It was my distinct pleasure to speak in April to two classes of the Ethical Issues in Business course at the University of Texas at Dallas, taught by Professor Diane McNulty.
Seniors in all majors, including computer science and healthcare, typically take this popular course in their last semester before graduation. The course helps prepare them for ethical issues they may encounter in their careers.
In my talk, I noted the absolute importance of ethical behavior and told them my true-life story about how the lack of ethics in Citigroup and the other large banks led to the massive frauds which caused the financial crisis and the resulting financial ruin experienced by millions of people.
We also discussed some of the significant ethics research which has been performed by the Ethics and Compliance Initiative, which helps the students identify whether or not a company has an ethical corporate culture.
Government corruption also came up, and I described the many government cover-ups of the banking misdeeds which I encountered in attempting to hold the bank and executives accountable for the frauds.
We also discussed the broader perspective of government corruption, with my noting that the highly-respected annual study of government corruption in each of the 180 countries worldwide by Transparency International, using the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), shows that the United States continues to decline, with twenty-three countries of the world displaying less corruption than we do.
In the follow-up Q&A session, the students fully recognized the need for ethical behavior and decision-making and the absolute importance of maintaining their personal ethics in their careers. This recognition, truly, is the only way our country can reverse the continued ethical decline we have witnessed.
Richard Bowen is widely known as the Citigroup whistleblower. As Business Chief Underwriter for Citigroup during the housing bubble financial crisis meltdown, he repeatedly warned Citi executive management and the board about fraudulent behavior within the organization. The company certified poor mortgages as quality mortgages and sold them to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other investors.
