Corruption in Corporate America

Enron was an energy trading and communications company located in Houston, Texas. During 1996-2001 Enron was given the name of America’s Most Innovative Company by Fortune magazine as it was the seventh-largest corporation in the US. The problem that led this company to bankruptcy was due to the fact that fraudulent accounting practices took place allowing Enron to overstate their earnings and tuck away their high debt liabilities in order to have a more appealing balance sheet (Forbes.com, 2002). Enron’s accounting team “cooked” the books to every meaning of the word so that their investors would not see anything wrong with the failing organization. This poorly structured company led people to jail time, unemployment, and caused retirement stocks to be dried up. Enron had a social responsibility to its stockholders and rather than being up front and honest about the failing company they hid every financial flaw in order to keep receiving money from its investors. By Enron not keeping a social

And because of that people kept buying up the stock thinking it was more valuable than gold. It eventually got up to as high as 90 dollars a share. But when this major scam was uncovered, the stock collapsed to a measly 1 dollar. In return anyone who held stock with Enron lost pretty much everything. Along with cheating the share holders out of more than 70 billion dollars, the people who worked for Enron lost almost everything as well. Thankfully this time, the individuals who ran such a crooked scheme, faced and were sentenced to jail or died shortly before they could be sentenced. These are just 3 examples of the millions of white collar crimes that have been committed. However they all have the same thing in common, Money. When people think of a white collar crime, money is always the focal point. But many white collar crimes are committed that don’t involve a large corprotations stocks or a broker committing a ponzie scheme to steal millions. While yes the major part of a white collar crime will always be money, there are other ways of committing said crimes that don’t involve stealing or manipulating the all mighty

The Gilded Age was an interesting time where the government implemented a laissez faire stance on companies and the economic world. Due to this stance there would be a frequent amount of unethical actions and policies applied to common practice for larger business. The bigger unethical players in the game included: the railroads, Tammany Hall, and even the Federal government itself.

Is there corruption in your government? I am going to argue that the United States government is corrupt.

“The evil that men do, lives after them, The good is oft’ interred with their bones”. The evil that one decides to do will be on their own conscious although it will still affect the people around them.

The story of Enron is truly remarkable. As a company it merely controlled the electricity, natural gas and communications sectors of the world. It reported (key word, reported) revenues over one hundred billion US dollars and was presented America’s Most Innovative Company by Fortune magazine for six sequential years. But, with power comes greed and Enron from its inception employed people who set their eyes upon money, prestige, power or a combination of the three. The gluttony took over sectors which the company could not operate proficiently nor successfully.

Committing a corporate crime seems tempting at times, and the culprits usually feel as if their crime is justified. They justify their choice to steal from the company by assuming that the only person who would be affected is the CEO, or somebody that would not notice a dent in their hefty salary. However, it is naive to think of these types of crimes in a way that doesn’t adequately explain the ripple affect each crime has on society.

Because power is a highly coveted asset, corruption is often intertwined with the journey in acquiring power. Because America has a two party system consisting of a Democratic Party and a Republican Party, there is much power to be obtained if one is able to secure a representative spot in either party (Tannahill 118). In particular, I believe representatives in the Republican Party are more concerned about their political seats and what power can be gained from their seats than doing what is best for their constituents. This can be seen in the public’s assessment of political parties and in the presence of crony capitalism.

Corruption is almost legal and open in political life of American. The political field of the United States is just as a big stage, on which those young talent and who are in authority, show off as an old saying expressed, “You just finished and I come on the scene”. However, there are doubts that people can hardly receive any hearing of news about a real corruption in American, for the statesman do not corrupt in any unacceptable ways. In recent years, many corruptive cases show frequent occurrence in America. It was only the tip of the iceberg. This essay gives an analysis of leadership corruption from some specific examples.

In the United States of America, a large portion of our political beliefs center around a balanced government, where no one group has complete control over the government. Where no man can change the whole of America with a swipe of a pen. But, even America, the Land of the Free, is not free from political corruption. For our government, beautiful as it may seem, hides away the evils that plague our political system. Is political corruption in the U.S.A real? Or is it simply something to laugh at on Snopes? Today, we will go over the evidence, and I think you’ll find that there is political corruption in the U.S.A.

In the Encyclopaedia of White-Collar Crime, co-authors Jurg Gerber and Eric. L Jensen define corporate crime as “violations of federal or state laws that are committed by employees on behalf of the company rather than simply for their own gain.” The definition and classification of what falls under a corporate crime is highly problematic in that corporations can afford defence lawyers that can find loopholes in the legislation in order to avoid charges. Even more perplexing, is that “corporations define the laws under which they live” according to Russell Mokhiber report’s Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the Decade (1996) published in the Corporate Crime Reporter. Mokhiber introduces the example that “the automobile industry... has worked its will on Congress to block legislation that would impose criminal sanctions on knowing and wilful

In today’s society crime occurs everyday across all aspects of life. One particular crime is that of white collar and corporate level crime. It is important that we as a society study this type of crime in depth because many individuals believe that white collar and corporate level crimes are victimless crimes when in reality they have the potential to destroy major corporations and economies all with one single case. The news or media rarely talk about this type of crime because it is often difficult to understand and individuals typically lack interest in these types of cases. One particular case is that of Jordan Belfort. Dubbed the infamous “Wolf of Wall Street” Jordan Belfort is a former stockbroker who robbed investors of over $200 million dollars to create his wealth through “pump and dump” schemes, insider trading, money laundering securities fraud, and stock-market manipulation. As an attempt to further understand these complex cases I will break down Belfort’s case as far as the methods and means as to how he got started, his use of “pump and dump” schemes and other means as to how he acquired his wealth. In addition to this I will discuss the sanctions and disciplinary action that Jordan Belfort was given, how the case affected society and what new regulations were

Enron began by merger of two Houston pipeline companies in 1985, although as a new company Enron faced a lot of financial difficulties in the starting years, though the company was able to survive these financial problems (Enron Ethics, 2010). In 1988 the deregulation of the electrical power markets came into action and flipped the company from up to down, after deregulation company business updated from delivering energy to becoming an energy broker and soon after this Enron once a company struggling

The story of Enron begins in 1985, with the merger of two pipeline companies, orchestrated by a man named Kenneth L. Lay (1). In its 15 years of existence, Enron expanded its operations to provide products and services in the areas of electricity, natural gas as well as communications (9). Through its diversification, Enron would become known as a corporate America darling (9) and Fortune Magazine’s most innovative company for 5 years in a row (10). They reported extraordinary profits in a short amount of time. For example, in 1998 Enron shares were valued at a little over $20, while in mid-2000, those same shares were valued at just over $90 (10), the all-time high during the company’s existence (9).

Unfortunately, scandals like Enron are not isolated incidents and the last decade has offered Americans a disheartening perspective with comparable scandals like that of WorldCom and Tyco, Sunbeam, Global Crossing and many more. Companies have a concrete responsibility not just to their investors but to society as a whole to have practices which deter corporate greed and looting and which actively and effectively work to prevent such things from happening. This