Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Nothing Wrong, No Crime Committed

When former Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) Calvin Cheng was found guilty by the Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS) for price-fixing in November 2011, he was the President of the Association of Modelling Industry Professionals (AMIP). Cheng justified his sins by claiming that even Microsoft and Bill Gates have been fined for price-fixing. Ergo, it was no big deal since he was in good company.

CCS had determined 11 modelling agencies were guilty of price-fixing. They used AMIP as a “front” for collusion in 2005 and Calvin Cheng had “played a central role in coordinating the actions of AMIP members“ and ran afoul of the Competition Act which came into force the next year.

Lance Armstrong was similarly unrepentant when he told BBC sports editor, Dan Roan, that if he were in the same position as he was 20 years ago, he would again dope to win bike races. The disgraced Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles in 2012 in the wake of the doping scandal and banned from professional cycling for life.

According to the Cycling Independent Reform Commission (CIRC) which published its damning 227-page report in March 2015, 90 per cent of the peloton is still doping in one form or another today. The CIRC report stopped short of accusing two former International Cycling Union (UCI) presidents of outright corruption, for colluding with Lance Armstrong and other cycling stars to cover up drug cheating. No wonder Armstrong was so cocky, he had the big boys watching his back.

In 2001, the Development Bank of Singapore (DBS) took the unusal step to correct information regarding the academic record of its Chief Executive Officer, Philippe Paillart, after the Asian Wall Street Journal asked Harvard Business School about his "postgraduate degree". The error in the annual report - - which was signed by all five members of DBS's corporate office including Mr Paillart - was amended and Paillart, a French national, said that he has plenty of other degrees, he did not need to make up such qualifications.

The Indian national turned Singaporean employed by Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) - the one with an MBA from  degree mill Southern Pacific University (SPU) - can sleep easy. The law is only harsh if you are not going with the flow.

13 comments:

  1. Bastards! What's happening to our beloved country?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What's happening to our beloved country over the last 15 years?
      Hmmmm.
      Who has been Prime Minister over the last 15 years?

      Delete
    2. Perhaps the same question in the minds of thousands who mourned when old man passed away.

      Delete
  2. In the meantime, a 16-year-old kid has been imprisoned for going against the flow for the past 5 days and counting...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Right.
      The 16 year old boy is the cause of all our problems (Sarcasm).
      A really smart leader would see Amos Yee for what Amos really is.
      A source of honest feedback that he is not getting from his usual coterie of eunuchs.

      Delete
  3. Its downhill for them from now. The whities should brush up their resumes too.

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  4. Strategic defeats come about when the lower orders suck the dick/pussy subordinates white wash or sugar coat the information being pass up to the higher ups.

    Rommel/Guderian/Model always double check the information by being physically on the spot to question...no matter how trust worthy the source or its reliability...reason why they win battles or made their enemies bleed like hell for their "victories".

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  5. "Mr Cheng stated that the intent of the modelling agencies was to raise the rates paid to models. However, the price-fixing agreement increased the prices that customers paid, which also increased the amount of commission due to the modelling agencies. The agencies' actions were found by the Competition Appeal Board to have an appreciable adverse effect on the market.
    Price fixing is one of the most serious forms of infringement of competition law, and companies should take proactive steps to ensure that their management and staff understand and comply with the law."
    - Teo Wee Guan, Director, Strategic Planning
    Competition Commission of Singapore

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  6. "The law is only harsh if you are not going with the flow."

    woff, woff, woff :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. "Everyone is doing it" was Armstrong's justification

    "If you take me back to 1995, when it was completely and totally pervasive, probably do it again. " attributing his environment at that time made him the dope monster he is today.

    Of course, this requires the cooperation of the entire system that backs him, from the US agencies to the sponsors to everyone down the chain. Because they all have a stake in his million dollar success scheme.

    Today the sociopath walked free, didn't go to jail and never got a call.



    ReplyDelete
  8. " The law is only harsh if you are not going with the flow."
    What law?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. the law of the winner of the knuckle duster slugfest in the gutter?

      Delete