Case Synthesis: Morgan Stanley Insider Trader: Du Jun

Since 2002 Martha Stewart was investigated by the SEC and the FBI for Inside Trading but it is interesting that she wasn’t found guilty or accused on any of those charges; she was charge for conspiracy, obstruction of justice and false statement. It was her un-ethical behavior what drove her into innumerable allegations and public embarrassments. There are at least four issues in this case where ethics play a very interesting and critical role; Freedom of speech, Conspiracy, Right of property and Inside trading.

Fraud, lying, conspiracy...not terms that any individual generally wants associated with their history, nonetheless with their reputation and personality, especially if that individual happens to be Martha Stewart. Martha Stewart: a name which almost every person who calls themselves an American can recognize. Her name pronounces itself across cookbooks, magazines and even has its own show on Style and The Learning Channel. It now pronounces itself with yet another captivating theme, as part of one of America's major scandals.

Overview of the Case: The Securities and Exchange Commission claims Mark D. Begelman misused proprietary information regarding the merger of Bluegreen Corporation with BFC Financial Corporation. Mr. Begelman allegedly learned of the acquisition through a network of professional connections known as the World Presidents’ Organization (Maglich). Members of this organization freely share non-public business information with other members in confidence; however, Mr. Begelman allegedly did not abide by the organization’s mandate of secrecy and leveraged private information into a lucrative security transaction. As stated in the summary of the case by the SEC, “Mark D. Begelman, a member of the World Presidents’ Organization (“WPO”), abused

The global market has shown exemplary contribution to the growth of the world's development until recently where financial crisis have been bombarding most economies. As a result, the cost of livelihood had been unaffordable to many who live below the dollar. The monetary crisis has led to the lowering of many currencies against the dollar, hence advancing the economy crisis to most worldwide nations. This turn of events has been attributed to the lack of exercise of business and management ethics in many multinational companies, firms and investments. Financial scandals have been the order of the past twenty years leading to the sweep over of the flourishing global market. The scandals, especially in larger companies and multinational, are spurred by inter and intra-conflicts in their organizational structures.

Employers must always check for potential weaknesses in the internal process, and most importantly be on the lookout for fraud; early detection will minimize the impact fraud has on employees, shareholders, and stakeholders (Downing, 2015).

Insider trading – insider trading is the trading of a corporation’s stock or other securities by individuals with potential access to non-public information about the

Unethical behavior…sounds bad doesn’t it? But what employee can truly say that he is completely innocent of any unethical behavior in the workplace? Some of the most common unethical business behaviors are fudging work hours, making phone calls on business lines and photo copying of personal paperwork. Simple acts such as these are highly unlikely to have an employee face criminal charges but when the acts of embezzling money or falsifying business records are committed a company is more apt to prosecute. People have different views regarding what is ethical and what is unethical. Some feel that it’s

We chose Bernard Madoff’s case because we thought that we could relate his case to many unethical behaviors. The analysis can be made on decision making and lack of ethical training which we think is an important topic to focus on this course.

According to Johnson (2012) leaders are powerful role models, and policies will have a little effect if leaders do not follow the rules they set. In Enron case, corruption and ethical misconduct were deeply embedded in their business culture where profitability was more important than ethics. In this paper, I will address the factors that had led to the development of the culture of profit before principle at Enron. Also, I will create my personal code of ethics that will guide me in my professional and personal decision making and doing the right thing when faced with ethical challenges.

Insider dealing has been affecting the efficiency of stock markets in different places like United States, United Kingdom and Australia. Hong Kong is of no exception. Basically, insider dealing refers to the trading of a corporation’s stock or other securities by individual with potential access to non-public information of the company. The law of insider dealing in Hong Kong provides a much more detailed definition and is very comprehensive. However, when it comes to enforcement, it seems not very effective. In the following, the law of insider dealing in Hong Kong will be summarized. After analyzing the comprehensiveness of the law, the underlying reasons of the difficulty in enforcement will be identified. Some

Fraudulent, erroneous, and illegal acts committed by a public company, usually at a managerial or executive level, have been a very serious problem for many years and have prompted development of strict and updated regulations, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, in an attempt to prevent these occurrences. Unfortunately, these new or updated regulations are not enough to prevent these acts from happening, thus not alleviating the auditors of their responsibility to detect fraud. Some methods that management and auditors can employ to prevent and detect fraud, errors, and illegal acts are: improving knowledge, improving skills,

It can fairly be said that an Investor considering an investment decision (whether to purchase, sell or hold stock) in publicly traded company acts on the basis of extensive information which is available by corporation to him until the last moment of his investing decision and try to determine the fair price of corporate stock. In the light of continuous creation of a particular impression of corporate affairs by the corporation, new information by corporate can vanish the importance of previous available information to investor. In the scenario only one kind of investors can get advantage over others, who is either very close to corporate operation (corporate officers) or can access nonpublic price-sensitive information to corporation

Based on the case given, the bank controllers were only instructed to monitor the net trading positions, but not the Dalta One traders’ gross exposure. The bank controllers did not inform their supervisors when they had noticed that Kerviel’s transactions were irregularities which involved an abnormally high amounts in his transactions as that was not the specifically part of their job. Thus, Kerviel able to use his knowledge of the company control procedures to hide his fake trades with his false documents and emails.

Insider trading refers to the trading of a listed company’s stock or other financial securities by individuals who has access to non-public material information about the company. This action often occurs within employees/ex-employees of the listen company. Information is considered to be non-public material information if making it public would affect the price of securities, and using such information in decisions to buy or sell financial securities would be unfair to non-insiders (Bainbridge, 2013). Insider trading is treated as a mischief in more than 90 countries, and defendants are imposed with penalties (Beny, 2012). Specific insider conduct regulations in New Zealand were first enacted in 1988, followed by amendments in 2002, 2006 and 2008. The insider conduct regimes between 1988 and 2008 are often considered as a failure due to weak enforcements. Thus in 2008, the regulator introduced a new regime, which was a close model to the Australian insider conduct legislation. Both regimes are expansive, meaning it could be applied to any person in possession of insider information. However, while the Australian laws were aggressively enforced (more than 26 prosecutions were brought since then), no prosecutions have been launched under the new legislation in New Zealand. In addition, New Zealand also had no convictions secured prior to 2008, illustrating a clear enforcement deficit in the New Zealand

ASIC v Citigroup case was one of the biggest investment banking case of the year where the federal court dismissed ASIC’s allegation of breach of insider trading and the takeover of an advising party. Citi group received applause from commentators for their current practices, and the case fiduciary duties were affirmed upon the legal bases the investment banks and the effectiveness of the Chinese walls as a mean of dealing with potential conflicts (Ritchie 2008, p.1). Chinese walls are barriers which were formed mainly to avoid conflicts which results in ethical practices rather than separation within an organization, in this case of investment banking the Chinese walls may separate a person who possess information to make investment decision to those who make investment decisions which could influence those decisions (Tesarsch 2007, p.632).