...Adephia Scandal 1 Abstract The purpose of the paper is to explain deontological ethics, including Kant's Categorical Imperative, and their relationship to business ethics. I will explain how deontological ethics and Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative more specifically relate to the two primary business ethics violations in the Adephia scandal. ADELPHIA SCANDAL The Adephia Scandal orchstrated by a family of Business men that had on goal in mind, which was tor created family wealth at all cost. The Rigas Family Members of Adelphia’s included John Rigas, founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO); Timothy Rigas, John’s son, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Chief Accounting Officer, and Treasurer; Michael Rigas, John’s son, Executive Vice President for Operations and Secretary; and James Rigas, John’s son, Executive Vice President for Strategic Planning. On December 31, 1999, five of the ten members of Adelphia’s board of directors were Rigas family members, John, his three sons, and Peter Venetis, John’s son-in-law. In 2002, John J. Rigas resigned as Adelphia’s CEO, Timothy J. Rigas resigned as CFO, and the Rigas family relinquished control of the company as John, Timothy, Michael, and James Rigas resigned as directors. John Rigas and sons Timothy and Michael were arrested on conspiracy charges. The company was founded in 1952 in Coudersport, Pennsylvania and incorporated in 1972. By 1998...
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...will be achieved by defining deontological ethics and Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative. A review of the Adelphia Communications Scandal will be conducted with a general assessment of what ethical issues were present based on deontological ethics and Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative. The Adelphia Communications Scandal The Adelphia Communications Corporation was the sixth largest provider of cable services in the United States prior to filing bankruptcy in 2002 due to a major accounting scandal. Adelphia’s management intentionally misled investors by falsifying financial statements to give the appearance the organization was financially solid and performing well above normal, by excluding billions of dollars of debt from financial statements. The auditors fail to find any fraudulent action in the financial statements. John Rigas was the original founder of the corporation and later joined with his brother and sons. The Adelphia Communications Corporation (investors) provided over $2.3 billion worth of personal loans to the Rigas family. The Rigas family received assets via fund transfers from the Adelphia Communications Corporation through journal entries to purchase extravagant homes, land for an exclusive golf course and personal purchases. After the firm declared bankruptcy in 2002, John Rigas and his son Timothy Rigas were charged with conspiracy, bank fraud, and securities fraud. John received a fifteen year sentence and Timothy received...
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... I also have the curiosity to ask too much about proverbs and traditional words because it is not easy to understand them and they are highly regarded in my society. This African proverb "the promise is a debt" has made me a moon of his word, pious and honest. The promise is commonly defined as an act by which a person, the promisor undertakes to one or more beneficiaries to do something in the future. It is noted those there different kinds of promises: political, economic and social. Debt is moral duty towards someone. Whatever the promise given, a response will be expected by beneficiaries. They will always look towards a promising, these promises will always be considered as debt. A debt is moral duty toward someone. The promises that we take, make people happy and excited, but the question is if they will be respected. When you cannot fulfill the promises that we have made, we tend to find excuses to avoid feeling guilty. These excuses allow us to justify our failures and prevent us from dealing with the embarrassing reality. The promise is morally important in African society. If we do not respect our promise, people lose confidence in us. This promise can be upgraded or respected in some parts of the world. This proverb "a promise is a debt" is an African proverb particularly in the west. The West Africa is composed of eight different countries; these countries have almost the same social realities, worship. They give too much importance and...
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...three members of the Rigas family were arrested and charged with looting the nation's sixth-largest cable-television company. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint against the company accusing it of fraud. The charges marked the latest effort by the federal government to crack down on corporate malfeasance as public confidence and the financial markets have been battered by seemingly relentless disclosures of financial shenanigans. The scandal was discovered when the Rigases disclosed that Adelphia was responsible for more than $2 billion in loans to family-owned entities. Outside board members took control and formed a special committee to investigate the issue. The scandal was due in part to Adelphia’s large debt. Adelphia backed $2.3 billion worth of personal loans to the Rigas family. The scandal also uncovered the methods in which the Rigas family committed fraudulent acts. Rigas management manipulated the books to meet analysts’ expectations and inflate the company’s stock price. They also...
