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In late June 2004, a plant manager for one of Tyson Foods? poultry processing plants in Mexico sent a memo to company headquarters in Springdale, Ark.: two women who ?most definitely do not work for Tyson Foods in Mexico? each were paid 30,700 pesos, or about $2,700, a month and had been for years. Tyson is one of the world?s largest producers of poultry, pork and beef products, a ubiquitous presence in American supermarkets that has been trying to increase foreign sales. The memo set off an ethics scandal that reached into Tyson?s executive suite and raises questions about who, if anyone, is being held accountable for high-level corporate crime.
The women happened to be the wives of two veterinarians stationed at the plants as part of Mexico?s effort to meet high sanitary and processing standards. The veterinarians certified products as suitable for export, a step required by countries like Japan and increasingly sought after by Mexican consumers as an assurance of quality and safety for locally produced processed meats.
A few days later, senior Tyson executives convened a meeting at headquarters. Someone pointed out the obvious. The purpose of the payments was ?to keep the veterinarians from making problems,? according to a subsequent memo ? in short, bribes. Participants at this meeting ? who included the president of Tyson International, the vice president for operations, and the vice president for internal audit ? evidently agreed the payments to the wives had to stop. A company lawyer said he was seeking advice on ?possible exposure? from the payments, evidently referring to potential liability for maintaining fraudulent records and bribing foreign officials, which are felonies under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
And then, having identified the serious ethical and legal lapses, and the need to stop the bogus payments, this group of executives ?were tasked with investigating how to shift the payroll payments to the veterinarians? wives directly to the veterinarians,? according to a subsequent statement of facts negotiated by Tyson?s lawyers and the Department of Justice.
Written in the passive voice typical of such documents, the statement raises the question of who ?tasked? such an undertaking.
A subsequent memo written by Tyson?s audit department concluded that the ?doctors will submit one invoice which will include the special payments formally [sic] being made to their spouses along with there [sic] normal consulting services fee.? The invoices would be identified as ?professional honoraria.?
What were these Tyson officials thinking? It?s hard to see how simply shifting the payments did anything to mitigate the bribery scheme or the false descriptions of the payments. If anything, it seems even more brazen. There?s no indication anyone gave serious consideration to stopping the payments ? only to finding a new way to make them. The president of Tyson International, the highest-ranking official at the meeting, communicated this ?resolution? to Tyson?s chief administrative officer by e-mail on July 14, further pushing the issue up the chain of command.
The payments continued. When another Mexican plant manager complained to an accountant at headquarters that he was ?uncomfortable? with this, the accountant spoke to the president of international ? who again tried to squelch the issue. ?He agreed that we are O.K. to continue to make these payments against invoices (not through payroll)" until we are able to get [the Mexican inspection program] to change, the accountant informed the plant manager.
The issue of the payments resurfaced in November 2006, and this time, Tyson did what it should have done two years earlier: it retained an outside law firm, Kirkland & Ellis, conducted an internal investigation and, under a government program intended to encourage voluntary disclosure of white-collar crime, turned the results over to the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The government?s investigation ended this February, when Tyson was charged with conspiracy and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Tyson agreed to resolve the charges with a deferred prosecution agreement in which it ?admits, accepts and acknowledges? the government?s statement of facts, and paid a $4 million criminal penalty. The company paid an additional $1.2 million and settled related S.E.C. charges that it maintained false books and records and lacked the controls to prevent payments to phantom employees and government officials.
But what about those at Tyson responsible for the bribery scheme?
Corporations may have assets and liabilities, but they don?t commit crimes ? their officers, executives and employees do. And the 23-page letter agreement between Tyson and the Department of Justice, the criminal information, and the S.E.C.?s public statement of facts all withheld names, identifying the participants only as ?senior executive,? ?VP International,? ?VP Audit? and so on.
Don Jones, owner of Jones & Associates, Inc., was voted best accountant in the Craig Daily Press? 2011 Best of Moffat County contest. A Craig native, Jones said he?s known since high school that he wanted to be an accountant.
Don Jones has known since high school what he wanted to do.
At his recent 20-year high school reunion, he was reminded from his yearbook that he knew he wanted to be a ?successful accountant in the business world.?
Now the owner of Jones & Associates, Inc., public accounting firm is celebrating the success of being voted best accountant in the Craig Daily Press? Best of Moffat County contest.
?It?s an honor,? Jones said of the accomplishment. ?It shows me that my clients respect what I?m doing.?
Jones was born and raised in Craig, earned his bachelor?s degree in business from Fort Lewis College in Durango and returned to Craig to begin his accounting career under CPA Greg Hamilton.
Jones later worked with Denise Arola of Arola & Associates, buying the company in 2009 and re-naming it Jones & Associates.
Jones has been married to his wife, Misty, for nearly 16 years, and the couple has two daughters, Ellina, 8, and Alexis, who turns 6 this week. He enjoys fishing, camping and golf in his spare time.
But many times, time is not something Jones has an abundance of. With about 450 business and personal returns to process each year in his office, Jones said weeks during tax season can reach 90 hours.
