cut, and it still has not gotten it out of its fiscal spiral downwards. Why should this be any different.

Nortel to slash 2900 jobs in latest cost-cutting

Nortel Networks Corp. will slash 2,900 jobs, or 8.5 percent of its workforce, over the next two years and shift another 1,000 employees to lower-cost locations like China, India and Mexico as North America's biggest maker of telephone equipment struggles to shore up its profits.Nortel, which currently employs about 34,000 workers, said on Wednesday This is the latest round of job cuts at Nortel, which once employed about 90,000 people. Last June, the company said it would cut 1,100 jobs and alter its pension plans in an attempt to contain costs.

The layoffs are the latest in a series of cost-cutting moves made by Chief Executive Officer Mike Zafirovski since he took over the beleaguered company in November of 2005. Since the collapse of the telecom and “dot com” markets in 2001-2,
Nortel has cut more than 60,000 jobs.

As usual let's look at how much the guy at the top makes while his company bottoms out and he slashes jobs.

	Nortel Networks Corp.(1)	Zafirovski, Mike	$37,429,297
Salary: $305,785 Bonus: $0 Subtotal: $305,785 % chg Other: $28,698,591 Share Units: $8,424,921 Option Gains: $0 TOTAL: $37,429,297 New option grant: 5,000,000 ($10,695,000) Industry: Information Technology Legend

And the reason for Nortel's collapse was not productivity nor the crash of the dot.com bubble but criminal capitalism.

Nortel CFO Leaves (Again)

Nortel chief financial officer Peter Currie is stepping down this spring to take on "new challenges."

The company announced Tuesday that Mr. Currie will be stepping down on April 30 of this year, although he will continue to provide advice to the company to ensure a smooth transition.

Currie took over the CFO chair one year ago to help Nortel recover from several years of financial scandals and mismanagement. Between February 1999 and April 2004, two of the three men who held the title of Nortel CFO were fired for cause.



See

NORTEL: REDUX

NORTEL: Canada's Enron

Criminal Capitalism

We Need a Living Wage

The Phoney Debate On Net Neutrality

CEO


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