Ethical boundaries in mainstream business is getting stricter - GoFuckYourself.com

CDSmith · 03-29-2005, 12:43 PM

In today's NY Times....

Quote:

On Wall Street, a Rise in Dismissals Over Ethics
By LANDON THOMAS Jr.

Published: March 29, 2005

wo senior investment bankers at Bank of America were summoned to a meeting this month where their boss, visibly uncomfortable and flanked by bank lawyers, read them a statement. They were both dismissed and asked to leave the building immediately. The decision was final.

Stunned, the bankers asked if they had broken any regulations. No, they were told. Nor had they traded on any inside information. Within the hour, they had turned in their BlackBerrys and laptops and were on their way home to the suburbs.

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In the ruthlessly competitive world of investment banking, these two men had been doing what presumably was their job. Acting on a tip from a rival banker, they had called a company preparing to merge with another and asked to get in on the deal. In a different era, such an action might well have been seen as an example of what hungry bankers do to secure an edge with a client and maybe even a better bonus - not an inappropriate use of confidential information and cause for termination.

But with regulatory scrutiny heightened after the collapse of Enron and other companies, corporations and their boards are adopting zero-tolerance policies. Increasingly, they are holding their employees to lofty standards of business and personal behavior. The result is a wave of abrupt firings as corporations move to stop perceived breaches of ethics by their employees that could result in law enforcement action or public relations disasters.

"We are in a regulatory frenzy," said Ira Lee Sorkin, a senior white-collar crime lawyer at Carter Ledyard & Milburn in Manhattan. "Corporations are acting out of fear and they don't want to take a chance that employees did something wrong under their watch, so they are basically cleaning house. Someone has to say enough."

The seemingly frantic reach for the moral high ground is driven as much by self-interest as any attempt at righteousness, now that boards and chief executives have seen how public scandals can torpedo stock prices, alienate customers and end careers.

The reasons for the dismissals vary widely, ranging from actions that are potentially illegal to conduct that is unseemly. Last week, for example, Thomas M. Coughlin, a former vice chairman and director, was forced to resign from Wal-Mart Stores over questions relating to his knowledge of corporate gift card and expense account abuses. Wal-Mart also referred the case to the Justice Department. Earlier this month, insurance giant American International Group fired two senior executives for refusing to cooperate with a regulatory investigation.

At Boeing, Harry C. Stonecipher, the chief executive, was abruptly pushed out this month by his board for having a consensual affair with an executive, behavior that in a more permissive time might even have been winked at.

"There is a new kind of Puritanism," said Marjorie Kelly, editor of Business Ethics magazine, replacing what Ms. Kelly said was an era of "arrogance and ignorance, an attitude that boys will be boys."

There are exceptions, of course. After paying a $300 million fine to settle charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission that it overstated advertising revenue, Time Warner elected last week not to dismiss the executives, including the chief financial officer, who approved the fraudulent accounting. The three officials settled separate charges of securities law violations without admitting or denying guilt.

But the reaction has been most severe on Wall Street, where investment banks, mutual funds and insurers have felt the sting of legal prosecution for ethical lapses most acutely.

Bank of America, which has paid nearly $1 billion in fines over the last year, in many ways exemplifies this trend. Earlier this year, the bank acted in a similarly extreme fashion when it fired a highly regarded bond analyst, Andrew Susser, for his stab at humor in compiling a research report on the casino and lodging industry. On its cover, which carried the title "Checking In," Mr. Susser's face was superimposed over the body of a woman in a cocktail party dress and heels, as he was carried over the threshold by another man. There is no evidence that any client complained. Instead, the bank concluded on its own that the image was inappropriate.

It is not only Bank of America that is cracking down.

Citigroup, which has been plagued by a series of ethical lapses by its employees and has suffered a decline in stock price as a result, recently fired three senior executives after the breakdown within the firm's private banking unit in Japan. Japanese regulators forced Citigroup to close its private bank, based in Tokyo, because of numerous violations, stemming from a lack of internal controls, including potential money laundering in one account. One of the fired executives, Thomas W. Jones, has filed a lawsuit against a consultant who wrote an internal report on the matter. Mr. Jones said he was not at fault.

Next month, Citigroup will start an online ethics training program that will be mandatory for all of its 300,000 employees.

Don't worry, I don't expect most of you to actually read all that.

One guy was fired for putting up a rather homosexual picture for the cover
of an industry report
Let's see if this pic will show up...

"Andrew Susser was fired by Bank
of America after putting this cover
on a report on the casino and lodging
industry called "Checking In.""

My question is, could it benefit our industry by companies and webmasters holding themselves and their employees to stricter standards of ethical behavior?

I'm of the mind to say yes, it could. We'd see far fewer disputes over non-payment and cheating I'm sure. Yet many would pass this off and do nothing, saying "imagine that, the PORN industry having more ethics! LOL".
Yes, better to do nothing, right?

We can still be in porn and yet be honest business people. And judging from some of the threads I've seen in recent years I'd have to say that being a bit more ethical couldn't hurt us one bit.

Think. Disucss if you must.

CDSmith · 03-29-2005, 12:57 PM

Before anyone jumps me for this, I'll clarify further. I'm not saying people shouldn't be able to put up gay photos or have affairs with co-workers or anything. Leave that petty crap to the mainstream corporate world to westle with. I'm talking about such things as being more ethical when it comes to screwing over someone on a business deal.
I'm talking about not stealing anyone else's sites or designs,
or how about not bulk mailing unwanted email? Why not bulk mail to legitimate opt-in lists?
What about paying people what you rightfully owe them instead of ignoring their emails and phone calls for months on end?
What about a program owner stepping up and firing an employee for pulling some of the crap they pull instead of defending them?

You know... ethics. Many of us have them, but many more obviously don't. I'm not asking for the world here, I'm just saying why not take a minute and think before you screw someone over, and maybe oh, find another way of doing something.

03-29-2005, 12:57 PM	#2
CDSmith Too lazy to set a custom title Industry Role: Join Date: May 2001 Location: My network is hosted at TECHIEMEDIA.net ...Wait, you meant where am I located at? Oh... okay, I'm in Winnipeg, Canada. Oops. :) Posts: 51,460	Before anyone jumps me for this, I'll clarify further. I'm not saying people shouldn't be able to put up gay photos or have affairs with co-workers or anything. Leave that petty crap to the mainstream corporate world to westle with. I'm talking about such things as being more ethical when it comes to screwing over someone on a business deal. I'm talking about not stealing anyone else's sites or designs, or how about not bulk mailing unwanted email? Why not bulk mail to legitimate opt-in lists? What about paying people what you rightfully owe them instead of ignoring their emails and phone calls for months on end? What about a program owner stepping up and firing an employee for pulling some of the crap they pull instead of defending them? You know... ethics. Many of us have them, but many more obviously don't. I'm not asking for the world here, I'm just saying why not take a minute and think before you screw someone over, and maybe oh, find another way of doing something. __________________ *Promote Wildmatch, ImLive, Sexier.com, and more!!* ALWAYS THE HIGHEST PAYOUTS: Big Bux/ImLive SIGNUP ON NOW!!! Put some PUSSYCA$H in your pocket. ICQ me at: 31024634