Then again, Pitt's voting record -- or lack of one -- may not be all that unusual. Says Patrick McGurn, who works for Institutional Shareholder Services: "The Commission's barely had enough people voting in recent years, even with no one recusing themselves."
That lack of senior oversight at the SEC may explain some of the commission's more-curious recent actions, including its decision to rename the New York Stock Exchange the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
2. Management at Bristol-Myers Squibb
This week, lawmakers on Capitol Hill began looking into the ugly mess at ImClone Systems.
Specifically The House Energy and Commerce Committee is investigating stock trades made by executives of the company, whose application for FDA approval of its cancer drug Erbitux was rejected late last year.
The House panel is also looking into Bristol-Myers Squibb's deal to pay $2 billion for a 20 percent stake in ImClone and a share of Erbitux's profits. The panel is trying to figure out whether the drug giant had enough critical information before it agreed to the arrangement. "The basic problem is how Bristol-Myers can invest so much money for something that appears not valid..." said Representative Clifford Stearns, a member of the House Energy and Commerce./p>
Former ImClone CEO Samuel Waksal was charged last week with insider trading by the FBI and the SEC. And of course, questions have been raised about the motivation for large ImClone stock sales by home-and-garden doyenne Martha Stewart, a friend of Waksal. Reportedly, Stewart's trades were executed the day prior to the FDA's decision. Stewart issued a statement saying she had not done anything improper, although she did concede she once wore shoes that didn't match her bag.
3. Aristotle
Ethics continues to take a beating in the business world. During the week, And the trend doesn't look like it's going to let up anytime soon.
According to a poll of 100 senior ethics executives conducted by The Conference Board, a majority of the respondents expect that at least a half dozen more major business ethics scandals will emerge during the next 12 months. Some expect more than 20 major scandals. In case you're scoring at home, "major" is defined as events causing more than $200 million in lost shareholder value.
More depressing: a majority of these corporate morality officers say that ethics training would not have prevented the collapse of Enron. About 54 percent of those surveyed said that even if Enron's senior management had received extensive ethics training, it would have made little or no difference in preventing the scandal laden bankruptcy. Only 1 respondent out of 100 believed that, if Enron senior management had received ethics training, the scandal would never have happened. That respondent also thought that ethics training would have prevented continental drift, the sack of Rome, and BayWatch.
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