“It is no exaggeration to say that since the 1980s, much of the global financial sector has become criminalised, creating an industry culture that tolerates or even encourages systematic fraud. The behaviour that caused the mortgage bubble and financial crisis of 2008 was a natural outcome and continuation of this pattern, rather than some kind of economic accident.
Stung by bad publicity because of its Chinese sweatshops, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. decided to institute its own foreign aid program, beginning south of the border with its Wal-Mart de Mexico branch. The corporation generously donated $24 million to our southern neighbor. Unfortunately, the financial assistance consisted of illegal bribes to obtain construction permits for its stores across the country, which currently number 2,099.
Who says? Sergio Cicero Zapata, the lawyer who was in charge of making Wal-Mart’s bribes. These payments aren’t just against Mexican law; they’re illegal in the USA under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the law prohibiting bribes to officials of other countries.
How did Wal-Mart react when an internal investigation found this pattern of corruption? With a cover-up.
More:
“8 Revelations From Walmart’s Mexican Bribery Scandal,” Andrew Carter and Matthew DeLuca, Daily Beast
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Someone is terrorizing Commerce Township Michigan (population 40,186). “I have to go to the post office at 6 o’clock in the morning to avoid him,” said 69-year-old Edna Geisler. “He tried to come right in the door,” said neighbor Rick Reid. “He bit me on the elbow.”
The terrorist: “Godzilla,” a 25-pound tom turkey.
“With video: Godzilla the wild turkey stalks Commerce Township woman,” John Wisely, Detroit Free Press
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The bribery case against former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was dismissed today in a Milan court. Mr. Berlusconi, a billionaire, stayed out of jail the same way Mafia chiefs do, by running out the clock. Unlike every other European country, Italy keeps the statutory limitation clock running during trials, so rich defendants just stall the proceedings, drawing their trials out until they reach the limit and the cases are thrown out of court.
Today In International Cat News: An animal shelter in Zwickau, Germany is demanding more than $1,300 for care of two kitty cats owned by an alleged neo-nazi serial murderer. The felines in question, Heidi and Lily, belong to Beate Zschäpe, a member of the Nationalsozialistischer Untergrund, a neo-nazi terror cell suspected of a series of racially motivated murders with as many as 10 victims.
Tourists aren’t the only ones in Paris with cameras; les flics have them as well. 200 new surveillance cameras now spy on the streets of the French capital, and by spring there will be 1200 more. Police at video monitors will be on the lookout for crime, terrorists, traffic jams, and inappropriate tutoiement. You have been warned.
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There was an unappetizing breakfast special at Waffle House restaurants in Georgia and Alabama this summer. 18 of the 24/7 restaurants were robbed. The alleged perpetrators have been caught, but these culinary fixtures of the roadside South are often scenes of excitement. The 1,600 eateries are open all day, every day, and are often the only businesses open when taverns close. They only take cash, and most are beside the highway, a quick exit route. That’s a fast-food recipe for crime.
All this has been re-hashed and dished up by a major newspaper in a Waffle-House-free zone, the New York Times. Southerners are not taking this lightly:
Kidnapped Washington Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos has been rescued from his abductors in Venezuela. There is no truth to the rumor that he was traded for two players to be named later.
Mr. Ramos was staying with his family in Valencia, the third largest city in Venezuela, capital of Carabobo state, and his hometown. He has been spending the Major League Baseball off-season playing for the Aragua Tigers in the Venezuelan Baseball League. Ethnocentric Norteamericanos insist on calling this “winter baseball” even though it will soon be summer in the Southern Hemisphere.
More:
“Wilson Ramos rescatado con un final feliz (Wilson Ramos rescued with a happy ending),” Prensa Tigres de Aragua
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The Illinois Supreme Court asked former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich why his license to practice law should not be revoked. Uncharacteristically, Mr. Blagojevich was at a loss for words. The court pulled his ticket. The ex-Gov, convicted on federal corruption charges, is currently awaiting sentencing, and faces up to a zillion years in prison.
Mrs. Patti Blagojevich has a new business, selling employee benefit insurance policies. In an outbreak of Illinois irony, her husband may lose his pension.
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