U.S. Supremes hear a fish tale
From the outrage that followed the massive Enron fraud uncovered in 2001 emerged the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which provides for prison terms of up to 20 years for, among other things, destroying "any record, document, or tangible object" that may impede a probe by a federal agency.
It seems unlikely that Florida fisherman John L. Yates was aware of those provisions when fishing for red grouper one day in 2007. A fish and wildlife officer boarded his vessel to inspect his catch, and discovered 72 fish that appeared to be shorter than the 20 inches required by law. Ordered to return to port so the fish could be seized and a citation issued, Mr. Yates told a crew mate to toss the tiddlers overboard and replace them with bigger ones.
And that, local prosecutors concluded, was a flagrant violation of Sarbanes-Oxley.
Convicted, and sentenced to a relatively merciful 30 days, Mr. Yates appealed and the case wound its way through the U.S. court system to land on the docket of the U.S. Supreme Court, where arguments were being heard on Wednesday. Aside from the po-faced arguments came comments not typically heard in the country's highest court.
"What kind of a mad prosecutor would try to send this guy up for 20 years, or risk 20 years?" an incredulous Justice Antonin Scalia wanted to know. Justice Anthony Kennedy suggested that perhaps "Congress should have called this the 'Sarbanes-Oxley Grouper Act,'" while Chief Justice John Roberts told a Justice Department lawyer that his description of events made Mr. Yates "sound like a mob boss or something."
Yates v. United States (13-7451) will be decided next summer.
Mutual admiration society
Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz took part in a Q&A session with host Mark Romoff, president of the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships, at a luncheon in Toronto on Monday, where they both expressed how impressed they were with each other's accomplishments.
Romoff: "I knew you before you were the Governor. I can't believe you became the Governor."
Poloz (referring to the audience): "I can't believe you have 1,200 friends."
Abba star now 'totally without cash'
Hang on, before you start taking up a collection for Bjorn Ulvaeus, the '70s pop megastar is getting by just fine, thanks. But he does have a bit of a bee in his bonnet about physical money, so much so that you can't get in the band's museum that opened in Stockholm in 2013 – ABBA the Museum, natch – by plunking down your 195 kronor ($30) on the counter.
The museum has a strict no-cash policy at the insistence of Mr. Ulvaeus, who believes card transactions are not only more practical, but that cash facilitates crimes running the gamut from bicycle theft to murder. He's become an apostle for making Sweden the world's first cashless society, enthusing that the museum wants "to be in the vanguard of this revolution."
And he's not just preaching, he's walking the walk, too. Mr. Ulvaeus is living his life completely without cash, and he says it's been working out pretty well. "The only inconvenience I found was that you need a coin to borrow a trolley at the supermarket."
American Eagle goes to the dogs
U.S. youth-clothing chain American Eagle Outfitters has had a rough year of it, with its shares down almost 10 per cent over the past 12 months and razor-thin profits threatening the dividend.
Now, it may not give a boost to the bottom line, but corporate decision-makers have reconsidered what started out as an April Fool's joke and decided to take it for a walk. So say hello to American Beagle Outfitters. The company on Wednesday launched a "canine collection," carrying such items as knit sweaters, puffer jackets and hats for dogs.
Whether or not it juices the stock, rescue animals in need will benefit: The company has said previous efforts have raised $100,000 for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. And there's going to be some pretty snazzy-looking dogs out there.
Pharma leadership tip #37
"As CEO, do not try to sell an $8-billion drug portfolio without informing your board, if you want to keep your job."
Geir Lode, head of U.K.-based asset manager Hermes Global Equities, commenting on last week's firing of Sanofi's German-Canadian chief executive
Stop innovating, your dinner's getting cold!
You think police officers are getting younger? You should take a look at Internet entrepreneurs.
Nick D'Aloisio, founder of online news aggregator Summly, was 17 when Yahoo bought his company in 2013 for $30-million (U.S.). Brothers John and Patrick Collison, behind payments service Stripe, were 16 and 19 when they sold earlier business Auctomatic in 2008 to Vancouver-based Live Current Media for $5-million. And Mark Zuckerbeg was a relative greybeard by the time he founded Facebook at the age of 20.
There's been quite a number of teen innovators in the industry, but 13-year-old Belgian Shubham Banerjee may well be the youngest face of digital innovation. For his Grade 7 school science fair project earlier this year, when he was just 12, the California native invented a portable Braille printer called Braigo.
The project caught the eye of Intel's venture capital arm, which in September announced at a conference in India to which he was invited that it would invest in his company, Braigo Labs. "I turned back to my dad, and said, 'What did he just say?'" he recalled. "I was all over the place."
The teen plans to use the funding to design a better prototype of the printer. Although he calls the shots, as a minor, mom Malini serves as the company president. And he probably still has to take out the garbage.
With files from David Parkinson, Bloomberg, Reuters, AP