Ethics is essentially doing the right thing regardless of other’s expectations. Doesn’t seem real complicated or difficult. You’d think that doing the right thing is something we would all instinctively do, yet given the magnitude of individuals and companies who so often do not “do the right thing,” teaching ethics, expecting ethical behaviors and applauding… [Read More]
What do Lehman Brothers, Enron, and Citigroup Have in Common?
What did WorldCom, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Washington Mutual, Enron, Tyco, HealthSouth, AIG, and many other well known companies have in common? In the last decade-and-a-half, we have seen some of the biggest accounting scandals in history. This last week, I had the privilege of speaking to the Texas Association of College and University Auditors,… [Read More]
The DOJ Lemon Award – Go Directly to Jail!
William K. Black, a professor of Economics and Law, UMKC, a former financial regulator and author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank is To Own One, and one of our Bank Whistleblowers United (BWU) co-founders has decided we could “retire” our series of BWU Lemon Awards and permanently award “a Lemon” award to… [Read More]
Silence is Deadly. Lessons Learned.
The audience was primarily internal auditors at my presentation this week at the 11th Annual Fraud Summit, held at the University of Texas at Dallas, where I teach, sponsored by the Institute of Internal Auditors, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, and Information Systems Audit and Control Association. I talked about fraud and how as… [Read More]
