Question

Case One: Green Machine, Inc.

Green Machine, Inc., a company devoted to producing eco-friendly household products, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Colossal Corporation. Green Machine's most famous and best-selling product is the Eco-Widget—a handheld, solar-powered device that recharges a variety of electronics on the go, including cell phones, laptops, and tablets. Colossal Corporation has uncovered an incident of theft at Green Machine: Approximately one month ago, over 400 Eco-Widgets were stolen from Green Machine's Adelphi, Maryland warehouse.

Shortly after the theft was discovered, Colossal Corporation's internal investigator, Ivan, found an online advertisement for the sale of exactly 400 Eco-Widgets. Ivan called the contact on the website and set up a meeting with the seller, Greg Smith. When Ivan, under the guise of being an interested purchaser of the widgets, inquired about Greg's distributor, Greg did not hesitate to reveal that he purchased the widgets from Rachel Jones, his long-time business associate. Ivan inspected the 400 Eco-Widgets, and confirmed they were indeed the same products that were stolen from the warehouse. He then requested a price quote from Greg and asked Greg to hold the products for him for seven days. Greg agreed.

Ivan arranged a meeting with Rachel the very next day, during which he pretended that he wanted to buy electronics from her. He asked Rachel if she had any Eco-Widget distributors she could recommend. Rachel said that she works directly with a Green Machine sales agent named Sam Simpson, and that she recently purchased 400 Eco-Widgets from him at a discounted price. Rachel also said that Sam is quite interested in expanding his business with her, and would provide Ivan with a great deal.

After his meeting with Rachel, Ivan checked the personnel records at Green Machine and identified Sam Simpson as a low-level warehouse employee who has been with the company for over 10 years. Sam's personnel record is spotless, with no prior personnel issues and no complaints. Sam is in charge of night security at the warehouse, and has no history in sales. As a night security guard, Sam is responsible for protecting the warehouse from theft, and is not permitted to sell products. After further investigation, Ivan found company e-mails between Rachel and Sam in which Sam posed as a sales agent. Reading the e-mails, it became obvious that neither Rachel nor Greg knew that the 400 Eco-Widgets were stolen. Ivan then collected video from all of Sam's shifts and was able to locate a film of Sam packing the Eco-Widgets into his personal car and driving them out of the warehouse parking lot.

Your task is to research the legal issues surrounding the stolen property. It is up to you to decipher which laws have been broken, and what the potential remedies are.

Problem: The vice president wants you to prepare a narrated PowerPoint 10 pages to present this information to the senior leadership team. Because of the sensitive nature of this case, the vice president has asked you to operate with total confidentiality and without involving the legal department.

Answer 1

Laws Relating To Theft in a Company

Taking someone’s property is an act of stealing. It is having possession of someone else property without their authorization to do so. The taking element in the act of theft typically requires taking possession of property that does not belong to you but someone else. However, it can be seen as the element of taking where most of the multipart legal challenges primarily arise in case there is a case about theft. For example, in our case, Sam takes properties belonging to the Green Machine Inc and selling them. Therefore he may be charged with theft (Green, 2002).

There are theft laws that exist and deals with a person’s act of taking someone else property and holding it in his or her possession. The laws are usually passed according to the levels in which the looting has taken place. Most of these statutes only exhibit on the federal, state, or in the local levels of the government in particular area. Sams behavior of taking the company property is seen as the Larceny, in which is taking another individual belonging with the aim of solely benefiting from such properties. It’s offense, and it was developed in the common law (Kurucz & Colbert & Wheeler, 2008). He, therefore, intents to benefit from the looted property through selling them to Rachel. Receiving stolen property is a crime and worse if you know that the goods were stolen.

According to business criminal law, Sam did commit a crime of stealing goods of the company with the intent of selling them and solely benefiting from the goods belonging to the company. However, Greg and Rachel did not commit any crime since they thought that Sam was the company’s distributor. The law of stolen property states that receiving of stolen goods without the knowledge that the goods were stolen is not a crime. In contrast, if Rachel or Greg knew that Sam was stealing goods and still purchases them, they would b committing a crime law (Kurucz & Colbert & Wheeler, 2008).

Can Colossal Corporation can terminate its worker, Sam, at any time with or without issuing a threat or a warning to him. The employee also can be able to quit the job at any time without revealing it to the employers. However, an employee to be able to leave the company without notifying the employers should have signed the Employment at will contrast during the hiring process (Miles, 2000). The contract is outstanding since it b provides the both parties, in this case, the right to be in a conducive working environment and when one feels that there is any violation, they can comfortably leave.

According to the law of torts, the company to which Sam works may be able to get compensation for the similar amount of money of the goods stolen. Torts laws, themselves does not include punishment but guarantees compensation of the exact value to property looted (Dobbs, 2008).

The company should make some efforts to curb near future thefts like the one that had happened. The companies should be able to audit its employees and be able to look up for individual indicators such as living lifestyles that are relatively higher than the type of salary given to such employees. It should also install security measure as the CCTV cameras that may help the company to monitor wide area while looking a screen. It will ensure that employee does not loot company’s property. The company should also be able to uphold the company’s ethics through educating its employees and also giving them motivations.

References

Miles, T. J. (2000). Common law exceptions to employment at will and US labor markets. Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, 16(1), 74-101.

Dobbs, D. (2008). Law of Torts (Hornbook Series). West Academic.

Green, S. P. (2002). Plagiarism, Norms, and the limits of theft law: Some observations on the use of criminal sanctions in enforcing intellectual property rights. Hastings LJ, 54, 167.

Kurucz, E. C., Colbert, B. A., & Wheeler, D. (2008). The business case for corporate social responsibility. In The Oxford handbook of corporate social responsibility.