Analysis Of The Article ' Massmutual Whistle Blower Finally Identified ' By Michelle Williams

The principal agent theory applies to this Whistleblower’s Tale because the Navy, (we are going to call them shareholders)

The word “fraud” was magnified in the business world around the end of 2001 and the beginning of 2002. No one had seen anything like it. Enron, one of the country’s largest energy companies, went bankrupt and took down with it Arthur Andersen, one of the five largest audit and accounting firms in the world. Enron was followed by other accounting scandals such as WorldCom, Tyco, Freddie Mac, and HealthSouth, yet Enron will always be remembered as one of the worst corporate accounting scandals of all time. Enron’s collapse was brought upon by the greed of its corporate hierarchy and how it preyed upon its faithful stockholders and employees who invested so much of their time and money into the company. Enron seemed to portray that the goal of corporate America was to drive up stock prices and get to the peak of the financial mountain by any means necessary. The “Conspiracy of Fools” is a tale of power, crony capitalism, and company greed that lead Enron down the dark road of corporate America.

HealthSouth Corporation was one of the largest publicly traded owners of rehabilitative hospitals within the Untied States and paved the way for its industry. However, prior to 2003 the company had a very dark secret: fraud. In 2003 HealthSouth was accused of making $2.7 billion in false journal entries in the company’s system (Helios, 2013). These false entries allowed the corporation to inflate its earnings and revenue. While the corporation was dabbling in a fraudulent, aggressive account system, auditors were unable to detect the extent of the fraud occurring. If not for Michael Vines and Weston Smith, HealthSouth Corporation might have continued its false entries and continued deceiving shareholders and even Wall Street itself. HealthSouth serves as a historical example of how corporate culture can use fraud and deception schemes to not only rationalize what it is doing, which is an element of the fraud triangle, but also encourage fraudulent financial statements.

This case study analyzes the experiences of Courtland Kelley at General Motors (GM). Courtland Kelley a third generation GM worker put his job on the line by pushing the GM managers and executives to fully respond to the safety issues found while working as a safety inspector at the company. Kelley along with his supervisor Bill McAleer first discovered the issues while auditing GM cars at rail yards across the country, a spot check of vehicles before the cars were cleared to be delivered to the dealers. McAleer was taken off the audit as a result, who subsequently sued the company seeking whistle-blower protection. The case was eventually dismissed by a judge in favor of GM. The judgement only increased Kelley’s

In 1998, an angry shareholder who described themselves as “fleeced shareholder” had e-mailed auditors and financial regulators questioning how HealthSouth was cooking their books. It is the date and detail in the e-mail that proves the most frightening. The e-mail displays that the fraud should have been caught long before it was uncovered. Unlike most investors, it was evident that this person had a background in accounting and raised legitimate concerns. Ernst & Young admitted to receiving this email in November of 1998. However, Ernst & Young felt the questions raised by the anonymous writer did not affect the presentation of the financial statements. Moreover, a former bookkeeper of HealthSouth, Michael Vines, also e-mailed Ernst & Young about specific area of fraud. His background qualified for his email to be considered worthy evidence. Nevertheless, Ernst & Young claimed that the accounting practices being question were

Some examples may be a person who values honesty, being ordered to falsify financial earnings to keep stock prices high. Or perhaps someone who values responsibility, having information that their company is knowingly producing products that could harm their customers. Additionally, under the provisions set forth by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, “Subtitle B gives the SEC further powers of enforcement. This includes a "whistleblower bounty program. The SEC program rewards individuals who provide information that leads to an SEC enforcement action in which more than $1 million in sanctions is ordered.[61] Whistleblower rewards range from 10 to 30% of the recovery. The law also provides job protection for SEC whistleblowers and promises confidentiality for them.” (Wikipedia LLC). Thus, with some form of protection now written into law, the chance for a whistleblower to reveal information has increased under the protection of

On June 2, 2015, AP claims that her co-worker (Whistleblower) and Carol Roane, Assistant Director, identified as the Responding Management Official (RMO), are purposely creating a hostile work environment so that she (AP) will resign her position.

