During the summer and fall of 2014, Sirius XM, an American satellite radio broadcasting company, was found guilty of consumer fraud. The company’s means of fraud included, but was not limited to, misleading advertisements and unfulfilled promises. After many consumer complaints, the issue was taken to court. There, 45 United States Attorney Generals announced that Sirius XM Satellite Radio was guilty of misleading, unfair, and deceptive practices which violated state consumer protection laws (Hood, 2014). During the act of defrauding customers, the company also engaged in unethical business behaviors. Due to the fraudulent and unethical decisions and actions made by Sirius XM, the company will most likely forever be looked at through a different …show more content…
Given the amount of complaints filed by many Sirius XM consumers, it is fair to state that a majority, if not all, affected subscribers agree that Sirius XM’s actions fell under the umbrella of consumer fraud. Subscribers would also agree that the company’s actions were unethical, given the fact that they knowingly embezzled $3.8 billion from their customers (Hood, 2014). As for Sirius XM’s perspective, they knew their business practices were wrong, yet they continued to short their customers anyways. In cases where businesses commit consumer fraud, they often believe that it is worth shortening their customers in order to gain additional profit (Jacoby & Meyers, n.d.). This was exactly the case for Sirius XM. Rather than focusing on how they were harming their customers through the use of consumer fraud, the satellite-radio company realized how much additional profit they could potentially make. Even if Sirius XM attempted to argue that they did not know they were committing consumer fraud, it would be known that the company was lying. As any business, let alone a very large and well-known business, it would be very hard to embezzle billions of dollars from consumers without the workers of the company or the company as a whole knowing. With the amount of Sirius XM workers responsible for the company’s accounting, it is almost impossible that over 3 billion dollars was unknowingly gained as profit. Sirius XM obviously knew and planned to embezzle this money from their subscribers, regardless of whether they admitted their wrongs or attempted to claim the embezzlement was an accident. Due to the fact that Sirius XM purposefully committed this illegal crime and victimized their own consumers, it can easily be concluded that their actions were without a doubt
By deliberately falsification of their financial statements, by Martin Grass, Brown and Bergonzi. Among other things like:
Founded in 1966 and based in Calgary, Shaw Communications is a Canadian telecommunications company that provides telephone, Internet and television services as well as mass media related services. The Company operated through three principal business segments such as Cable, consisted of cable television, Internet, Digital Phone and Shaw Business operations. Satellite, consisted of direct-to-home (DTH) and Satellite Services. Lastly media consisted of television broadcasting. Shaw Media operates as conventional television networks in Canada, Global Television, and numerous specialty networks. It provides customers with entertainment, information and communications services, utilizing a variety of distribution
I am writing to address some concerns I have about the future of your company, Martha Stewart Omnimedia (MSO). Perhaps the one issue that you are grappling with at present is about the Imclone scandal. You have been accused of selling $227,000 worth of Imclone stock based on inside information. Because of these charges of insider trading, your critics have summarily associated you with other disgraced company directors: Kenneth Lay of Enron and Bernard Ebbers of WorldCom. But the strange thing about your case is that while other CEOs have been charged for making use of their own companies to gain profit for themselves, you, on the other hand, have not purposefully misled investors or doctored MSO’s accounts.
Case 5.3: Getting the Message (Northouse, 2013) demonstrates an example of situational management. In summary, Ann Calbera is a program manager of a college campus radio station (WCBA). The radio station has a strong pipeline of student workers who value the media experience from working at the station. As a program manager, Ann is well respected, takes great pride in developing relationships with the student workers and allows them to be creative which the students respond positively to leadership style. However, the student workers have a lack of understanding on how their behavior negatively impacts the station and violates FCC rules by which the station is governed by. Even though Ann provides the students with a detailed policy and procedures handout, FCC violations still occur on a regular basis which result in illegal practices and consequences.