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...CHILD LABOUR 1.The best way to reduce child labor for multinational corporations? Child labor offers perhaps the best example that big improvements in the workplace are always driven from pressure from within. Banning imports of products made by minors might make the people of San Francisco happy, but it has done very little to improve the lot of poor children overseas. “There is very little evidence supporting any connection between trade and child time allocation other than through the impact of trade on the living standards of the very poor,” writes Eric V. Edmunds, an economist at Dartmouth College who directs the Child Labor Network at the Institute for the Study of Labor. Most child laborers do not work in trade-related industries but in more backward areas of the economy — mainly in agriculture and retail trade. Some 300,000 children weave carpets in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, often for export. But this number pales next to the 8.4 million children ages 10 to 14 in India’s work force alone. The good news is that child labor has declined sharply. In 2008, 176.4 million children under 15 around the world held a job, about 35 million fewer than in 2000. But the main reason for that is industrialization and economic growth. Income growth is the one dynamic that we know can persuade parents to take their children out of the work force and put them in school. Unfortunately, campaigners in the West often ignore this finding. Garment manufacturers in Bangladesh fired...
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...he tilled the soil. There was such a radiant joy on his face that the king was drawn irresistibly towards him. “Dear friend,” he said to the peasant. “Tell me the secret of your joy.” “It’s very simple, really,” said the peasant. “One-fourth of what I earn, I repay as the debt I owe; one-fourth, I invest in the future; one-fourth, I give away in charity and one-fourth, I spend on my duty.” The king was thoroughly bewildered. He begged the peasant to explain further. “My parents gave me the great gift of life, and I owe them a deep debt of gratitude. I now cherish them and look after them in their old age. One fourth of my income is thus spent in repaying this debt.” “My children represent the future. I spend one-fourth of my income on feeding, clothing and educating them. This is my investment in the future.” “Poor though I am, there are people worse off than me. I help them as much as I can, and one-fourth of my income is spent on charity.” “My wife has placed her trust in me. It is my duty to love and protect her till the end of my life. One-fourth of my income is spent on giving her a good home. “This is the secret of my happiness!” Moral: True happiness comes from discharging your obligations and duties towards God, family and others and not on wealth, name and fame!...
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...The area of law involved in this question: Insolvency trading and director’s duties, under Corporation Acts 2001. A director will engage in insolvent trading in breach of section 588G of the Corporation Acts 2001(Cth) if the company incurs a debt and: a) The company is insolvent at the time of incurring the debt or becomes insolvent by incurring the debt; b) At the time the debt is incurred, there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that the company is insolvent or will become insolvent; c) The director is aware of such grounds or a reasonable person in a like position in a company in the circumstances of the company would be so aware; and d) The director fails to prevent the company from incurring the debt. Under the Corporations Act of 2001 section 95A, a company is declared to be insolvent if it cannot pay its debt. In the financial year of 2013, the director of the company Paul knew that the company was experiencing difficulties in terms of financial performance, and would not be able to meet all its debt issues. It was his duty as a director of the company to prevent it from further trading, because he knew the company’s financial position. He should have sought both legal and financial advice from the relevant authorities, so as to assist him to determine whether the company will be liquidated, or measures will be undertaken so as to revamp it. He ignored his duties as a director i.e. prevents the company from insolvent trading. This meant that...
