A top Navy admiral, two employees of a would-be government contractor, the former Army CIO and the head of a well-known service provider all find themselves in ethical hot water for again failing to follow basic ethics principles.  The issue?  Alleged improper preference in acquisitions tied in one way or another to a post-government hiring promise.  The size of the business also didn’t seem to matter.  While the incident involving the larger company, Service Now, was a multi-million-dollar deal, the Navy sole source contract, with Next Jump, was for only $355,000.  Now both sides in that incident will quite likely spend more than this amount of money defending themselves from ethics charges.  It is mind blowing to see companies, and their government counterparts, making the same mistakes again and again.  Companies know, or should know, that it is a violation of myriad rules to offer a government employee a job, or anything else of value, in exchange for any sort of compensation.  Federal employees presumably know this as well, but people, obviously, will be people. Service Now is reportedly under investigation by the Department of Justice.  The Navy contractor and admiral are as well.  While no decision has been made in either case so far, that is of little comfort to the company and to the specific individuals involved.     Indeed, people who engage in this conduct must remember this:  You will likely be required to hire and pay for your own legal defense in these cases while your company uses its own legal assets to defend itself.  Remember, too, that your interests and the company’s interest are not the same. You may very well be a scapegoat.  By now, one would think that a common contractor best practice would be to copy and post these stories in places where every employee can see them, perhaps with the heading “Don’t Do This!”.  Such an action certainly couldn’t hurt.