Business Channel 2007-01-26&28

Time for a corporate¹ crime update, and we begin this morning with Hewlett-Packard. Welcome back, everybody. 55 minutes past the hour. Let's get right to Ali Velshi, he is Minding Your Business this morning. Sadly, there's always lots to talk about on this front.

There is. I was, when you said that, that's why I sort of, I, I was thinking this, we can keep very busy with corporate crime updates. Ah, right, let's take you back to the HP pretexting case when we all learned about pretexting earlier in the summer. Well, there're five people charged, er, HP's former chair, Patricia Dunn, two company executives, two private eyes, they each face four felony counts. Well, yesterday, state prosecutors² offered them a deal, er, to replace the four felony count with one misdemeanor count. Now, all of them apparently³ have declined this deal. And, it, it's mixed as to why they've done that. In one case, one of the lawyers says "it's because my client didn't do anything wrong, and we're gonna follow this through". What the, the larger thinking seems to be is that there is federal, there are federal charges against these five and state charges and the lawyers are trying to get them all sort of wrapped into one so they can say, all right, let's cut one deal all around and walk away from the thing without a trial. It would probably be best for HP, and best for the, the defendants⁴ involved. But we will continue to follow that and see what happens.

Er, a lot of people, know the name HP, a lot of people know the name CVS, it's the nation's largest drugstore, by store count, at least. Now two former CVS executives have been indicted⁵ by a grand jury in Rhode Island, er, for allegedly, well, here's the charges, conspiracy⁶, bribery⁷ and 21 counts of fraud, er, allegedly for paying a state senator to kill legislation in the State Senate that CVS didn't like and to sponsor legislation that CVS did like. The company hasn't been charged, I should note, and the company says it is, er, it is cooperating with this investigation⁸. So we're yet to see what comes out of this, but er, a good old-fashioned who've done it, corporate case.


Vocabulary


misdemeanor n. In the United States and other countries where the legal system distinguishes between very serious crimes and less serious ones, a misdemeanour is a less serious crime.
She was charged with a misdemeanour, that of carrying a concealed⁹ weapon.

1 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

2 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

3 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

4 defendants   

被告( defendant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The courts heard that the six defendants had been coerced into making a confession. 法官审判时发现6位被告人曾被迫承认罪行。
• As in courts, the defendants are represented by legal counsel. 与法院相同，被告有辩护律师作为代表。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

5 indicted   

控告，起诉( indict的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The senator was indicted for murder. 那位参议员被控犯谋杀罪。
• He was indicted by a grand jury on two counts of murder. 他被大陪审团以两项谋杀罪名起诉。

6 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

7 bribery   

n.贿络行为，行贿，受贿

参考例句：

• FBI found out that the senator committed bribery.美国联邦调查局查明这个参议员有受贿行为。
• He was charged with bribery.他被指控受贿。

8 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

9 concealed   

a.隐藏的，隐蔽的

参考例句：

• The paintings were concealed beneath a thick layer of plaster. 那些画被隐藏在厚厚的灰泥层下面。
• I think he had a gun concealed about his person. 我认为他当时身上藏有一支枪。