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...How does George Eliot present the character of Godfrey Cass in ‘Silas Marner’ in comparison with characters from a range of short stories? Eliot presents the character of Godfrey as a total moral coward and shows he has a lack of resolution. He is ironically described as ‘fine, open-faced, good natured’ by the approving villagers when he already has much to hide. He goes through life acting on impulses and hoping luck will save him from the results of his actions. In this way he has secretly married Molly Farren and fathered a child, been blackmailed to misuse money due to his father - and yet still somehow hopes to wriggle out of everything and marry Nancy Lammeter. Godfrey is insensitive, weak and deceitful: We are told he has an easy disposition and prefers good. Eliot conveys her opinions about Victorian society in her novel. With Godfrey, she is able to explore the issue of social class. Eliot disagreed with the commonly held belief of society at the time that the upper class were morally superior to the lower class. Through Godfrey is morally questionable character she is able to promote instead the integrity and values of the working class. For a while fortune favours him: Molly dies, Silas takes Eppie and Nancy agrees to marry him. With all his privileges and his loving wife, in the end Godfrey is unhappy because, ironically, he has to appear childless, his only child apparently having died. He had a child whom he disowned - he did not deserve to be a father...
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...5. The Key Study Areas are as follows….. * TCO A -Business ethics: Three layers of Business ethics: * 1) Basic values (honest, keeping promises) * 2) Notion of fairness (how do we treat others?) * 3) Issues related to community, environment, neighbors Business ethics considers fairness and morals standards amidst the pressure of earning a profit and providing returns to shareholders. Sometimes we may have business ethical tensions where Employee has personal economic interests in continuing employment that may compromise certain personal moral standards. -Ethical Models/Tests The Blanchard and Peale Model * Is it legal? (IF NO, analysis is done) * Is it balanced? (Is our deal with the other side balanced or was it cutthroat?) * How does it make me feel? (The action may be legal and appear balanced; but, do you feel good about it?) * Front Page of the newspaper test: Simple question that requires a decision maker to envision how a reporter would describe a decision on the front page of a local or national newspaper. * Laura Nash Perspective Model: How would I view the issue if I stood on the other side of the fence? What am I trying to accomplish? Can I discuss my decision with friends, family, and those closest to me? * The Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them to unto you. This requires one to apply the same standards of fairness and equity to their own actions that they would demand...
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...Similarities and Differences Between Virtue Theory According to Boylan (2009), “ethics is the science concerning the right and wrong of human behavior.” It is a method that allows us to organize our values and go after them. It helps us answer questions like: do I seek my own happiness, or do I sacrifice myself for a greater cause? According to "Ethics - Definition And More From The Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary" (2012), ethics is “the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation.” Because we are beings living together in society, we all go through tough moral decisions like a father deciding whether his son’s end-of-the-year school concert is more important than his business meeting, or accepting gifts from vendors when a contract bid is under evaluation. Moral decisions require moral reasoning and deliberation, which takes place within certain perspectives three of which are virtue ethics, utilitarianism, and deontologism. Virtue ethics focuses on how to be; studies what makes the character traits of people. A person who has these traits will act by habit in certain ways not because of its consequences but because it is what a virtuous person would do. The Boy Scout pledge is an example of virtue ethics because he pledges to be a certain person. Utilitarianism is the view that says “if an act will produce more happiness than will alternatives, it is the right thing to do, and if it will produce less happiness, it would be wrong to do it...
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...are approximately 3 billion poor people in the world, 100 million homeless and 795 million people who do not have a sufficient amount of food to live. The moral issue comes about when determining who to help. Should we help our fellow people at home before we help those in other countries? Should who we help be determined based on need? It is up to each of us to determine our stance on this moral dilemma based on our personal values, morals and ethical outlooks. Some people believe we are morally responsible to help those who...
