Henry Blodget Unethical Research Behavior

This now bankrupt company, misappropriated investments, pension funds, stock options and saving plans after deregulation and little oversight by the federal government. However, with deregulation an increasing competitive culture emerged as the CEO Jeffry Skilling motto to his organization was to “do it right, do it now, and do it better” this was the rally cried that pushed ambitious employees to engage in unethical behavior as Enron use deceptive “accounting methods to maintain its investment grade status” (Sims, & Brinkmann, 2003, pp.244-245). As Enron continued to flourish and received accolades from the business community this recognition drove executives to continue the façade of bending ethical guidelines before their public fall from

Between the years 2000 and 2002 there were over a dozen corporate scandals involving unethical corporate governance practices. The allegations ranged from faulty revenue reporting and falsifying financial records, to the shredding and destruction of financial documents (Patsuris, 2002). Most notably, are the cases involving Enron and Arthur Andersen. The allegations of the Enron scandal went public in October 2001. They included, hiding debt and boosting profits to the tune of more than one billion dollars. They were also accused of bribing foreign governments to win contacts and manipulating both the California and Texas power markets (Patsuris, 2002). Following these allegations, Arthur Andersen was investigated for, allegedly,

What aspects of the schemes described in this case were: a) unethical, b) illegal, and/or c) fraudulent?

When Ms. Stewart found out about the investigation, her first instinct was to lie and try to cover up the fact that her broker gave her before hand knowledge about the soon to be falling Imclone stocks. I believe this case and investigation was tried out in the media

More than a decade ago, one of the most commanding corporations in modern American history filed for bankruptcy. Enron, a seemingly invulnerable company would eventually provoke sweeping changes in regulation that controls the management and accounting of public companies even to this day. The Enron scandal has come to be known as one of the prime audit failures of all time and serves as a classic example of corporate greed and corruption. However, for the generation that watched in horror as corporations such as Enron fell along with the stock market, this scandal is slowly becoming just that: history. And for the newer generation of college students like me, it is almost ancient history. Despite the time that separates us from this scandal, it has never been more important to remember the lessons learned and best understand how the adoption of The Clarkson Principles can guide our careers in the business sector.

executives were accused of overstating revenue from software licenses in collusion with executives from PurchasePro Inc.AOL sold the software licenses for PurchasePro. The parties were accused of deceptive accounting practices that resulted in investors believing that the sales projections of PurchasePro had been met when they had not and the result was that the stock prices of PurchasePro were inflated and overstated by 37% in the first quarter of 2001. Out of court settlements were reached by AOL and executives including a $210 million fine in order to avoid being criminally and civilly prosecuted. The defendants in this case who did not accept plea agreements were found to be 'not guilty' and this is stated to be due to the lack of documentation of what had occurred on AOL's networking and computer systems.

The first stated values, states that Wells Fargo’s value open, honest and two communication, which did open a hotline dealing after the scandal and handle the customer service. Though, I would not consider that company honest, but maybe openness after the fact. The second state values is based on accountable and proud of their conduct and decision dealing with Wells Fargo’s. Though, Wells Fargo is unethical in it business practices still used well known business practices and process to motivate salespeople open multiple accounts without the customer permission. Such as training employee in techniques into frauding customers and a system of rewarding for such behavior. Which shows a totally disregard for the customer financial well being

In the early 1990s, a young company named Enron was quickly moving up Fortune magazine’s chart of “America’s Most Innovative Company.” As the corporate world began to herald Enron as the next global leader in business, a dark secret loomed on the horizon of this great energy company. Aggressive entrepreneurs eager to push the company’s stock price higher and a series of fraudulent accounting procedures involving special purpose entities were about to be exposed. In early 2002, the United States Justice Department announced its intent to pursue a criminal investigation into the once mighty company, Enron.

Ethical behavior is behavior that a person considers to be appropriate. A person’s moral principals are shaped from birth, and developed overtime throughout the person’s life. There are many factors that can influence what a person believes whats is right, or what is wrong. Some factors are a person’s family, religious beliefs, culture, and experiences. In business it is of great importance for an employee to understand how to act ethically to prevent a company from being sued, and receiving criticism from the public while bringing in profits for the company. (Mallor, Barnes, Bowers, & Langvardt, 2010) Business ethics is when ethical behavior is applied in an business environment, or by a business. There are many

When it comes to the risk of investment, the valuation of the firm was requested to be estimated at a high level. However, the market could not respond aggressively

Analyst , on average , viewed the company not as much appealing at the lower price. On the other hand, back in the end of August 2000, analyst were

Even the small profits reported by Enron in 2000 were eventually determined to be only a illusion by court-appointed bankruptcy examiner Neal Batson. Batson’s report reveals that over 95% of the reported profits in these two years were attributed to Enron’s misuse of MTM and other accounting techniques. But while financial analysts could not be expected to know that the company illegally manipulated the earnings, the reported profit margins in 2000 were so low and were declining so steadily that they should have merited ample skepticism from analysts about the company’s profits.

Question 1 Summarize 1 one page how you would explain Enron’s ethical meltdown: Enron was an energy company founded by Kenneth Lay in 1985 through a merger of vast networks of natural gas lines. Enron specialized in wholesale, natural gas, and electricity, and made its money as a wholesaler between suppliers and customers rather than actually owning any. Enron in fact didn’t own any assets, which made their accounting procedures very unusual. The lack of accounting transparency at Enron allowed the company’s managers to make Enron’s financial performance better than it actually was. The organizational culture at Enron was to blame for it’s ethical meltdown. Enron’s accounting scheme slowly began to erode its ethical practices, which soon led the culture of Enron to become a more aggressive and misleading business practice. Enron reported profits from joint partnerships that were not yet attained in order to keep stock prices up (or make wall street happy). As this was happening employees began to notice the ethics in senior management (leadership) deteriorating, and soon after they to would follow in their footsteps. Senior management thought they were saving their company from financial ruin and though lying was ok if it meant saving the company. Investors would surely sell their stocks if they really knew the situation the

Wall Street can have a heavy influence on a company such as Enron's ethical standings. During the Enron debacle, Wall Street played a key role in the decision-making process for the leadership team of Enron. Wall Street roles in determining Enron's overall value as the company influenced Enron to push the boundaries of ethical standards. During the trial of Enron's executive's former Internet division chief of Enron Ken Rice testified: "That he and his co-conspirators chose to lie about their network's capabilities to gain credibility on Wall Street and boost Enron's stock value." (Flood, 2005) Enron's decision to inflate their values to Wall Street did exactly what the company executives wanted and the company's stock value skyrocketed. "Wall Street obediently obliged, inflating Enron's share value by as much as 75% from the time the company started bragging about its prospects." (Lashinsky, 2001) When Enron's bubble finally burst and

Enron's entire scandal was based on a foundation of lies characterized by the most brazen and most unethical accounting and business practices that will forever have a place in the hall of scandals that have shamed American history. To the outside, Enron looked like a well run, innovative company. This was largely a result of self-created businesses or ventures that were made "off the balance sheet." These side businesses would sell stock, reporting profits, but not reporting losses. "Treating these businesses "off the balance sheet" meant that Enron pretended that these businesses were autonomous, separate firms. But, if the new business made money, Enron would report it as income. If the new business lost money or borrowed money, the losses and debt were not reported by Enron" (mgmtguru.com). As the Management Guru website explains, these tactics were alls designed to make Enron look like a more profitable company and to give it a higher stock price.