Scott Nette's The Home Depot

Question 1. Assess Home Depot’s financial performance from 1986 to 1999. What explains the decline in performance in 2000? (See Question #1 Exhibit)

He transferred funds from WHA to his personal bank account and other accounts he had access and control too. Richard understated the amount of unpaid payroll taxes of WHA and its subsidiaries and by overstating the amount of loans made by him to WHA. As a result the financial statements and records were manipulated. He also directed purchasers of new issued shares to transfer the funds of the shares to accounts under his control. Around $6 million was taken and spent. The market value of WHA and the earnings per share were also inflated and overstated as well. This happened because of Richard falsely giving records to the SEC, WHA shareholders, and perspective new purchasers of stock by understating the real number of outstanding shares in the company’s financial statements. World Health Alternatives lost $41 million in total from all of the fraudulent activity.

In today’s ever changing and competitive modern world of business, it is critical for the companies to have activities internationally. In order to prohibit frauds and illegal activities, several acts and documents have been elaborated. One of the documents is Foreign Corrupt Practices Act that has been enacted in the 1970’s, as a result of SEC investigation of several U.S. companies that made illegal payments to foreign governmental officials, politicians, and political parties (Barnes 73). The FCPA had a critical impact on the way U.S. firms do business. Companies that did not comply with FCPA have been subject of criminal and civil enforcement actions that later resulted in huge fines and sentences for

In September 2005, a former senior executive from Wal-Mart de Mexico sent an email to a high-ranking Wal-Mart lawyer, referencing on how Wal-Mart de Mexico had bribed foreign officials to expedite permits to win market control in Mexico. The emails and subsequent conversations gave specific names, dates and bribe amounts. Wal-Mart followed up with an internal investigation and eventually found a paper trail of suspect payments. In addition, they found documentation implicating that, not only did the top Wal-Mart de Mexico executives know about the payments, but they had also taken pre-cautions to hide them. The lead investigator documented the findings by stating

The Tweed Ring scandal in New York began with William "Boss" Tweed. William is remembered for patronizing of his Tammany Hall political machine. He used it to gain massive sums of money during the Reconstruction. It was unfair, disguised, and very illegal. All of the cash he made was dirty and not legal, yet he managed to get away with this scheme from 1856 all the way until 1873.

According to Benston (1977) an unaware public pays for government-required accounting disclosure. Sunstein (1999) claims that disclosure of information allows the federal government to control public and private conduct. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Over the decades accounting regulations have come from various sources. The Securities and Exchange Commission as well as the Internal Revenue Service and Interstate Commerce Commission are examples of regulatory bodies that promulgate accounting regulations. A more recent example occurred during the 1970s. During the Watergate era there were a number of investigations, some of which affected American business. One of the investigations, conducted by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 1975, revealed that 19 publiclyheld corporations had made illegal campaign contributions and that these contributions were made from cash accounts that had not been recorded on the corporation’s books. (Heldack, 1977) This prompted the SEC to launch an investigation into what were considered ―questionable payments.‖ What came out of the investigation was that many U.S. multinational corporations were making hundreds of millions of dollars in ―questionable payments‖ to foreign officials to obtain business. As a result, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) was unanimously adopted by Congress in 1977. Bribery of foreign officials to obtain business for the corporation

There have been countless cases where police officers have been tied to which relate to the theft of evidence, weapons, drugs and other items from the evidence room (Vibes). One of these cases was in Brooklyn, Illinois, where the Police Department was raided by a number of other law enforcement agencies and local news crews witnessed police from different agencies carrying equipment, computers, weapons and records out of the building and driving away with them to find evidence. (Vibes). What is even worse is when someone high in the government takes bribes because of greed. One major example of this is when Spiro T. Agnew was caught. He was an American politician who served as the 39th Vice President of the United States, under President Richard Nixon (Trex). Agnew had accepted a massive $147,500 in bribes while serving as Maryland's governor and the Vice President (Trex). This show even the highest people can have greed, like Agnew.

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been pursued by government agencies recently as the SEC, the FBI, and Department of Justice are cracking down on international business corruption. Companies are working harder at expanding economically in the market by doing business with individuals and other companies in foreign countries. Foreign countries are not always in compliance with US laws and regulations, causing US companies who deal with them issues with compliance on the home front. Because of these ongoing issues congress decided to introduce the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and to prosecute foreign companies for corrupt activities within the United States. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is a federal law that was amended in 1977,

Bribery weakens competition and diminishes free trade which can affect companies, shareholders, and stakeholders. Jacob Franklin knowingly extended bribes to governments and contractors while knowing it was against company policy. Jacob engaged in bribery even though he knew it was wrong because he was advised that it was common practice at Richard Drilling. “In 1977, President Carter signed the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The law made it illegal to bribe foreign officials. The maximum punishments for violators were set at $100,000 and 5 years in jail. Companies can be fined millions” (Bredeson, 2012, p.301). Not only was extending the bribe against company policy, it was against law and could cost Jacob and Richardson Drilling money and freedom.

In 1977, Congress passed the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which makes it unlawful for U.S. businesspersons or companies to pay, with money or anything else of value, to foreign officials to secure beneficial contracts. The anti-bribery requirements of the FCPA have applied to all U.S. persons since 1977. In 1998, certain amendments were revised and the anti-bribery requirements now apply to foreign firms and persons who cause an act in continuance of bribery within the United States. The government was attempting to restricted illegal behavior, which is why they implemented the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act after the SEC discovered that over 400 companies were sending corrupt payments to foreign government officials and

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977- is a U.S. Federal Law that prohibits any U.S. citizen from bribing a foreign official for the purpose of obtaining

(Wells, 2011, p. 241). Bribery can come in many different forms but generally is defined as an act in which something of value is offered, given, received or solicited with the intent of influencing an official act. Illegal gratuities can be similar to bribes except these are usually given as a reward. Economic extortion is basically the demanding of money. “A conflict of interest occurs when an employee, manager, or executive has an undisclosed economic or personal interest in a transaction that adversely affects the organization.” (Wells, 2011, p. 242). These are not all corruption schemes that exist but have been determined to be more common than others and ones that should definitely be watched for when completing an audit or a full financial status review.

Many companies are trying to expand economically in the market by doing business with an individual or another company in foreign countries. These businesses are engaging in into using improper ways of payments that are leading to secret bribes to the foreign public officials. Foreign countries are not always in compliance with the laws and they tend not to follow them. Having these problems with the US and all the millions of dollars that have been passed they wanted to take a more affirmative approach and be able to correct the problem. That is when congress decided to introduce the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act to prosecute foreign companies for corrupt payments within the United States. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is a federal

The Home Depot provided a different kind of home improvement store that was unmatched, because of their ability to sell to retailers and individuals, while fitting the needs of both. Smaller scale stores were around, but the massive supplies and range of choices the brand offered were unmatched. The current mission statement according to their corporate website is, “to provide the highest level of service, the broadest selection of products and the most competitive prices.” Based off of their website, I have come to the conclusion that they target hard working men. They seem to focus on community outreach and military outreach specifically. A lot of their websites designs cater to the purpose of their business. References and

Home Depot 's target market is individual homeowners/small contractors. Even though the traditional ideology is that cost leadership and product differentiation business strategies are mutually exclusive, Home Depot was successful at using a combination strategy. First, Home Depot optimized the cost leadership strategy by offering low and competitive prices to its customers by emphasizing higher sales volumes with lower margins, while instituting a high inventory turnover. Home Depot successfully offered a warehouse product strategy to the individual consumer for the first time. Previously, this type of price discounting was only available to professional contractors who earned product price