On visiting the company again after the President’s suicide, other people we had met previously came to us saying “now we can tell you what’s really going on around here” evidencing that others knew, but didn’t know how to handle the information because it involved the President.

Suppose this company, or the one in your latest guidance, had an “Unmodified Corporate Honor Code” which clearly stated, to all employees and officers, that all violations were to be reported, that it was a violation of the code not to report a violation, even when it involved a company officer. Recognizing the difficulty when the violator was the President would seem to call for an independent third party — perhaps, in the case of small companies, an auditing or attorney firm not the company’s regular attorney or auditor, with clear instructions how to report to the company’s owners.

How much better to simply make it a part of everyone’s job, than the “whistle blower” rules which can create large monetary incentives to submit “violation” information which or may not be realistic, fair, or true.

Best regards,

Bob

Then there were examples like Peregrine.

Excellent case. I own and operate a small light manufacturing company and we are frequently faced with this dilemma. My answer is to drive the product to the shippers drayage facility and get signed BOL. I. Then can in good faith submit inoices to my customer. To do otherwise is to play roulette with the company reputation and face a ban by creditors.