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Companies and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
Companies and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
Companies and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
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Whistle blowing has often been viewed as a negative connotation to describe someone who chooses to unveil facts or practices in an organization, be it federal, public, private, or non-profit, in order to make known these evidences to the public or governing authority. It has only been fairly recently in history that whistle blowing has started to be seen as a positive entity that exists to hold organizations accountable for the choices they make. “Whistleblowers are people who decide to report unethical or illegal activities, usually activities under the control of their employers” (Halbert and Ingulli, 2012). The antithetical to a whistleblower would be someone who does not to report an illegal activity or an unethical practice, but decides …show more content…
As Chief trader Nordgaard was directly related to the practices of the company and it was part of his job description to oversee the trades that were occurring for this company. His job was directly related to the illegal trading that was taking place. Because of this Nordgaard was justified in disclosing the fraud and it was in his best interest to be disloyal to Paradigm. As Chief trader he would be found guilty of not disclosing this information if an audit were to find the malpractice of not getting the consent of the …show more content…
Nordgaard received after being identified as a whistleblower. Weir apologized to the SEC regarded the illegal trades and paid their fine and assured them it would correct the practice. However, Weir retaliated against Mr. Nordgaard and was found to be in violation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. “On July 17, the day after he revealed himself as a whistleblower, Pardigm informed the whistleblower that he would be removed from Pardigm’s trading desk and temporarily relieved him of his day-to-day trading and supervisory responsibilities…Pardigm further directed the whistleblower to work offsite...between July 18 and July 20, Paradigm, on the advice of counsel, denied the whistleblower access to certain Pardigm trading and account systems…denied the whistleblower to his existing e-mail account…(Mont, 2014). Mr. Nordgaard eventually resigned because it was clear Pardigm was not going to allow him to work at their company with the proper resources and equipment needed to do his work. These actions were a direct violation of the SOX and received consequences and independent advisors to monitor their
However, it may not be the best solution to be used first when dealing with unethical corporate practices. From more of a Utilitarian approach one should seek to do the greatest good. An approach that gives the company a chance to change its unethical behavior internally would follow this idea. Having the ability to change practices internally before outside intervention can have many positive effects. The company is able to make the changes, reestablish its integrity, maintain business, and retain employees. The whistleblowing option brings in outside forces that could lead to repercussions for the company which may include restitution or even being closed down. If the business is closed it effects more than just the corporate entity, all of the employees are also negatively impacted by this as well when they would lose their jobs. Sometimes however, when the company is unwilling to change its practices and do business in a more ethical manner people are left with little choice but to report to outside sources what is occurring within the business. Many see whistleblowing as law-breaking when employees are contractually obligated to
Overview of the Case: The Securities and Exchange Commission claims Mark D. Begelman misused proprietary information regarding the merger of Bluegreen Corporation with BFC Financial Corporation. Mr. Begelman allegedly learned of the acquisition through a network of professional connections known as the World Presidents’ Organization (Maglich). Members of this organization freely share non-public business information with other members in confidence; however, Mr. Begelman allegedly did not abide by the organization’s mandate of secrecy and leveraged private information into a lucrative security transaction. As stated in the summary of the case by the SEC, “Mark D. Begelman, a member of the World Presidents’ Organization (“WPO”), abused his relationship of trust and confidence and misappropriated material, non-public information he obtained from a fellow WPO member about the pending merger. It was the specific written policy of the WPO that matters of a confidential nature were to be kept confidential (Securities and Exchange Commission). Mr. Begelman maintained a relationship with a fellow WPO member, an insider with BFC Financial, who provided access to non-public information regarding the merger. Mr. Begelman used this information to purchase 25,000 shares of Bluegreen stock prior to the announcement of the acquisition. After the merger was made official and disclosed to the street, Mr. Begelman sold his stake for a net gain of $14,949. He maintained ownership of Bluegreen securities for fifteen days (Gehrke-White).
Alfred had portrayed a pessimistic outcome of whistleblowing describing how the courageous acts of the whistleblowers have destroyed their careers and lives. He has included a varied whistleblower’s experiences coming from government agencies and the public sector. The stories he has incorporated in the book has more or less a similar end with the whistleblowers left with no job, career, family, and
Whistle-blowing can be defined many different ways. For example, from page 384 in the book, whistle-blowing is the voluntary release of nonpublic information, as a moral protest, by a member or former member of an organization outside the normal channels of communication to an appropriate audience about illegal and/or immoral conduct in the organization or conduct in the organization that is opposed in some significant way to the public interest. For a simpler explanation of the term whistle-blowing, Merriam-Webster defines the term as, an employee who brings wrongdoing by an employer or other employees to the attention of a government or law enforcement agency and who is commonly vested by statute with rights and remedies for retaliation.
