While Playboy (NYSE: PLA) executives have never been accused of being straight-laced, one might assume they'd be smart enough, oh, to restrain themselves from groping, "bombarding" with sexually-explicit emails, and subsequently firing a lawyer.

But in allegations that (if true) would surely prove the preconception that the porn industry objectifies women, Chicago divorce attorney Corri Fetman filed suit Monday alleging that Thomas Hagopian, an executive in the digital branch of the publishing empire, sexually harassed her, then canceled her column when she rebuffed him. She seeks $4.5 million in damages, including "gender violence."

Talking about the seedy side of subprime lending at the height of the bubble seems redundant -- like talking about Jeffrey Dahmer's dark side. But a piece in BusinessWeek looks at an especially sleazy side of the industry: "Dozens of former brokers and wholesalers say the trading of sexual favors was so common that it came to be expected."

Wholesalers reportedly offered loan underwriters sexual favors in exchange for approving questionable mortgage applications.

The scenes described in the piece sounds like something straight out of the movie Boiler Room: brokers sitting in the middle of an office shredding some documents and altering others in plain view of their supervisors and harassment and termination for anyone who protested the illegality.

While there were scattered lawsuits and reports of impropriety while all this was happening, no one really paid attention to it until after the music had stopped. A huge portion of the homeowners who are currently facing foreclosure participated in some form of mortgage fraud that was condoned by industry insiders.

In October of 2004, Chris Swecker, former FBI Assistant Director of the Criminal Investigation Division, told House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity that "The potential impact of mortgage fraud on financial institutions and the stock market is clear. If fraudulent practices become systemic within the mortgage industry and mortgage fraud is allowed to become unrestrained, it will ultimately place financial institutions at risk and have adverse effects on the stock market."

That's exactly what happened, but too much money was being made, and too many lap dances being given, for anyone to care.

Even as American Apparel (AMEX: APP) posts incredible sales numbers in an incredibly tough environment, the company can't seem to shake the scandals created by its eccentric CEO Dov Charney who was settled a sexual-harassment claim involving one of his female employees earlier this year.

The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that the company has agreed to pay the employee $1.3 million to settle the claim with one catch -- that she keep the settlement a secret "and instead participate in an arbitration proceeding, with a preordained outcome" so that Charney could publicly declare victory.

The woman refused to participate in the arbitration and the matter ended up in court. Last week, a three judge panel of California's Second Appellate District in Los Angeles said that the woman's alleged breach of the agreement should be reviewed by independent arbitrators.

However, the court added that it was concerned about the "potential illegality of the 'arbitration' clause ... with its goal of issuing a press release for the purpose of misleading journalists and the public."

With the appearance of efforts to mislead investors about the nature of the case, this fiasco moves beyond the realm of the hanky panky that has been part of Mr. Charney's behavior and his company since it went public. Now you have to wonder about integrity.

Any experienced investor could give a dissertation on the utmost importance of good senior management toward the success of any enterprise. This seems to be lost on the Boards of Directors of both Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) and the New York Knickerbockers NBA franchise.

Last week the Knicks suffered another embarrassing moment during the reign of Isaiah Thomas as General Manager and Coach of the team. A jury awarded a plaintiff $11,600,000 in a sexual harassment case against Thomas and the Knicks. Thomas has squirmed around in the executive suite for a long time, and after numerous bad trades and draft picks, he let a great coach go only to decide to pace the hardwood himself. After all the wheeling and dealing, it is long overdue for a change at the top of the Knicks organization. My comment comes at the end of a long list of people that have been saying the same thing for years -- but now the feeling is almost unanimous throughout the sports world.

General Electric was trading down in pre-market action this morning while the rest of the market was trading up. Of course, that could shift by the time the opening bell rings at 9:30 a.m. ET.

My guess is that higher oil prices are weighing on the stock.

However, there were allegations of sex scandal in a GE division reported last night. NBC talk show host Maury Povich and some of the show's producers are being sued for $100 million for sexual harassment. Spokespeople for the show and for NBC Universal denied the rather sordid allegations.

I doubt that's affecting GE's stock price, but it is more bad news for beleaguered NBC.