Corporate Integrity Project

NLPC seeks to promote integrity in corporate governance, including honesty and fair play in relationships with shareholders, employees, business partners and customers. In doing so, NLPC places special emphasis on:

* Asserting that the social responsibility of the corporation is to defend and advance the interests of the people who own the company, the shareholders. True responsibility is fidelity to one’s own mission, not someone else’s, or someone else’s political agenda.

* Exposing the seeking of influence on public officials by corporations, which is the inevitable result of high levels of government spending and intervention in the marketplace.

* Combating practices that undermine the free enterprise system, including philanthropic giving to groups hostile to a free economy.

Ex-Chrysler Executive Sentenced in UAW Training Fund Scandal

Posted on by Carl Horowitz

As a key figure in the Chrysler-United Auto Workers training fund scandal, Al Iacobelli expected a stiff sentence. And that’s what he got. On August 27, Iacobelli, former vice president of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan to 66 months in prison and 24 months of supervised release for attempting to bribe certain UAW officers with more than $1.5 million in cash and other things of value in 2015 in hopes of persuading them to drop contract demands, and for embezzling funds for his own use. Iacobelli was ordered to pay $853,522 in restitution, a $10,000 fine and a $100 assessment. He had pleaded guilty in January after being indicted last July. The actions follow an investigation by the FBI, the IRS and the Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards and Office of Inspector General.

Alfons “Al” Iacobelli, now 58, a … Read More ➡

Elizabeth Warren’s Accountable Capitalism Act is an ‘Invitation to Corruption’

Posted on by Carl Horowitz

The Left may have shifted their main focus from class to race, but they haven’t forgotten about their original mission of taming capitalism. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., certainly hasn’t. On August 15, Senator Warren introduced a bill, the Accountable Capitalism Act, to rein in companies that are “making the rich even richer.” Among its features, the measure would force corporations with annual revenues of at least $1 billion to obtain a federal charter and mandate that at least 40 percent of the board members of such companies be chosen by employees. Warren assures skeptics that she believes in markets. Yet even if her profession is genuine, her proposal is a recipe for undermining them.

Not that long ago, Elizabeth Warren, now 69, taught contracts and bankruptcies at Harvard Law School. The author or co-author of nearly a dozen books, Warren evolved into a Real Fighter, an advocate for beleaguered families … Read More ➡

Apple Shareholder Files Proposal on Free Speech

Posted on by Peter Flaherty

National Legal and Policy Center has submitted a shareholder proposal asking Apple Inc. to made a report on human rights, and specifically, free speech. The 2019 Apple annual meeting will take place in Cupertino, California in early 2019. Here is the text of the proposal and supporting statement:

Whereas, the Securities and Exchange Commission has consistently recognized that human rights constitute a significant policy issue.

Freedom of speech and association are fundamental human rights.

The Company operates in nations with systematic human rights abuses. The Company has abetted certain governments and non-governmental organizations in suppressing freedom of speech and association.

For example, our CEO in March 2018 co-chaired the so-called China Development Forum, sponsored by the Communist Chinese government. In December 2017, our CEO keynoted the World Internet Conference, another Chinese government event.

In February 2018, the Company transferred operation of its iCloud data center in mainland China to … Read More ➡

Twitter and Dorsey Get It Right on Infowars

Posted on by Paul Chesser
Jack Dorsey/PHOTO: magerleagues (CC)

Twitter and CEO Jack Dorsey have come under criticism on this Web site and others over past efforts to censor conservatives, but in the high-profile case this week with provocateur Alex Jones and his organization Infowars, Twitter didn’t go along with the mob (Apple, Facebook, Google/YouTube, Pinterest and Spotify) and boot him from their social media platform.

It doesn’t appear that Twitter has necessarily seen the light, as it still shadow bans conservatives (a charge that Dorsey has denied), but the CEO’s explanation for not taking out Infowars articulated principles that the other tech companies should heed.

Saying that Infowars “hasn’t violated our rules” and that Twitter “wouldn’t succumb and simply react to outside pressure” (like the group thinkers at Facebook, YouTube, etc. obviously did), Dorsey then put the onus for holding Jones and company accountable on others.

“Accounts like Jones’ can often sensationalize … Read More ➡

Will Google Cave to Chinese Communists While Censoring Conservatives at Home?

Posted on by Paul Chesser

As Internet companies such as Apple, Facebook, Google (through subsidiary YouTube) and Twitter jack up their efforts to censor conservatives’ speech, most recently by deleting projects and accounts of alt-media personality Alex Jones, they are at the same time opening the doors wide to communists.

