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HP Skates Away From SEC Charges
theodp writes "The SEC has dropping charges against HP, in return for some small concessions. The company was originally charged with improperly depriving investors of important information, violating the public reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act, and failing to disclose the full impact of an out-of-control press leak investigation. In return for the dropped charges, the computer maker simply agreed to cease and desist from doing similar acts in the future, without admitting or denying having done so in the past. 'HP acted in what it believed to be a proper manner,' said the company in a press release."
Because, man, those come in handy sometimes.
"The SEC has dropping charges against HP..."
Slashdot does have editors, right?
Right?
Yes my precious!
*** Beware. Disgust vent system engaged. ***
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
If I was the prosecutor, I'd charge them with selling crappy computers with tons of useless HP junk installed on it. Oh and also, a lesser charge of too many blue lights on one laptop.
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
Step 1: Become a Corporation. Step 2: Commit a crime. Step 3: Profit! Step 4: Dont go to jail. and maybe.. Step 5: Write a book about it. Step 6: Profit!
Libertarian Leaning Political Discussion Forum.
So they can finish the Contract ON America.
Patriotically,
Philboyd Studge
You know, it's disgusting how this country has become for a dollar....
Phillips, TRW, and Koch have more in common than a history of repeatedly violating workplace and environmental laws. They also rank among the nation's largest government contractors. Between 1995 and 2000, the three corporations received a combined total of $10.4 billion in federal business-at the same time that regulatory agencies and federal courts were citing the companies for jeopardizing the safety of their employees, polluting the nation's air and water, and even defrauding the government.
That's not supposed to happen. Federal contracting officers are charged with reviewing the record of companies that do business with the government and barring those that fail to demonstrate "a satisfactory record of integrity and business ethics." But officials are given no guidelines to follow in making such decisions, and there's no centralized system they can consult to inform them of corporate wrongdoing. As a result, a government report concluded in 2000, those responsible for awarding federal contracts are "extremely reluctant" to take action, even when they are aware of violations. And in the rare instances when the rule is enforced, it is almost always employed against small companies with little clout in Washington.
There is little incentive for any company to follow laws of the law. Why should they when they can get a slap on the wrist and a wink of the eye... "You don't go doing that again now you here... By the way, we really like those HP notebooks and I was thinking about my son's classmates". Jesus christ this country is a scam in itself
Infiltrated dot Net
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
Maybe they need to invest in some plastic bags to put those droppings in next time. Or I suppose they could flush it down the "tubes" where the rest of it is.
HP believes pretexting is "proper." HP believes that pretexting, something that if I were to do to HP would certainly NOT be considered "proper" is perfectly acceptable.
Keep in mind that it wasn't long ago that a bill legalizing pretexting was pushed by the RIAA.
Please stop buying HP stuff. Please stop buying stuff from companies that have a political axe to grind against their consumers. Please stop buying stuff from companies that consider consumers a silent, renewable, god given, right to exploit resource that simply keeps buying their dreck regardless of their political behavior.
Start voting (because you haven't been at the polls). Boycott HP.
...Go ahead and break the law. We'll let you off if you promise not to do it again.
I hope they at least made them pinky-swear.
...and escape all punishment for having knowingly and egregiously broken the law before the promise. From the SEC press release: "Without admitting or denying the Commission's findings, HP consented to an order that it cease and desist from committing or causing violations of these provisions." Oh, wait I get it! Knowing something is illegal and doing it anyway is not grounds for punishment as long as you, once cuaght, just promise to cease and desist violating the law thereafter. Defendant: "Gosh Your Honor. If, despite the prosecution's proving I broke the law and robbed a bank, I neither admit nor deny doing it and further I promise to cease and desist robbing banks in the future, can I just go free now?" Judge: "Certainly. I think you've learned your lesson. Defendant dimissed. Son you are free to go" Corporations and the rich are held to far lower standards than the rest of us.
Time to feed HP to Wu's pigs.