And other parts of the year he and his staff ? two full-time employees and one seasonal worker ? are busy completing extensions and businesses? bookkeeping.
?It?s year-round,? Jones said. ?It?s not four months a year like everybody thinks.?
No matter the long hours, Jones said accounting continues to hold his interest.
?I have to do the same job for every person. I have to get to a bottom line,? Jones said. ?But how I get to that bottom line is different for everyone.
?I love a good challenge.?
When it comes to customer service, Jones said his long family history in the community ? his great-grandmother homesteaded east of Craig in 1918 ? helps him understand the cultural and economic factors that affect residents.
?That helps me ? knowing the community,? Jones said. ?I think that helps our business so I can communicate with our clients.?
As Moffat County?s best accountant looks toward his future, he doesn?t see anything changing the good thing he?s got going.
?I can?t see myself doing anything else,? Jones said.
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Victims of clergy sex abuse also will have more time to file their claims, under an agreement reached Wednesday.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (http://bit.ly/kccXD2) reports the agreement gives the creditors committee the go-ahead to hire California-based Berkeley Research Group as a financial adviser. Among its duties will be to scrutinize church to determine whether the church made fraudulent transfers as a way to shield assets from victims of clergy sex abuse.___
Information from: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, http://www.jsonline.com
Source: http://www.fox6now.com/news/sns-ap-wi--milwaukeearchdiocese-bankruptcy,0,4726021.story
A former accountant with the U.S. Forest Service who stole $1.4 million from the agency will serve four years in federal prison and must pay back the money, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles.
Kathy Stamps, 39, of Rancho Cucamonga, an accountant at the Angeles National Forest office in Arcadia, fabricated internal records to receive tax refunds, authorities say.
From 2002 to 2004, Stamps received six checks from the U.S. Treasury totaling $1.4 million.
She spent nearly $1.1 million on personal items ranging from cars and mortgage payments to jewelry and plastic surgery, authorities said.
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The longtime accountant at Blessed Sacrament Parish has been fired from his volunteer position by the Archdiocese of Ottawa.
Herv� Dejordy, chair of the parish finance committee and the church's principal bookkeeper, was informed of the move in a letter he received earlier this month.
In an interview Wednesday, Dejordy said he didn't mind being fired, but was offended by the way it was handled.
"I don't mind the action," Dejordy said. "It's just the fact that they didn't have the guts to talk to me face to face. I got the information through Canada Post ...
"I have been fired a few times, but that was the first time I was fired through Canada Post."
Dejordy, 79, a retired accountant, has served as church bookkeeper for the past 14 years. He said he planned to tender his resignation later this year once the diocese completed its audit of Blessed Sacrament's books.
That audit was launched in March after financial irregularities at Blessed Sacrament came to the attention of diocesan officials.
Auditors have raised questions about some $250,000 of cheques issued from church accounts to Blessed Sacrament's former pastor, Father Joseph LeClair.
Dejordy would not disclose the precise wording of his firing, which came days after the Citizen published a story in which he characterized LeClair as a "one-man band" whose spending faced little or no oversight at the church.
Dejordy revealed that Le-Clair could write cheques to himself from church accounts without a counter-signature and did not have to submit receipts in order to have a cheque approved.
"I wouldn't approve anything: if he writes a cheque, I just record the cheque," Dejordy told the Citizen.
LeClair, who has admitted to a gambling problem, left the parish in late May and later entered an addiction treatment program. His replacement at Blessed Sacrament was named earlier this month.
Msgr. Kevin Beach, vicar general of the Ottawa diocese, characterized Dejordy's dismissal as part of the renewal process at Blessed Sacrament.
"I think it's a question of having a renewal so that everybody has a sense of confidence in what's going on there," Beach said.
Asked if Dejordy was fired for speaking to the Citizen, Beach said: "Obviously, some of the parishioners have been wondering why he was speaking to the Citizen. But that would have been very much a secondary reason.
"The primary reason is that we needed to restore confidence in the financial and accounting administration for the parish."
Dejordy, who has worked for private sector firms such as Quebecor and Cambior, said that he might have been more "meticulous" in scrutinizing the cheques that LeClair issued himself from church accounts.
"Maybe there are things I should have done that I didn't do," he said.
"You know about the cheques that Father Joe wrote, payable to himself. I should have been more aggressive, maybe, and questioned the expenses."
Asked if he considered himself a scapegoat for the problems at Blessed Sacrament, Dejordy said: "No, I don't feel that way, no."
In April, the Citizen revealed that LeClair received more than $137,000 in cash advances on his credit card at the Casino du Lac-Leamy in 2009 and 2010.
In those years, he racked up personal credit card bills of more than $490,000, much of it through cash advances.
LeClair has repeatedly insisted that he did not use church funds to gamble.
Msgr. Beach could not estimate when the audit of Blessed Sacrament's books will be completed. He said only that the process is "closer to the end."
Malibu, CA (PRWEB) June 24, 2011
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