No Wrongdoing by Any Corporation

Sign of a Corrupt Nation...

Government brings a case against a corporation, the latter pays a measly fine, and does not admit to any wrongdoing.

If there is no wrongdoing, why should the corporation pay the fine? And why should the government accept money if the corporation didn't do anything wrong?

Money in these cases is just the grease that appears to be applied by corporations and investors to ensure that the wheels of business are not obstructed by stuff like ethical behavior.

Now, it appears that even governments can settle charges the same way...

NJ settles SEC fraud charges over bond sales - Yahoo! Finance: "The state of New Jersey has settled federal civil fraud charges of failing to inform bond investors that it had not met obligations to its largest pension plans, federal regulators said Wednesday.

In announcing the settlement, the Securities and Exchange Commission said New Jersey did not give municipal bond investors enough information to fully assess the state's financial picture.

New Jersey was the first state ever charged for violations of the securities laws. New Jersey neither admitted nor denied the allegations. It did agree to refrain from future violations of the securities laws."

Intel Settles Claim That It Tried to Stifle Competition - NYTimes.com: "The Federal Trade Commission and Intel announced on Wednesday that they had agreed to settle charges of anticompetitive behavior that the agency claimed stifled competition in the market for computer processing and graphics chips.

The settlement prohibits Intel from the practice of paying customers to buy its computer chips exclusively or to refuse to buy chips from other manufacturers. It also prohibits Intel from redesigning its chips purely to harm a competitor. Intel also agreed not to retaliate against computer makers if they do business with non-Intel suppliers...This agreement provides a framework that will allow us to continue to compete and to provide our customers the best possible products at the best prices,' Mr. Melamed said. In agreeing to the settlement, Intel did not admit to any wrongdoing or that the accusations were true."

HP reaches settlement with DOJ in kickbacks case - Yahoo! Finance: "Hewlett-Packard Co. said Monday that it has agreed in principle to settle a lawsuit by the Department of Justice, which alleged that HP and other technology companies paid kickbacks to Accenture PLC in exchange for recommendations for government work.

HP denied 'engaging in any illegal conduct.' It said the deal will lower its fiscal third-quarter profit by 2 cents per share. That's about $50 million given that it has 2.33 billion shares outstanding...."

GE to Pay $23.5 Million to Settle SEC Kickback Charges - WSJ.com: "...'GE failed to maintain adequate internal controls to detect and prevent these illicit payments,' said Cheryl J. Scarboro, chief of the SEC's Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Unit. 'It failed to properly record the true nature of the payments in its accounting records.'

GE will pay a $1 million penalty and return $22.5 million in profits plus interest that the subsidiaries are estimated to have earned on the transactions, GE said. The company agreed to pay the fines without admitting or denying guilt...."

Goldman Sachs Agrees to Settle Fraud Case for $550 Million - CNBC: "'They pay $550 million and they get an $800 million pop in their stock price—they got off easy,'' said Kevin Caron, a market strategist at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co in Florham Park, New Jersey.

The settlement came on the same day that the financial overhaul bill won final approval in the Senate, imposing the stiffest restrictions on banks and Wall Street since the Great Depression.

The deal calls for Goldman to pay the Securities and Exchange Commission fines of $300 million. The rest of the money will go to compensate those who lost money on their investments....

...CNBC understands that the SEC was originally looking for a settlement near $750 million dollars and that management change within Goldman was not on the table during the negotiations. Goldman's response over the complaint would have been due on Monday.

The fine was the largest against a financial company in SEC history. Goldman earned $3.3 billion in the first quarter of this year. It earned $13.4 billion in 2009.

The settlement also requires Goldman to review how it sells complex financial mortgage investments. Goldman acknowledged in a court filing that its marketing materials for the deal at the center of the charges omitted key information for buyers.

But Goldman did not admit any legal wrongdoing...."

Dell Inc. paying $100 million in SEC deal - Yahoo! Finance: "Computer maker Dell Inc. is paying $100 million to settle civil charges that it fraudulently used payments from Intel to pump up its profits to meet Wall Street targets over five years, the government announced Thursday....

The SEC said the company also failed to disclose to investors large payments it received from Intel Corp. in exchange for not using central processing units made by Intel's main rival, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Those payments enabled Dell to meet its quarterly earnings targets, the agency said. After Intel stopped the payments, Dell again misled shareholders by not disclosing the real reason its profits had dropped, according to the SEC. The company, Michael Dell, Rollins and Schneider falsely portrayed the means by which the company met or surpassed earnings targets from 2001 through 2006, the SEC said in a civil lawsuit. Without the payments from Intel, the agency said, Dell would have missed analysts' estimates in every quarter during that span.
The company and Michael Dell neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing."