Chicago is one of the current musical offerings on the New York Broadway stage. It is playing at the Ambassador Theatre on West 49th Street as it continues its incredible revival run that began in 1996. It is currently the sixth longest running Broadway show in history. It is by far one of the most commercially popular musicals and was adapted for film in 2002. The movie was directed by Rob Marshall and starred Katherine Zeta Jones, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah and Renee Zellweger. The film version was also a commercial success and earned an Academy Award.

The stage musical, written by Kander and Ebb is one of the highest sought after productions on the Broadway stage. Many of the guests in some of New York’s finest hotels have reservations for the show before they even arrive in the city. You can find more information on great hotel deals and theater packages that are frequently available. A common package will include a nice dinner and show. In New York, it’s not only about see the show, but frequently it’s made into an entire evening out. A Broadway production is the focus of an eventful evening that frequently begins with a day in the spa, cocktails, dinner and then the show. Dessert and or an appearance in one of the city’s famous clubs is a common after show encounter.

The musical is set in Chicago, Illinois during the prohibition days of the early mid 20th century. The book for the musical was written by Bob Fosse, of Cabaret fame, and John Kander wrote the music and Fred Ebb wrote the lyrics. The story is a satire of the criminal justice process and corruption. It focuses on the idea of the celebrity criminal, which is a common social phenomenon. The musical is based on actual arrests and crime reports that were the source of a play written by Maurine Dallas Watkins. Watkins was a reporter and covered the these stories, which she adapted to a play in 1926. The production of Chicago that is currently running is actually a revival of the original production, which opened at the 46th Street Theater in 1975. The choreography for the original production was by Bob Fosse.

Chicago Rival Continues Its Run in New York is a post from: Business Today

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The original Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was conceived in 1977 and later revised in the middle of 1988. This is an act that addresses the acts of bribery, by or of, the government officials in all countries. This has led to greater diligence and watch over record keeping and the accounting practices of corporations and financial institutions the world over. The FCPA applies to all the citizens of the United States. And although the policies and procedures surrounding compliance to the Act seem extensive, it a relatively simple document and set of laws to understand.

The scope of the Foreign Corrupt Practices act is very clear. And due to the fact that the FCPA is so specialized, dealing only with cases of bribery, has given the law enforcement agencies overseeing the act the opportunity to focus on an issue that is destructive to the interactions between countries, and to the people living in those countries. The Act is so focused that it covers issues wherein bribery is related to the guarantee of business or the securing of continued business, with any given region, and the “grease payments” that are made to speed up the process of paperwork and approval. The Act is so clear in the intention that to violate it without knowing, or to do so inadvertently, is no defense when called upon to defend oneself or one’s company in an investigation or in a court of law.

The Quid Pro Quo argument will not stand, and will be in violation of the terms of the FCPA. For many years this applied to oil and gas companies mainly, but now the laws and regulations apply to all businesses, large and small, foreign and domestic. One of the challenges is that a study conducted a few years ago revealed that not even half of the American companies had a compliance officer that ensured the regulations of the Act were being met. All companies are under close watch and scrutiny by the officers of the FCPA in current times, and would behove any company to assign a title of compliance officer or manager, most certainly if they conduct foreign business transactions.

Compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is a post from: Business Today

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Broad authority to monitoring telephone and Internet communications was already given to the FBI. For example, current law already provides that wiretaps can be obtained for the crimes involving terrorist attacks, which includes the destruction of aircraft and aircraft hijacking. The changes the wiretapping provisions, which are contemplated in the US Patriot Act, would not just apply to surveillance of suspected terrorists, but to allow investigation of other non-specific crimes. The FBI already has the authority to intercept any and all communications without probable cause of a crime. This comes under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act for the purpose of obtaining intelligence. FISA has lower requirements in order to obtain a criminal wiretap warrant.

The US Patriot Act Section 216 substantially changes our current laws. Our current law requires law enforcement agents to obtain a pen register or trap and places a trace order that allows a telephone company to reveal the numbers dialed to and from a certain telephone. The law enforcement agent, to obtain the order, simply needs to certify that the information that needs to be obtained is relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation. It’s a low level of proof and is far less than the probable cause standards . But, under Section 216, a judge must grant the order immediately upon receiving the order. It does not matter if the judge disagrees or believes the law enforcement agent claims are erroneous, because Section 216 overrides a judges authority. Basically, a judge is just a rubber stamp.

Section 216 extends this low level of proof to the Internet communications as well. The Internet reveals far more than any phone number ever could. Portions of an Email communications can be separated from its content. This applies to any and every website the suspect has ever visited. The US Patriot Act will give law enforcement the power, based only on their own certification, a librarian to report on the books read while visiting a public library.

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Regulatory compliance is a term used to describe actions.  Actions that are taken on a day to day basis in any given business practice, but more specifically a term used for the financial institutions in the United States.  What does it mean really?  Well, just doing one’s job, to the fullest and most thorough extent.  Sometimes it is necessary, and most times it is wise, that a corporation puts someone in charge of monitoring this daily adherence.  I mean, the US Patriot act even requires that each American Bank and financial institute have this kind of middle management.

The repercussions are just that serious, from the possible idea that one may be a party to the funding of terrorist acts to money laundering, along with the possible prosecution involved if these steps and procedures are followed in an exact manner.  Banks must ‘know their customers‘, they must research and investigate every potential and current client.  They must watch and notice any acts they consider to be suspicious in their world.  Right now in the United States, if a transaction is equal to five thousand dollars and appears suspicious, a report must be file.  If the transaction involves an amount twenty five thousand dollars or greater, this must be reported as well, regardless of any suspicion.

These are measures put in place to detect money laundering schemes.  They ensure that all accounts held in American banks are not linked in any way to this particular act, nor are the linked to shell banks that have no presence physically, anywhere.  Any foreign official must provide information not only on themselves, but on their associates and family members as well.  All of the procedures that account for this knowledge are those that again stated, must be followed with diligence, and regulatory compliance.   These are not suggested procedures, but ones that are put down by law, by the Federal Government of the United States.

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Anti-money laundering and anti-corruption organizations have been working on the cases of corruption that are rampant in many of developing nations of the world.  Privatization of the public sector in these nations has served to curb the instances of corruption to a certain degree.  One aspect of this global fight that may be getting overlooked, is the fact that in the United States, corporate corruption does happen frequently, and quite often it is on a grand scale.

And while the corruption in developing countries does affect not only the economic elements of those countries, but the social elements as well, the money that has changed hands in those countries really pales in comparison to the amount that has been filtered through the American corporations such as WorldCom and Enron.  These are scams that total in the billions of dollars, much greater than the amounts of the foreign countries.  Should the dissemination of the correct information, these problems would have been avoided.

With the correct information at hand, and the concept of transparency in place, the shareholders and investors would have noticed right away that something was amiss.  The right information would have led to those who where committing the criminal acts of embezzlement and fraud, to a swift investigation and a removal from the offices in which they held.  However, the mis-leading information provided in the accounting books, and the tax breaks in which these executives took in order to hide their gains.

Furthermore, in receiving assistance from the United States Treasury, these corporations were rewarding their crooked executives with bonuses involving stock options in the companies.  All of these people were paid handsomely for basically committing some of the largest corporate fraud cases in financial history.  This was a case of trying to make this all better in the short term, for has history proves, the long term affects were devastating, not only on the people whom were taken advantage of, the employees of those corporations, but on the reputation of American business ethics overall.

Anti-Money Laundering and the Strive to Prevent Corporate Corruption in the U.S. is a post from: Business Today

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