Satellite radio is a technology that provides a radically new way to listen to radio. XM’s service makes use of advanced satellite capabilities and elaborates terrestrial receiver architecture to deliver a wide array of high quality radio programming nationwide. In early 1998, Robert Acker, director of strategic planning at XM, needs to develop a marketing strategy for this new radio service. There are several decisions that need to be made by the company in order to finalize the business plan. At fist XM needs to decide which of two business models to pursue, whether emphasis should be placed on charging customers a monthly subscription fee, or whether to rely more on earning revenue through advertising. In addressing this problem, management must consider the value that XM radio could propose for different consumer segments as compared with existing modes of radio (AM, FM) and in relation to its sole competitor in satellite radio – SIRIUS. Besides choosing a business model there is also a need to explore how best to approach and leverage manufacturer and channel partners, considering high unknown and high-risk technology. The purpose of this report is to analyze possibilities and outline possible recommendation on strategies for XM Radio. The following areas will be examined:
In modern day business, there can be so many pressures that can cause managers to commit fraud, even though it often starts as just a little bit at first, but will spiral out of control with time. In the case of WorldCom, there were several pressures that led executives and managers to “cook the books.” Much of WorldCom’s initial growth and success was due to acquisitions. Over time, WorldCom discovered that there were no more opportunities for growth through acquisitions when the U.S. Department of Justice disallowed the acquisition of Sprint.
Rinallo, D., Basuroy, S., Wu, R., & Jeon, H. J. (2013). The media and their advertisers: Exploring ethical dilemmas in product coverage decisions. Journal of Business Ethics, 114(3), 425-441. doi:10.1007/s10551-012-1353-z
When the word monopoly is spoken most immediately think of the board game made by Parker Brothers in which each player attempts to purchase all of the property and utilities that are available on the board and drive other players into bankruptcy. Clearly the association between the board game and the definition of the term are literal. The term monopoly is defined as "exclusive control of a commodity or service in a particular market, or a control that makes possible the manipulation of prices" (Dictionary.com, 2008). Monopolies were quite common in the early days when businesses had no guidelines whatsoever. When the U.S. Supreme Court stepped into break up the Standard Oil business in the late 1800’s and enacted the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 (Wikipedia 2001), it set forth precedent for many cases to be brought up against it for years to come.
I understand that companies such as Avid Life Media only provide the services for consumers to enjoy. So, it is up to the customer to decide if they want to interact with companies that provide products or services deemed socially irresponsible by some groups. I think the Avid Life Media Company promote values that diminish the integrity of their organization as well as stakeholders. Decisions made by people within the organization have inferences for shareholders, employees, consumers, and community (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2013). Avid Life Media provide services that openly support individuals who participate in infidelity acts. The company commits unacceptable behaviors such as providing people with an email address that their spouses
...ces and the tough decisions executives must make between the delicate balance of production costs and quality. We learned a lot through this case, including the process following the unearthing of a large-scale fraud by a leading baby food producer. Even though the executives and the company got away with their fraudulent behavior for a good amount of time, eventually their actions were brought to light and not only did they face the consequences of their actions, the company’s reputation suffered tremendously due to their choices. Additionally, we gained a greater understanding of the fraud triangle and how intense external and internal pressure can create the need to make unethical decisions. Lastly, we learned that fraud does not only consist of the misappropriation of assets. In this case the fraud was purposeful misrepresentation of information and not assets.
The twenty year journey of Blockbuster has not been without bumps, valleys, road blocks, and detours. Blockbuster has come under legal fire from Netflix, a major online competitor, the Free Trade Commission for attempting a host...
CEO Kenneth Lay’s ambition for ENRON a company he had helped form went beyond the business of piping gas. Enron went to become the largest natural gas merchant in North America and the United Kingdom. But the reality is, this company business model never worked. This was a company that was so desperate to win Wall Street 's respect that it kept it stocks shares prices going up despite the losses it was incurring in order for executives to keep lining their own pockets. Over the course of this Case Assignment, I will identify the examples of financial reporting misconduct, I will explain the deontological as well as a utilitarian ethical perspective and lastly I will identify the stakeholders likely to be affected by that misconduct.
Shih, W., Kaufman, S., & Spinola, D. (2009, April 27). Netflix. Harvard Business School Case 607-138, p. 1-15. Retrieved from http://embadu.com/sites/default/files/Netflix.pdf
To conclude business organizations do not have the right to deceive individuals and consumers in specific because Albert Carr’s claim that business is a game cannot be justifiable and supported with reasons that may harm or the community and its people. However, I do believe that business organizations should be socially responsible and that would help them maximize profits in the long run (Lauren, 2011)
By influencing the market falsely is unethical and wrong. That is also why their punishment was so harsh.