(Pileggi, 1986). In the past, crime group members would often slip money to politicians under the table; more recently companies linked to organized crime groups have made political contributions openly and legitimately. This fact alone proves that organized crime groups are growing bolder and less afraid of the legal consequences of their criminal actions. By allowing criminal organizations to gain an influence in the Nation’s political elections, political machines are assisting the criminal organizations in growing more powerful and more dangerous than ever before. Political corruption does not stop with the politicians.
If this was not the case, Congress would not have enforced the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. In 2002, the financial scandals that occurred by multiple corporations proved that the accounting profession was in dire need of some regulation by the government. I predict that corporate fraud will remain the same based on the research produced during the writing process for this assignment. There is no fool proof way to completely diminish financial fraud or to protect investors. As people as a whole have proven time and time again, there are rules and laws and there are people whom break those rules and laws for personal gain.
Credit crunch and recession are great examples of external factors influencing the business. If the people are suffering from recession, they will not have money to spend money and this is how it affects the businesses. The current instability in Iraq is a good example of what may happen to businesses. In business it’s very important to understand, monitor and adapt to the political environment, because it crucially affects every business. Some of the very important factors are: Government stability effects businesses in a great range by competing with businesses to lower their costs, transparency is another important factor where anything the business does is revealed to the government and the government know exactly what they are up to.
Answer to questions: The ethical issues involved in the Madoff case was his misconduct and deceitful activity. He lied to investors, cheated out his financial interests, and stole from thousands of people around the world. He took money from new clients and paid it out to existing clients. I don't believe that Madoff worked alone. Even if nobody helped him deceive investors, people knew about it, and the act of knowing and not reporting a white-color crime is guilty by association.
The purpose of the SOX Act in response to the fraudulent and misleading activities of large corporations such as Enron, Health South, Xerox, Global Crossing, and almost one thousand publicly traded companies. Fraud is defined as “a dishonest act by an employee that results in personal benefit to the employee at a cost to the employer” (Kimmel, Weygandt, & Kieso, 2011). The afore mentioned companies and many others committed fraud when they willingly published false and/or deceptive financial statements making their companies look like they were making huge profits, therefore causing their stock prices to soar and enticing the public to by more and more shares of their companies. Unfortunately, when the truth came out, the fraudulent actions of a few resulted in the loss of almost $5 trillion of stock market value and an undetermined amount for stockholders. Because of this fraudulent action, Congress had no choice but to intervene and pass legislation that would curtail this illegal
Read the case study and map the fraud case to the appropriate expense report fraud flow in Chapter 7 (Exhibit 7.4 or 7.5 or 7.6). In a 2-3 page paper address the following questions: which fraud flow and specific steps did the fraudster manipulate and how will the new processes installed deter, detect or prevent this from recurring? Travel and expense reimbursement schemes may seem like they are an easy fraud to perpetrate, however, the recurring problem is that people wind up getting too greedy and get caught because of it. Lucky for us the fraudster’s greed leads them to get sloppy when they believe that a fraud is going to continue to go undetected. This was the case in the article “Fashioning a Fraud” by Bethmara Kessler.
If the officials who are to keep the corporations in check are run by the giant companies themselves, the concept of checks and balances can almost be discarded. If the public is informed of what is going on and reacts to the bribing events, then the big companies, who hire the lobbyists, can be forced to alter their mindset by their customers, and the special interest lobbyists can become benefactors for the general
If we want to help the people who are suffering in this crisis and recession, then we should make financial policies with them directly in mind. Just throwing money at the banks will not get the job done.” In reference to “Bailout Nation”, Wolfson proves that bailing out large insolvent banks hurt the taxpaying people. He brings to light where the people’s money really goes, and how it’s
In a nutshell, this epitomizes how corporate capitalism has become hopelessly intertwined with democracy to the point that it is difficult to approximate where one ends and the other begins. In conclusion serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. Our founding fathers envisioned citizen legislators who under the obligation of civic duty were given the opportunity to serve their countrymen and when their term was up they returned home. This ideal seems quaint when compared with current day career politicians who do nothing but lower Americans faith in the ability of their own government by way of endless scandals and investigations. The machinery of corruption can be overhauled within congress but that entails changing long held fundamental concepts as to who “we the people” truly means.
Lobbyist work for and represent just about every American institution and interest group - labor unions, corporations, colleges and universities, churches, charities, environmental groups, senior citizens organizations, and even state, local or foreign governments.”(About.com). Even though this true, there are some lobbyists in most cases that are corrupted. Did it ever cross your mind that this may be true? Or how the greed of money corrupts people no matter what level of work you are performing whether it is a small business, big business, school, government, or whatever the case maybe? Well with more money comes more power and greed which causes corruption, because you just want more of it.