Auditors’ Duty To Detect Related Party Transactions, To Be Professionally Skeptical, and To Detect Fraud: A Case Study of Aegean Marine Petroleum Network, Inc.

This is a case study of Aegean Marine Petroleum Network, Inc. (Aegean). Aegean’s founder and former CEO was the mastermind of several fraud schemes which pilfered $300 million from the company. During 2006-2018, Aegean’s Big 4 auditors, Deloitte and Price Waterhouse, failed to detect the fraud and issued clean, unqualified opinions year after year. After the fraud was discovered by Aegean’s audit committee in 2018, a group of Aegean’s stockholders filed a securities fraud lawsuit in New York City against the former CEO and the two auditors, and it will come to trial in the near future. U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) standards require an auditor to be professionally skeptical during an audit. He must maintain a questioning mind and make a critical objective assessment of audit evidence. In the Aegean case, the court held if the auditors had been more professionally skeptical, they may have been able to discover the massive fraud. PCAOB standards also require an auditor to search for related party transactions and to disclose them. In the Aegean case, the court noted it is inexcusable that the auditors were not aware that the former CEO owned Oil Tank, Inc., a firm which siphoned off millions of dollars from Aegean during the oil storage facility construction project. If they had been aware of this relationship, they might have been able to uncover the massive fraud. PCAOB standards also require an auditor to search for fraud. In the Aegean case, the former CEO engaged in several fraud schemes, yet the auditors were ignorant of them and issued unqualified audit opinions. This led the court to conclude that the auditors exhibited “willful blindness.”

Missing the Point: A Critical Reflection on Operation HONOUR and Reactions to Military Sexual Misconduct by Veterans of the Canadian Armed Forces

While there has undoubtedly been progress made in regards to the inclusion of women and LGBTQ+ individuals as full members of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), it is questionable as to whether the organizational culture has shifted since these efforts were initiated almost thirty years ago. This article argues that resistance to culture change is based in sexist beliefs and attitudes, which are most noticeable in discussions related to Operation HONOUR, the CAF initiative meant to purposefully change military culture in an effort to eliminate sexual misconduct. The article critically reflects on how the CAF has presented results from surveys aimed at examining the beliefs and perceptions of current serving members in regards to sexual misconduct in the military. It argues that the CAF is missing key points of analysis, particularly in failing to identify and analyse the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours that make up a problematic and misogynistic military culture. To address this, the article presents a taxonomy of sexism to help understand the attitudes of soldiers and veterans. Based on this taxonomy and informed by long-term and ongoing ethnographic research, the article then outlines a spectrum of behavioural archetypes, namely: (1) allyship to victims, (2) willful blindness to the prevalence of and harms caused by military sexual misconduct, and (3) a negative and misogynistic response tied to what has been termed as toxic masculinity. Understanding these behaviours and their embeddedness in veterans’ self-perceptions and the military’s culture is key to achieving CAF culture change in the context of systemic sexual misconduct.

A APLICAÇÃO DA CEGUEIRA DELIBERADA NO DIREITO PENAL E A INDEVIDA UTILIZAÇÃO COMO EQUIPARAÇÃO OU REFORÇO AO DOLO EVENTUAL

A cegueira deliberada (willful blindness) justifica a responsabilização criminal subjetiva nos casos em que o indivíduo se coloca deliberadamente em uma situação de desconhecimento acerca de determinado fato, já antecipadamente visando furtar-se a eventuais consequências futuras da sua conduta na esfera penal. Nos termos do Model Penal Code norte-americano, a exigência do conhecimento (knowingly) é satisfeita pelo conhecimento da alta probabilidade de sua existência. Disseminada para outros sistemas jurídico-penais (especialmente de tradição distinta da commom law), a cegueira deliberada tem sido utilizada de forma indevida, ora como equiparação (ou substituição) ao dolo eventual, ora como reforço à sua configuração (especialmente nos casos de ausência de prova acerca de seus elementos identificadores), sem maiores reflexões quanto ao seu uso, fundamentação e consequências. Dessa forma, pune-se uma conduta que, por si só, não configura nenhuma modalidade legal de dolo e tampouco indica a existência de algum déficit de punibilidade que deva ser suprido pela cegueira deliberada.

Willful Blindness: Franco-American Relations and the Escalation of the Vietnam War

The long and stable Franco-American diplomatic rapport was undermined throughout the American escalation of the Vietnam War. This paper specifically examines French President Charles de Gaulle’s increasing discontent at his ally’s involvement in Southeast Asia and analyzes the decisions of successive American presidents to ignore him. Beginning in 1961, with the inauguration of American President John F. Kennedy, the paper proceeds chronologically to 1964, by which point transatlantic relations had worsened considerably as a result of de Gaulle’s growing confrontation of the Indochina question. Using archival diplomatic documents from both countries, this paper seeks to explain why the United States government refused to comply with De Gaulle’s requests. This papers makes two main conclusions: American policy makers were willfully blind to their ally’s suggestions and the French proposal for the neutralization of Vietnam was not realistic. These findings are supported by various policy decisions made leading up to the war, relying heavily on primary sources to demonstrate the failings of both the French proposal and the American willingness to consider the perspective of a crucial ally.