Last week Google apparently reversed course on availability its powerful search engine, which based on “principle” had withdrawn from China in 2010, after it refused to comply with the government’s wishes for it to self-censor content sensitive to its freedom-hating leaders. Now, under a program called “Dragonfly,” Google is said to be developing a version of its search engine that would comply with Chinese demands.

Search is where Google generates huge profits, and missing out on the massive market in Asia clearly bugs them in Silicon Valley.

“Google is waking up to smell the coffee,” said Andy Mok, founder and president of Beijing-based consultancy … Read More ➡

Time for Starbucks to Break With Schultz’ Left-Wing Politics

Posted on by Paul Chesser
Howard Schultz
PHOTO: sillygwailo/Creative Commons

It has been reported that the idea of former CEO Howard Schultz running as a Democrat for the presidency is giving Starbucks investors, financial analysts, and company officials cause for concern.

It’s apparently not far-fetched. When he finally announced his long-anticipated departure from the company on June 26, Schultz told employees he would think “about a range of options for myself, from philanthropy to public service, but I’m a long way from knowing what the future holds.”

According to Politico, a person (whose identity was not disclosed by the site) close to the company’s current leaders said, “They don’t want him, as a retired founder, running for office. It’s a huge headache.”

Should it be difficult to believe that those who are responsible for the company bottom line would dread at least a two-year campaign by Schultz, which would link Starbucks with the Democratic Party … Read More ➡

Silicon Valley Management Not Left-Wing Enough for Many Employees

Posted on by Paul Chesser
Marc Benioff

Now we have another reason why corporations should welcome – and even seek – ideological diversity among their employees.

Because now the workers are telling their bosses who they can and cannot do business with.

In this case it is a number of companies in the largely leftist Silicon Valley tech industry, where many of the rank-and-file – who have been encouraged to speak their minds (if they are liberal, that is) – are complaining that the fruits of their labor benefit what they view as the odious U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and yes, the despicable Trump administration.

The employees’ outcry has been over the “inhumane” separation of illegal immigrant children from the adults they came to the U.S. border with, despite the fact that many – if not most – arrived with criminals, traffickers, or illegitimate asylum seekers who are … Read More ➡

Silicon Valley CEOs Attack Trump Over ‘Separated Families’

Posted on by Paul Chesser
Apple’s Tim Cook

Open borders advocates have successfully established the narrative of “separated families,” with significant aid from a media blitz, to characterize the zero tolerance enforcement effort to protect U.S. borders by the Trump administration.

Of course the major technology companies based in Silicon Valley – who almost unanimously have advocated for open borders policies that come with unlimited visas for the foreign workers they want to employ – have joined the chorus.

Apple CEO Tim Cook reacted, while in Dublin, to the widespread pictures of immigrant children housed in facilities away from their detained parents.

“It’s heartbreaking to see the images and hear the sounds of the kids,” he said. “Kids are the most vulnerable people in any society. I think that what’s happening is inhumane, it needs to stop. I’m personally a big believer in the way to be a good citizen is to participate, … Read More ➡

Apple Hypocrisy Exposed Again With Latest Encryption Move

Posted on by Paul Chesser
IMAGE: YouTube

Apple again has taken a step it says will strengthen privacy for its millions of product users, but the heightened encryption measure has drawn criticism from law enforcement who want the ability to “crack” phones of suspects in search of information during criminal investigations.

And once again a decision by the company has called attention to the inconsistencies of its policies in free countries, as opposed to China.

The measure, announced Wednesday, would alter the settings on the iPhone to severely curb the ability of police to communicate with the devices via external “hacking” instruments. Previously law enforcement could connect and access the iPhones’ data in an unlimited fashion in search of accessibility passwords. Under the new update, the phones will lock out all attempts at access after an hour.

“If we go back to the situation where we again don’t have access, now we know directly all … Read More ➡

Valerie Jarrett Is Not a Victim of Anything

Posted on by Carl Horowitz

Last week comedienne-actress Roseanne Barr managed to get herself fired by ABC from her rebooted TV sitcom following her highly unflattering tweet about the facial features of Valerie Jarrett (in photo), longtime political consigliere to Barack Obama. Roseanne’s words were clearly over the line. But despite issuing a profuse apology, she’s now eternally marked as a “racist.” The saddest thing about all this was that Jarrett was portrayed to be a victim.

Roseanne Barr, now 65, a native of Salt Lake City, made her initial reputation during the Eighties as a stand-up comedienne. Her schtick suggested manic depression with a dose of laughing gas. In 1988 she snagged a television deal with ABC in which she would star in her own situation comedy as a “working-class domestic goddess.” The show, Roseanne, instantly caught fire. She would win an Emmy, a Golden Globe and other awards during its nine-year … Read More ➡