The Adelphia Scandal In 1952, John Rigas purchased his own cable company. By the late 1990's, he had turned it into the sixth largest cable company in the United States with 5.6 million customers. The business was always run as a family style business which led to fraudulent acts among family members and upper level executives. The family has been accused of stealing $3.1 billion from Adelphia and is now facing criminal charges. Adelphia was forced to file chapter 11 bankruptcy and as of April 24, 2004, the new board of directors made the decision to break up the company and sell it. The Adelphia scandal is morally wrong because the Rigas family coerced and exploited employees, harmed all stakeholders as well as stockholders, and …show more content…
In addition, the Rigas family harmed all the stakeholders. Stakeholders are those "groups who have a specific stake in or claim on the firm. Specifically suppliers, customers, employees, stockholders, and local community, as well as management" (Freeman 56). Adelphia Coliseum, now renamed The Coliseum, had to be renamed because of Adelphia's bankruptcy. Adelphia Coliseum was a stakeholder. This made everyone who utilized the stadium a stakeholder as well. The stakeholders were harmed because when Adelphia went bankrupt, the coliseum was not completely paid for. Therefore, they had to find alternative ways to pay for the coliseum. The Rigas family was the manager of Adelphia and had a fiduciary responsibility to the stakeholders. This scandal was immoral because Adelphia did not fulfill their responsibilities to their stakeholders when it was their duty. According to Milton Friedman, "stockholders are the owners of the corporation, and hence corporate profits belong to the stockholders. Managers have a moral obligation to manage the firm in the interest of the stockholders" (Friedman 45). Adelphia was managed in such a way that it was not in the stockholder's interest, in fact, it was only managed in the interest of the Rigas family. It is wrong to harm the stockholders because they have entrusted the company with their money with an expected return and maybe an
The mistrust most Americans feel toward the government officials and political parities of today can be traced back to the Watergate scandal of 1972, which led to the resignation of an American president. The crimes of the Watergate scandal included political burglary, bribery, extortion, wiretapping (phone tapping), conspiracy, obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, tax fraud, illegal use of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), illegal campaign contributions, and use of taxpayers' money for private purposes.
In the March of the early 2000s, Adelphia officials was charged with stealing on what could be classified as a “grand scale” event. Around that same time, the company
As a publicly-traded corporation, Adelphia, Inc. was one of the largest providers of cable services in the United States. After the company went public, it was learned that the company had materially
A defining moment in American history, the Watergate scandal, dramatically transformed the way Americans view politicians and government. In the eyes of most Americans, trust, honor and integrity, vanished from the political landscape.
In 2011 head coach Joe Paterno of Pennsylvania State University was fired after a scandal involving Jerry Sandusky brought to light allegations of child sexual abuse that had been in the shadows for as many as 30 plus years without any discipline. After Sandusky was found guilty and sentenced to 30-60 years, some question whether this incident could have been prevented and why it was kept secret for so many years. The Sandusky scandal is a good example of a concept called Groupthink proposed by Irvan Janis (1982) “that describes a dysfunctional group process that can occur when group members focus on being cohesive, do not express disagreement or think critically, and as a result, make bad decisions”. In my paper I will highlight the concepts
Lucas, K., & Fyke, J. P. (2014). Euphemisms and ethics: A language-centered analysis of Penn State's Sexual Abuse Scandal. Journal of Business Ethics, 122(4), 551-569. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1777-0
Currently in the news, there is a major event that pertains to the topic of the psychology of trauma. This event is the investigation of Jerry Sandusky and his alleged conviction of sexual abuse. Jerry Sandusky, an assistant football coach at Penn State University, has been accused of sexually abusing boys in the basement of his home and in the school workout room and locker room. This investigation was triggered by one of the victims who went to the police and since then, more victims have come out as well. This boy stated that the attacks lasted for about four years. Jerry Sandusky met the boys though a foundation he started to help at-risk youths in 1977 called The Second Mile. So far there have been eight
Watergate is the popular name for the political scandal and constitutional crisis that began with the arrest of five burglars who broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office in Washington D.C. on the night of June 17, 1972. It ended with the resignation of president Richard M. Nixon. The burglars and two co-potters-G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt were indicated on charges of burglary, conspiracy, and wiretapping. Four monthes later, they were convicted and sentenced to prison terms by District Court Judge John J. Sirica, who was convicted that pertinent details had not been unveiled during the trial and proffered leniency in exchange for further information. As it
five men after they were arrested at the Watergate” (Internet, Lukas). I think that in this
Elad's shameful scandal: Deputy mayor of Elad and local Shas chairman Zuriel Krispal attacked the Elad high school directors this morning (Wednesday). His attack follows the report in the "Kikar HaShabbat" website where a mere month before the new school term, one hundred girls were rejected by the two local high schools. Krispal called upon Mayor Yisroel Porush to intervene, and the Ministry of Education to close the two schools.
The company’s stakeholders include primary groups of customers, employees, shareholders, owners, suppliers, etc. and secondary groups of community. All stakeholders have their own self-interests. While employees want secure jobs with high earnings; customers want quality products with cheap prices, which may eventually result in the company and employees’ low income. Being said that, the corporation owes all stakeholders the obligations to meet their interests. That brings in the ethical issue of conflicts of interest, one of key problems at Enron. CFO Andrew Fastow created financial partnership to hide Enron debt, from which he allegedly collected $30 million in management fees. The action obviously made Enron financial data look good, but at the same time deceived the company’s investors about the real performance. Many investors may make their investing decisions based on those false data. And that’s when the collapse begins.
The term “Watergate” has become a common household name in correlation with people's thoughts about corruption in government. President Nixon was in office at the time of this scandal and is often thought to be the most famous face in America's conspiracy of wickedness in the government. The Watergate scandal had rocked everything our country thought we knew about the American Presidency because it had forfeited the common vision of the leader of the nation. Watergate had replaced the image of elegance and worldliness of the U.S. President with a scattered vision of corruption and extreme competitive measures that the country had never been a part of. Richard Nixon and his men had taken
I don’t agree with Dunlap’s view that shareholders are the only constituencies about which corporate directors and executives should be concerned. In light of agents’ obligations to principals, managers are supposed act in the best interest of the company’s shareholders, the major capital providers, when making decisions; however, as shareholders and stakeholders interests are to a large extent compatible, especially from a long-term perspective, managers should also take into consideration the interests of multiple constituencies when operating a company. For example, both shareholders and customers may benefit from a company’s successful research and
The executives are accountable to the board of directors. Instead of protecting the investors, the board enticed the culture of financial fraud in the company for selfish gains. It failed in its duties in keeping the executives in check.
In 2002 the Hershey trust company board decided to sell school shares from Hershey stock. The board wanted to sell the 33% of Hershey shares at premium and reinvest the money in another company to make profit for the school. The board was responsible to oversees the investment and make sure the school was doing fine. Looking on this issue as financial personnel the board decision was better to sell stocks at premium and reinvest in another company.