Busy, busy, busy…

Yes, indeed the SEC and the Labor Department have been busy promoting changes in rules governing trading desks, bank board rooms, corporations’ financial disclosures and other Wall Street interests.  The effects of these changes will be to:

·       Make it easier for banks to gamble with depositors’ funds.

·       Allow larger bonuses providing greater incentives for traders to take on riskier investments.

·       Allow brokers to invest their clients’ funds to their own advantage rather than to the clients’

·       Make the banks’ stress tests easier to beat so financially stressed banks will have an easier pass not quite 10 years ago.

An Open Letter To Charlie O’Donnell

On August 24, 2017, the Wall Street Journal, in an article entitled “Silicon Valley Scandals Open Dialogue Between Male VCs and Female Founders” reported:

“Charlie O’Donnell, of New York’s Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, reached out to Ms. (Julie) Fredrickson (co-founder and chief executive of New York-based cosmetics startup Stowaway) earlier this summer to discuss a recent sexual-harassment scandal at a Silicon Valley firm. During the course of their conversation, the topic turned to their own interactions.

Ms. Fredrickson told Mr. O’Donnell that he had made her uncomfortable when he asked last fall if he could bring Creamsicles to her apartment late one night.

Mr. O’Donnell apologized for crossing the line and said, ‘I can be friendly w/o being flirty’.”

And then Mr. O’Donnell added:

“Any male VC that isn’t reexamining their behavior towards women in light of recent press … just simply isn’t doing his job as an investor or as a person of privilege and influence.”

Click here to view the letter.

Business Ethics, Governance and Compliance News