White collar crime can be described as illegal acts, performed by educated people, for personal or organizational gain resulting from deception (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2013). With the growth in technology and globalization, individuals often discover loop holes in order to achieve internet fraud, credit card fraud, and healthcare fraud, in addition to insider trading. In addition, good people can be influenced into making bad decisions by following leaders within their organization. Therefore, I believe that white collar crime, for the most part, is the result of a weak organizational code of ethics, providing that a code may exist but not necessarily followed. Therefore, it is very important to instill a strong code of cultural
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I consider this situation to stem from the ethical values of egoism, which grew with Madoff ability to convince investors to join his organization (Oyedele, 2017). While employing a select group of people who did not realize that a Ponzi scheme was taking place, others within the organization were influenced by the leadership of Madoff to aid in the misrepresentation of his firm. Therefore, Madoff’s leadership and unethical code led his employees down the path of destruction, in addition to committing white collar crimes, such as …show more content…
Although Wells Fargo tried to take advantage of the situation of employee’s unethical practices of opening bank accounts without proper authorization, it was ultimately the Wells Fargo executives that were letting the situation happen. In order to retain their reputation, Wells Fargo fired thousands of employees and agreed to pay a large fine, all done without ever having to admit any guilt. However, the bank’s executive for the retail banking system, Carrie Tolstedt, was allowed to retire early, taking with her a massive amount of money earned from salary and bonuses from the years of questionable activity. Although, Wells Fargo portrayed the ethical stance that it was the employees who were not following company protocol, the employees claimed that they were pressured into making such unethical decisions of opening false accounts due to the pressure instilled for making a profit. Therefore, it would appear that the organization, along with the employees, were cohorts in committing unethical acts, maybe even encouraged, further demonstrating that a code of conduct can exist without being
I consider this situation to stem from the ethical values of egoism, which grew with Madoff ability to convince investors to join his organization (Oyedele, 2017). While employing a select group of people who did not realize that a Ponzi scheme was taking place, others within the organization were influenced by the leadership of Madoff to aid in the misrepresentation of his firm. Therefore, Madoff’s leadership and unethical code led his employees down the path of destruction, in addition to committing white collar crimes, such as …show more content…
Although Wells Fargo tried to take advantage of the situation of employee’s unethical practices of opening bank accounts without proper authorization, it was ultimately the Wells Fargo executives that were letting the situation happen. In order to retain their reputation, Wells Fargo fired thousands of employees and agreed to pay a large fine, all done without ever having to admit any guilt. However, the bank’s executive for the retail banking system, Carrie Tolstedt, was allowed to retire early, taking with her a massive amount of money earned from salary and bonuses from the years of questionable activity. Although, Wells Fargo portrayed the ethical stance that it was the employees who were not following company protocol, the employees claimed that they were pressured into making such unethical decisions of opening false accounts due to the pressure instilled for making a profit. Therefore, it would appear that the organization, along with the employees, were cohorts in committing unethical acts, maybe even encouraged, further demonstrating that a code of conduct can exist without being