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
Hey, if you have money, feel free to break the law all you want, so long as you don't physically hurt someone. And if you do, I'm sure your prison sentence can get reduced for good behavior (ie. showing up to court on the correct date).
They had a leak. they investigated the leak. They presented findings to the board. One board member objected to the investigation and presentation process and resigned. They didn't disclose the full details of the resignation to the SEC.
/. fanboy readership can inflict.
It's not like they poisoned Bhopal, killed a bunch of pets, or murdered everyone in Hama.
Ohhhhhhh. I get it. Big company. Definitely deserving of all the flea bites the
668: Neighbour of the Beast
HP said it was just a poor company from across the border, here to make profits Americans won't make.
The Feds decided it was too much hassle, made a speech, and let them go.
sigs, as if you care.
Microsoft's monopoly case was just as toothless. A relatively measly fine and promise to be good in the future. Exception, for corporate regulations to be effective, judgments have to be punitive and not regulatory. It simply takes too much of the state's resources and time to say "don't do it again." There's no deterrence when a CEO knows it'll be at least 4-5 years before a conviction (probably a wrist slap) comes down the pipe and that the state doesn't have the time or money to go after everyone. Hell, by then he'll be retired with a fat severance package from the fruits of his crime.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Jetted away for HP I think.
ccalam - acoustic versions of new songs.
HP just won a US$5.6Bn contract with NASA, too.
Is anyone else NOT shocked by this? It seems that if you're a big corporation and you are blatantly caught committing a felony, in the eyes of the new America, that's just fine. The only real criminals these days are regular people, not companies that steal, lie, and erode trust. Microsoft, Sony, HP, who else? It seems that these days if you are a popular and multi-billion dollar corporation you are free to interpret and obey the law whenever you so please or whenever you so displease. [If I had a huge THUMBS DOWN image, it would be attached right here.]
Step 3.5 use that profit to give congress some bribes, err I mean campaign contributions.
Was this a Freudian Slip
No. A "Freudian Slip" is when you say one thing and mean your mother.
How do you "cease" something that you don't admit to doing?
Thanks for the note.
/. postings is that the headline text usually reflects the /. bias, rather than the actual facts of the article. It's sometimes quite startling to compare the reality of the article with the headline text. I mean different planet startling.
One thing I've noticed about
668: Neighbour of the Beast
that's all you need to know.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
I remember back in the 80's when people first noticed that the FCC was serving the interests of companies more than the populace. Everything else that has followed since from fighting for the rights of large media companies to merge to seeking to suppress internet content at the behest of AOL Time Warner started then with Regan's appointees. Now the FCC openly behaves as a tool of the conglomerates. Or in the case of the illegal wiretapping, a tool of the NSA.
A similar lack of complaint was heard when the food and drug administration reevaluated aspertame for the third time and declared it safe despite their own warnings to the contrary see here. Thanks again Donald Rumsfeld.
Then the Food and Drug administration recently was accused of stepping down enforcement of many complaints and 'streamlining' the process of approval for the drug companies.
Now this. Realistically speaking I would hope that sooner or later events like this, you know large companies committing fraud and spying on people for money, lying, etc. and being given only a slap on the wrist, would say piss people off so much that they would Write their Congressional Representative, and Their U.S. Senator, and even The President. A few e-mails saying, either this is a government of by and for the people or we'll vote for someone else. A few e-mails saying, I pay my taxes why are they being spent to harm me? A few e-mails just reminding them that we are paying attention. Lacking that they can do whatever they want and we're no longer the greatest nation on earth.
bought the farm... cuurent core were BSD fanatics? I've developers ops or any of the diseases. The get how people can is dying.Things
What I really want to know is what is happening to the criminal charges, after all the offence commited was more in the domain of the police than the SEC.
corporations are a license to print money without any personal accountability. corporations have an ethic responsibility that has not been enforced....ever.
"You can kill the revolutionary, but you can't kill the revolution."-- Fred Hampton
fro8 within.
I apologize for my cluelessness. Please explain.
668: Neighbour of the Beast
In other words, they paid off some people high up in the SEC. Great. Thank you very much.