Lowry suspected that Ms. Williams, the VP of Corporate Communications might have traded inside information about the company’s stock. She questioned it and filed a formal complaint with her immediate supervisor; she thought that it was the honorable thing to do. In return, her identity got disclosed to the offender, making it uncomfortable in her position since Mona Williams was effectively her boss. Also, she got a lower performance review, and when she complained, she was told to find another job. * Patagonia: Blueprint for Green Business

In the last decade, ethics in corporate America has become highly publicized following the discovery of unethical and fraudulent business practices in major corporations. Practices at Tyco, Enron, Arthur Anderson, and WorldCom, among others, have made these corporate names synonymous with corporate fraud. The unethical behavior of top executives such as Bernard “Bernie” Madoff and Martha Stewart for example, have resulted in critical issues for companies and wide reaching job loss.

A once massive communications company was brought to ruin by the mishandling of DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, and the CEO. Between 1999 and 2002 the CEO Bernie Ebbers orchestrated over $9 billion worth of fraudulent accounting transactions. Surely all of this was not accomplished by just one man, this took teams of people who were unwilling to question authority or stand up during times of corporate wrong doing. Therefore, the information to follow will contain explanation of how this fraud was committed and by whom, the reasoning behind the fraud, the consequences of their actions for them and the corporation, and the final outcome for the corporation and those directors and officers held accountable.

It has been almost a decade since Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the wake of the Enron, Tyco and WorldCom scandals, seeking to put in place a variety of measures to protect investors and address standards of behavior. Over the years, once-controversial practices about disclosure and ethics have become generally accepted standards.

Sharon Watkins earned her 15 minutes of fame the honest way, as the Enron employee who blew the lid off of then CEO Ken Lay's debauchery. But for every celebrated whistleblower, there are hundreds who remain in the shadows. And for good Samaritans who do tell their tale, the price they pay can be exorbitant.

In society, there have always been differing characteristics such as failure and fraud that have been linked through time. However, although failure and fraud are connected in several various ways, one tends to come before the other. Generally failure is the absence of achieving success and fraud is committing an unlawful act that is driven by failure or to result in failure. Failure has driven fraud for countless reasons either for financial prosperity or personal supremacy. In many cases the direction of failure and fraud is mainly subjected to the individual’s personal objective. Conversely, there have been many situations in which corporations too big to fail have succumbed to failure and fraud due to a destructive corporate objective. In 2001, Enron, the seventh largest company in the U.S participated in fraudulent activity. The fraudulent activity committed by Enron was the beginning of an inevitable ripple of failure in the company’s future. Although Enron performed the major scandal, the auditing agency Arthur Andersen was highly responsible for their negligence and their participation in the deception of the financial investors. The general public didn 't easily predict the downfall of Enron because it was one of the most thriving establishments in the corporate world. In many cases, companies as substantial as Enron are sometimes used as a measurement to gauge how the economy is preforming in the current market. The financial fraud

A whistleblower is said to be an individual who discloses information which is considered as unethical about an organization either to the general public or the top management of the organization. One of the key characteristics of a whistleblower is courage. So as to survive the war, whistleblowers must be fearless and courageous since the battle between them and the organization might last for an extended period. Whistleblowers are also known, to be honest individuals who stand by the truth. They are expected to provide correct unethical practices of an organization. Another essential characteristic is that whistleblowers are often guided by their ethical standard which is mostly known to be very high (Schmidt, 2016). Their moral values and beliefs cannot be easily changed or influenced. Whistleblowers are also well-educated individuals since they have to know their rights before engaging in war with corporate organizations. They are mostly loyal to ethics than they are to the organization.

The whistleblower on the other hand had the alternative of filing a law suit which he did or conspiring with the company to commit fraud and getting paid to keep quiet for