Business Law
Who can be found guilty of business crime and what is the key to establishing criminal liability?
Using the Internet, research and post an example of a business crime committed in the last 2 years and any and all of those who were held criminally liable. (See the examples of types of business crimes in the chapter reading).
Include your source for information in your answer.
When in the private workplace do we have a “reasonable expectation of privacy”? What is the test for the tort of invasion of privacy? If management’s interest is to make sure its employees are productive, can management monitor computers, workstations, phones, etc.? Why or why not?
Can management/employers today use personal information and lifestyle posts on social media to make a determination of whether to hire someone? Why or why not? Support your answer.
Business crimes involve illegal activities committed by individuals or collectively as an organization, government organizations for material gains or personal financial goals. These activities are usually aimed at defrauding people and as such, lying, cheating and actively participating in stealing with the aim of gaining financial materials for personal objectives fall within this category.
A key example of business crime can be elaborated with the 14th January 2020, where a Pittsburgh Resident pleaded guilty to defrauding and conspiracy against the state’s health care facilities. In it, he actively participated in the falsifying of insurance documents, with the aim of earning money in government medical subsidies towards healthcare, targeting the Medicaid program (Western District of Pennsylvania, 2020). Keith Scoggins, 54, pleaded guilty before United States District Judge Cathy Bissoon for falsifying claims of insurance payments worth nearly 87,000,000 dollars. A total of 16 other people were charged in connection to this crime, and of this 9 submitted a guilty plea to that helped the investigation. His sentencing will be heard on the month of May 2020.
When in a private work place, most organizations, afford to their employees a reasonable expectation of privacy. The test to measure the reasonability of the test of privacy lies in the orders from a case Katz v United States in which Justice Harlan identified that for reasonable expectation of privacy to be accorded to an individual, the individual must exhibit an actual/ subjective expectation of privacy and the expectation is one that the society is willing to accept and recognize as actually reasonable (Law Information Institute, 2019). Yes, the management has the rights to monitor computers and workstation etc. this is because the management has the right to know how their equipment are being utilized.
On the other hand, intrusion claims, can be registered by the employees against the management, if they tend to monitor private conversation and personal materials separate from the work computers. In the Koeppel Standard, 2011, the Iowa supreme court declared that conducting investigation against employees who are suspected to be planning sinister motives against their private organization of employment should not cross over to monitoring private feeds (Meltz, 2015, p3461). Social media posting is considered public knowledge especially if the account is in the public domain and accessible to everyone.
As such management has the right to assess a person’s character and categorically, through the use of social media create a profile relevant to their hiring criteria. Segal (2018) identifies that the federal government through the Fair Credit Reporting Act identifies that the company has the right to collect the information, the use of third party, is where the company becomes liable. Adverse actions based on off duty social media action are discouraged in some states. As such, it remains to be legal.
References
Legal Information Institute. (2019). Expectation of Privacy. Retrieved from https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/expectation_of_privacy
Meltz, E. A. (2015). No Harm, No Foul? “Attempted” Invasion of Privacy and the Tort of Intrusion Upon Seclusion. Retrieved from https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5122&context=flr
Segal, J. (2018, April 11). LEGAL TRENDS Social Media Use in Hiring: Assessing the Risks. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/pages/0914-social-media-hiring.aspx
Western District of Pennsylvania. (2020, January 14). Pittsburgh Resident Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy and Health Care Fraud. Retrieved from https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdpa/pr/pittsburgh-resident-pleads-guilty-conspiracy-and-health-care-fraud-1
