(A Roundup of Quotable Notes from our Bloggers)
Notice how thin the line is getting between propriety and unethical/illegal behavior in today’s business miasma? The shameless chase for personal wealth takes on many dimensions.
Our blogger contributors—highly alert for signals of such compromising behaviors—have been chatting among themselves.
Joe Koletar: “The December 10 issue of the Wall Street Journal (page C-3) tells about Jonathan Hoffman, a global rates trader for Lehman. Hoffman received an $84 million bonus and is now arguing that he now deserves a SECOND $84 million bonus from Barclays, because they bought Lehman. Forget psychology! …(An aside: 30+ years ago, Mark Mosely, the great kicker for the Washington Redskins, had a clause in his contract that he would get of $50K bonus if he broke the NFL record for field goals in a season. After breaking that record, he kicked six more field goals, and his lawyer argued that he deserved $350K, since he broke the record seven times.”
These examples seem legal. Are they ethical?
Joe Koletar (again): “The next day, the Wall Street Journal publishes an article entitled ‘Ruling Puts Dent in Insider Probes,’ where the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is reported to have reversed two insider trading convictions. The ruling created what I call the ‘barroom/frat brother’ rule: If the person disclosing insider information doesn’t realize they are breaching their fiduciary responsibility and gets no financial benefit from so doing, the other person receiving the information is free to act on it.”
Is that court making unethical AND illegal actions legal, now?
And then Joe sparked a series of comments about a third and illuminating article—to be posted next.
Join us for more insights into behavioral forensics (behind fraud and similar white collar crimes) from the authors of ABCs of Behavioral Forensics (Wiley, 2013): Sri Ramamoorti, Ph. D., Daven Morrison, M.D., and Joe Koletar, D.P.A., along with Vic Hartman, J.D. These distinguished experts come from the disciplines of psychology, medicine, accounting, law, and law enforcement to explain and prevent fraud. Because we are inspired to bring to light and address the fraud problems in today’s headlines, we encourage our readers to come back and revisit us regularly at BringingFreudtoFraud.com.