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.

More Green Energy Money Down the Drain

Posted on October 11, 2012 by NLPC Staff

NLPC Associate Fellow Paul Chesser is interviewed on Fox Business Network’s Money With Melissa Francis. Here is a transcript:

Melissa Francis: So another day another $150 million of your taxpayer money up in smoke. Back in 2012 the Department of Energy gave $250 million bucks to a factory in Michigan to produce batteries for the Chevy Volt. President Obama touted this as a step in the right direction to bringing manufacturing jobs back to America. Here we are two years later and Compact Power has yet to produce a single battery. Now it is forced to furlough all of its workers. Joining me now is Paul Chesser, an associate fellow at the National Legal and Policy Center. How in the world did this happen?

Paul Chesser: Well, it is just another in a long line of gifts that the Obama Administration handed out to electric vehicles, the batteries … Read More ➡

GM Bankruptcy Misrepresentations Prefaced Libya Attack Controversy

Posted on October 10, 2012October 11, 2016 by Mark Modica

The 2012 election campaigns have seen accusations thrown about that both President Obama and Governor Romney have been less than honest at times. After Obama was soundly trounced in the first debate, the defense for the President’s poor performance (other than Al Gore’s theory that it was the high altitude) was that Mitt Romney lied. While that unsubstantiated charge might make Governor Romney an accused liar, the facts surrounding the General Motors bankruptcy process reveal that those in the Obama Administration are proven liars.

Although many in the media might choose to ignore the ethical shortcomings of the GM bankruptcy process, I believe the unprecedented, and mostly uncontested, nationalization of a major US industrial corporation that saw politically-favored groups rewarded emboldened our nation’s president when it comes to being a bit lenient with the truth. The latest example of truth leniency by the Obama Administration came when misrepresentations were made … Read More ➡

Ask GM Bondholders and Delphi Retirees About Obama’s ‘Economic Patriotism’

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Mark Modica

President Obama called for a “new economic patriotism” during last night’s presidential debate. Well, hold on to your wallets as this new buzz phrase seems to be a euphemism for “wealth redistribution.” Just ask old General Motors bondholders or non-unionized Delphi retirees about how Obama’s so-called “shared sacrifices” are more about cronyism than patriotism.

President Obama is campaigning on a platform that constantly touts everyone “paying a fair share and having a fair shot.” Unfortunately for those that do not belong to a politically-favored class, the Obama Administration gets to determine what is fair. This was evidenced during the GM bankruptcy process where groups that were supposed to have equal legal standing saw that some are considered far more equal than others. GM bondholders were moved to the bottom of the list as the Obama-friendly UAW had its claims given precedence. And, in perhaps the clearest and most egregious example … Read More ➡

Chevy Volt Leases Costing Taxpayers $10 per Gallon of Gas Saved

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Mark Modica

General Motors reported that it sold 2,851 Chevy Volts in September. The number is sure to be touted as a great success, even though the annualized rate of sale is still well below initial sales goals for the vehicle and nowhere near what conventionally-powered, mainstream cars sell. What is sure to be less publicized by the media is that the majority of the Volt “sales” were heavily subsidized leases that are costing taxpayers millions of dollars.

GM spokesman, Jim Cain, told me that a full two thirds of Volt sales were leases. Backing out leases and fleet sales, about 900 of September’s sales were to retail customers with about a 100 going to fleets. As previously reported, many of the leases are for two year terms that can cost lessees as little as $4,000 to $5,000 out of pocket as taxpayers are on the hook for the federal subsidy … Read More ➡

Taxpayer-Funded EV Company Abandons IPO It Thought Would Save It

Posted on September 24, 2012October 11, 2016 by Paul Chesser

The failing British electric vehicle company that pretended to become an American one in order to save its U.K. investors has scrapped its planned initial public offering that it hoped would save it in Kansas City.

Smith Electric Vehicles, recipient of $32 million in taxpayer stimulus, had reportedly fantasized it would raise $76 million (down from $125 million) via an IPO by selling roughly 4 ½ million shares at $16 to $18 each. CEO Bryan Hansel bowed to reality Thursday night and rescinded those plans.

“We received significant interest from potential investors,” he said in a statement. “However, we were unable to complete a transaction at a valuation or size that would be in the best interests of our company and its existing shareholders.”

Hansel said that the company will pursue “private financing opportunities” instead, which is also likely a fantasy – at least one that will enable … Read More ➡

Government Stimulus Can’t Overcome 100 Years of EV Battery Shortcomings

Posted on September 20, 2012October 11, 2016 by Paul Chesser

It’s the battery.