Whistle blowing is a controversial topic in the professional industry. Whistle blowing is the act of speaking out against a fellow colleague or even a friend that has done something non-ethical or illegal in the workplace. A whistleblower raises concerns about the wrongdoing inside of the workplace. Employees hesitate to become a whistleblower because of the idea of becoming a snitch on fellow employees and having a bad rep around the office. This concern was lowered in 1989 with a law called the Whistleblower Protection Act that protects federal government employees in the United States from retaliatory action for voluntarily disclosing information about dishonest or illegal activities occurring at a government organization (whistleblowers.gov).
The term Whistleblower means “An employee who discloses information that s/he reasonably believes is evidence of illegality, gross waste or fraud, mismanagement, abuse of power, general wrongdoing, or a substantial and specific danger to public health and safety. When information is classified or otherwise restricted by Congress or Executive Order, disclosures only are protected as whistleblowing if made through designated, secure channels. (What is a Whistleblower?)” The idea behind whistleblowers is that they believe trying to inform the public of illegal acts within their businesses has the potential to protect the public from wrongdoing. The following studies analyze scholar’s findings on different factors related to whistle blowing as
“Faced with what is right, to leave it undone shows a lack of courage” (Confucius Quotes, 2012). The person who does her duty, at great risk to her own interest, when most others would defy from fear is considered a hero (Schafer, 2004). Dr. Nancy Olivieri is a hero who blew the whistle on Apotex, University of Toronto (U of T) and the Hospital for Sick Children (HSC); and fought for her academic rights till the end. Whistle-blowing refers to actions of an employee that breach her loyalty to the organization but serves the public interest. When other constraints proved to be ineffective, whistle-blowing acts as a check on authority of the organization. Whistle-blowers expose severe forms of corruption, waste, and abuse of power within their organization and put the organization in a position where it is answerable to the public, thus enhancing its accountability (Cooper, 2006, pg. 198-205).
Many other businesses may not want to do business as the company was involved with immoral behavior. The unethical business practices of the company will also gain exposure in the media and to the public (Nicol, 2015, n.p). Employees no longer keep unethical activities of the company to themselves. As a whistleblower, they may be perceived as a traitor, but in this case the senior executives are being traitors. They are taking money from immoral behavior and tarnishing the name of the company (Nicol, 2015, n.p).
On November 29th, Mary Inman gave us a talk on the topic whistleblowing, which let me know more about the whistleblower activities and the whistleblower protection. According to the definition given by the website whistleblowers international, whistleblowing is someone who reveal the unethical or illegal activities within the company. The person can be current or past employee, or an outside individual who is familiar with the unethical activity. This whistleblower does not need to be U.S. citizen.
This all happened under the watchful eye of an auditor, Arthur Andersen. After this scandal, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was changed to keep into account the role of the auditors and how they can help in preventing such scandals.
Eric Peterson is 29 year old MBA graduate. After graduating from college, Peterson was offered a job as Product manager in charge of sales and Marketing at Bio Metra’s catheter to launch a product. The launch had significant problems and was delayed multiple times. At the end of orientation, Peterson learned that Vice president had left company and was made General Manager of Biometra’s operation. Eric with lack of managerial experience and gap between his current capabilities and requirements of the new position was unsuccessful in addressing significant problems required for a smooth launch.
JK breached the fiduciary duty that he should bear as a trader. Being a moral trader, JK should endeavor to pursue the best interests of clients. The act of cheating clients using the counterfeit portfolio allowed JK to pursue huge bonus while posing great harm to customers. This move violated the aforementioned business ethics.
A whistleblower as I have recently learned is a person who exposes any kind of evidence, whether it is information or activities, that appears to be either illegal, unethical, or not permitted within an organization that is either private or public. The information of suspected wrongdoing can be classified in many ways: violation of company policy/rules, law, regulation, or threat to public interest/national security, as well as fraud, and corruption (Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary, 2016). A whistleblower can choose to bring information or allegations to surface either internally or externally. Internally, a whistleblower can bring one’s accusations to the attention of other people within the
Whistleblowing is the action of an employee, who reports any unethical violations they see or come across in the firm. Employees should be encouraged to practise whistleblowing, also, organisations should encourage them to act up against unethical behavior.
Whistle blowing is an attempt of an employee or former employee of a company to reveal what he or she believes to be a wrongdoing in or by a company or organization. Whistle blowing tries to make others aware of practices that are considered illegal or immoral. If the wrongdoing is reported to someone in the company it is said to be internal. Internal whistle blowing tends to do less damage to the company. There is also external whistle blowing. This is where the wrongdoing is reported to the media and brought to the attention of the public. This type of whistle blowing tends to affect the company in a negative way because of bad publicity. It is said that whistle blowing is personal if the wrongdoing affects the whistle blower alone (like sexual harassment), and said to be impersonal if the wrongdoing affects other people. Many people whistle blow for two main reasons: morality and revenge.