Student’s name
Professor’s name
Course code
Date
Ethics in Financial Management
Many of you know me only as a classmate and nothing more beyond our inter-class interactions. My name is____, a patriotic American citizen with a deep faith in the American dream. My enthusiasm for the American dream has placed me in community service projects for the better part of my life. Consequently, I have been an avid member of the National Boy Scouts of America, The St. Johns Ambulance, and other community service projects. Not only have I amassed a considerable understanding of the American dream from my involvement in community service work, but I have also developed a pressing interest in pursuing the American dream on an individual level. For this reason, I chose this course, which will equip me with the necessary economic skills to help me maneuver in the tumultuous economic environment.
My area of study requires me to examine business organizations’ ethical behavior in respect to financial management. There have been plenty of appalling cases where firms have violated the ethics and mode of conduct in financial management. One such firm is Enron, known to be one of the most lucrative investment banking firms. In 2001 the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Enron with knowingly manipulating accounting data to mask their enormous losses and liabilities. In the Enron Company, chief officials were charged on different counts of bank fraud, money laundering, and insider trading. As a result, investor confidence was reduced, resulting in a slumping credit rating and eventually to Enron’s famous bankruptcy. In a similar case, Kozlowski, the CEO of the renowned electronics company Tyco, was questioned about his financial management’s ethical issues. Tyco’s board of directors revealed how the CEO and his CFO, Schwartz, had allocated unauthorized bonuses and loans amounting to $600 million. In 2005, both were sentenced to between eight and 25 years for security fraud, grand larceny, among other financial crimes.
The issues of ethical behavior in financial management resonate with my colleagues’ discussion on the….