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 2016 Awards

This year’s 2016 Olympic Games are being held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Since 776 B.C. in Olympia, Greece, people have been competing to be the best at their skill/craft/talent/sport in the Olympic Games.  In tribute to all those athletes working to make their country proud, it is time to shine light on those who are making it a little worse.  

In May 2016, about 123.6 million people were employed on a full-time basis [1]. Sometimes, some of those 123.6 million Americas have it bad at work. This list awards our 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes (Gold, Silver, and Bronze) to those companies that, well, made it very bad for the average Joe.

Bronze: Balance Point Capital Partners: Connecticut

This 3rd place award is going to a company called Balance Point Capital Partners [2]. Balance Point Capital is an investment company that purchases and/or invests in companies and is based out of West Hartford and Westport, CT. Balance Point reports on their website their criteria focus is lower middle market businesses. Their investment transaction sizes are reported to be 10-150 million and investment sizes of 5-20 million [2].  

Balance Point is no stranger to Moake’s News. A recent article about a company called ProHealth Partners was written discussing their wrongful death lawsuits, potential fraud, and whistleblower law violations (click here to view article)[3].  The reason why they get the bronze is that they own Prohealth partners [4]! Balance Point Capital Partners has many companies in their portfolio that they display proudly on their website [2]. Balance Point, for some reason, does not advertise their majority share in Prohealth on their website [5], yet who can blame them. I wonder if Balance Point Capital’s managing Partner Seth W. Alvord is thinking about those harmed or out of work while resting in his lavish New Canaan, CT estate.

Silver: Express Scripts: Missouri

This 2nd place award is going to Express Scripts, a Fortune 100 company headquartered in St Louis, Missouri [6]. Express Scripts provides a pharmacy benefit management company. This company had a net income increase each year from 2010-2014.

Express has had several fraud violations and information breach lawsuits. New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer filed a lawsuit against Express Scripts for keeping millions of dollars in drug rebates, in which the company settled in 2008 and paid 29 states $9.3 million [7].  In 2008, the company had leaked out 75 member’s information and won a class action lawsuit [8]. 

In addition to their fraud history, this Silver is being awarded to Express Scripts for being one of the worst rated companies by employees on Glassdoor.com. This company employees over 30,000 people, and they are not happy. The company had 1,100 reviews by employees and received a rating of 2.3 out of 5 and a CEO approval rating of only 28% [9].

Gold: City of San Francisco: California

California had a 3 year average (between 2009-2012) of nearly 9 million people living in poverty [10].  It is projected that over 6,600 people live on the streets in San Francisco. The poverty problem is getting so severe that local media are tired of waiting for the government to correct the problems. Starting June 29, 2016, more than 70 media organizations are publishing, writing, and broadcasting stories, and researching hopeful solutions [11].

 In 2015, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee announced the 9 billion dollar city budget would come up 100 million short for the fiscal year starting July 1 [12]. It is projected that every city department would need to trim spending 1.5%.

The San Francisco City’s Technology Department (DT) created a Full-time tweeter position, with a $130k/year salary for a social media strategist position. The DT deputy director of communications Kathleen Clark stated, “Social Media Strategist is a really critical role” [12]. While the City has debt and poverty issue, they appear to grossly be overpaying someone to tweet and re-tweet for a job.

This Gold award is going to the City of San Francisco for frivolous spending of tax payer’s money, while poverty exists on every street corner.  If you want to honor our Country this summer while watching the Olympics, please donate to a local charity and help a fellow citizen suffering from poverty.

[1] http://www.statista.com/statistics/192361/unadjusted-monthly-number-of-full-time-employees-in-the-us/

[2] http://balancepointcapital.com/

http://balancepointcapital.com/investment.html

[3] http://www.articlesbase.com/journalism-articles/the-wolf-of-western-medicine-7449723.html#.V0n-IgelzWg.mailto

[4] http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/balance-point-capital-acquires-practitioner-support-services-llc-dba-prohealth-partners-300218908.html

[5] http://balancepointcapital.com/portfolio.html

[6] http://beta.fortune.com/fortune500/express-scripts-holding-22/

[7] http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news-1/Pennsylvania-Attorney-General-Corbett-Announces-Multi-State-Settlement-With-Express-Scripts-Inc–20298-1/

[8] http://www.computerworld.com/article/2521442/data-privacy/no-harm–no-foul–says-judge-in-express-script-data-breach-case.html

[9] http://finance.yahoo.com/news/worst-companies-130656663.html

[10] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/07/california-highest-rate-of-poverty_n_4233292.html

[11] http://www.sfgate.com/homeless/article/SF-Homeless-Project-Letter-to-the-City-8326254.php

[12] http://www.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/sf-hires-an-official-tweeter-news-social-media-social-media-manager-twitter-instagram-department-of-technology-budget-crunch-ed-lee/Content?oid=4563091

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Source by P. Moakes