Contrary to the excuses that Nissan has supplied about the loss of capacity for owners of the all-electric Leaf in the desert Southwest – especially super-hot Phoenix – a tightly-controlled test of a dozen of the vehicles showed that all of them experienced reduced range. Even a month-old Leaf could not recharge to 100 percent.

GreenCarReports.com revealed the dismal development this week. That the power reduction came so rapidly and so quickly debunked the claims of Nissan executives Carla Bailo and Andy Palmer, who suggested the problems could lie either with owners who were charging their vehicles improperly or that the power gauges were providing faulty readings.

The Arizona tests weren’t run by a bunch of skeptics out to prove what a failure President Obama’s electric car stimulus initiative is – even though it is. Leaf owners, led by EV advocate Tony Williams, ran the tests.… Read More ➡

SEC Issues Big Fines, Penalties Against Green-Tech Investment Firm

Posted on September 19, 2012October 11, 2016 by Paul Chesser

The venture capital redistributionist game that surrounds President Obama’s green energy stimulus doesn’t necessarily require the actual delivery of taxpayer cash to crony corporations. Sometimes the malfeasance appears simply based upon the false promise of government “investment.”

Such was the case with the co-founders of Chicago-based Advanced Equities, Inc., who just received a severe reprimand (including big fines) from the Securities and Exchange Commission for dispensing false information to potential funders in attempts to gain private equity investment. In two separate offerings in 2009 and 2010, co-founder Dwight Badger (who left the firm in June) was accused of telling investors that the financial condition and business orders for Advanced Equities’ client – revealed to be fuel cell manufacturer Bloom Energy by Crain’s Chicago Business – far exceeded reality. Badger’s partner, co-founder and Board Chairman Keith Daubenspeck, was fined for “failing to reasonably supervise Badger.”

Advanced Equities also was the … Read More ➡

General Motors Makes Obama an Offer He Can’t Accept

Posted on September 19, 2012October 11, 2016 by Mark Modica

Here we go again. Déjà vu all over again as General Motors spreads rumors that they are tired of being Government Motors and they are so cash rich that they offered to buy Treasury’s taxpayer-funded stake in the company. In typical deceptive GM fashion, sources were not named and spokesman Jim Cain refused to confirm the rumors. This is not the first time GM played the rumor game, as I previously wrote about over a year ago.

Supposedly, GM wants to buy back about $5 billion of shares from Treasury, but Treasury just won’t sell. No kidding. As if GM honestly believes the Obama Administration would sell shares at a loss to taxpayers before election time. But honest and GM are two words that, when used together, seem to be oxymoronic since the company became known as Government Motors. Are we to believe that there were good faith meetings between … Read More ➡

VIDEO: Treasury Rejects Sale of GM Stake

Posted on September 19, 2012 by NLPC Staff

NLPC Associate Fellow Mark Modica was interviewed last night on Fox Business Network’s Willis Report. Here’s a transcript:

Cheryl Casone: Government Motors. Trying to shed its ties to Uncle Sam once and for all, pushing the sale of the U.S. stake in the company altogether. But saying goodbye is hard to do. The government’s digging in its heals, saying taxpayers would have faced a massive multibillion dollar loss. Joining me now with more is Mark Modica, associate fellow for the National Legal and Policy Center. This was a bad deal. I mean this was a bad deal for the taxpayers. Of course, Treasury said no to it.

Mark Modica: Hi, Cheryl, well, they have been saying no. Actually, they could have first sold the stake almost a year and a half ago when share price was over thirty, and we heard the same story. They’re not going to … Read More ➡

Nissan Integrity at Stake in Leaf Owners’ Battery Test

Posted on September 18, 2012 by Paul Chesser

In what looks like an attempt to avoid a potentially costly and disastrous recall of its taxpayer-funded electric vehicles, Nissan has dismissed the concerns of its Leaf customers in Arizona and other hot states by claiming the apparent loss of battery capacity is “normal.”

Owners of the company’s dismal selling plug-in have banded together to collectively test their vehicles and see just how “normal” their loss of “bars” on their power indicators are.

Over the weekend twelve Leaf owners – led by EV advocate and Leaf owner Tony Williams – were to conduct an extended range test in Phoenix, according to the Web site Green Car Reports. In July NLPC reported that Nissan has been dealing with complaints from mostly Southwestern U.S. owners of the Leaf, who say their vehicles have lost range capacity, which were publicized on the discussion board Web site MyNissanLeaf.com. Carla Bailo, a Nissan … Read More ➡