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...Duties All humans are put on this earth for their own specific purpose. Some people are destined to be an influence and do great things, while others are here solely to be cogs in the clock that keeps the world turning. Regardless on where one stands in relationship to their fellow man, we all have been charged with civic and moral obligations to those in our inner most circles of friends and family, as well as to our employers. After living approximately a quarter of my life, I believe that I have discovered these duties and moral obligations. They can be found in my religion as a Christian as well as in the Boy Scout law. In attempts to find linearity between different ethical view points and my beliefs, Jane English’s theories about families, and Kant’s virtue ethics can be compared to my moral guidelines. Through the years, some friends choose to come and go as they please, where as others will stay by your side no matter what. Your family will stay with you for life; you did not ask for it, and perhaps they did not ask for you. No matter who you have by your side, it is to these people who you should have the most obligations to. To begin, looking to religion under the Ten Commandments, we see the first commandment instructing a moral obligation to our family: “Honor thy mother and thy father.” This first commandment allows for a number of different circumstances where it may be applicable. When referring to mothers and fathers, sometimes the real mother and...
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...Unit 1 Hindu Law From thousands of years people living in the Indian subcontinent have been leading their lives by following the guidelines and concepts given in the Vedas. These guidelines have evolved into rules followed by the people and enforced by the rulers and have thus become de facto law. In this modern times, the same laws have been retrofitted to suit present conditions and have been codified in the form of several acts of which the important ones are - Hindu Marriage Act 1955, Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act 1956, Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act 1956, and Hindu Succession Act 1956. Application of Hindu Law A precise definition of Hinduism does not exist. Hence, it is impossible to define a fixed criteria for determining who is a Hindu. So a negative definition of 'who is not a Hindu' is used. Further, in this land, several religions have been born and they they follow the same customs and practices. So it cannot be said that Hindu Law can be applied only to people who are Hindus by religion. Due to these reasons, in general, the following people are considered to be Hindu with respect to application of Hindu Law. 1. Hindu by Religion - A person who is Hindu, Jain, Bauddha, or Sikh by religion. In Shastri v Muldas SC AIR 1961, SC has held that various sub sects of Hindus such as Swaminarayan, Satsangis, Arya Samajis are also Hindus by religion because they follow the same basic concept of Hindu Philosophy. Converts and Reconverts are also Hindus...
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...stealing. Were these actions justified, deontologically speaking? How does Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative apply to these two unethical actions in a business scenario? The Scandal Adelphia was a cable television company formed in 1952 by John Rigas and two other partners. John Rigas eventually bought out the partners of the company and grew the business with his brother and sons making it a family business. In 1986 the company became publically listed and eventually became the fifth largest cable company in the United States before it filed for bankruptcy in 2002 due to internal corruption. One example of the internal corruption at Adelphia was the accounting techniques that were used by the Rigas family. Billions of dollars in debt and liabilities were hidden from the public and off of the financial reports to make the company appear in better shape than it actually was. The former cable television company also would alter the amount of earnings made in favor of the company to make the company seem in better financial shape than it actually was. Also, there were numerous examples of the Rigas family using the company funds with the intent of paying back later that were never noted on the financial statements. (Barlup, Hanne, & Stuart, 2009) Two Key Problems Out of the numerous ethical problems that can be drawn...
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...SUMMERISE KELLERS SPECIAL GOODS THEORY OF FIFIAL DUTY AND THE MAIN ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT OF IT. CHOOSE ONE OF THESE ARGUMENTS AND CHALLENGE IT Filial duty can be divided into three separate theories which rely on distinct concepts of duty: the debt account, the gratitude account and the friendship account. In Keller’s view none of the three existing accounts are able to explain why exactly children have certain duties in relation to their parents/vice versa. This is due to the fact that each of these three theories is based on the integration of the “moral relationship between parent and child to some independently understood concept of duty”. This concept becomes more understandable through the observation that this special kind of relationship differs from other relationships in how it is structured and what it contains; To argue the accounts of filial duty Keller introduces a fourth account, the ‘special goods theory’, which recognizes the uniqueness of the parent-child relationship and thus can appropriately asses its duty relations. Due to the specific bond which is the parental-filial bond, the moral relationship found in such cases cannot be understood by comparison to other kinds of relationships. Keller’s alternative theory of special goods is rooted in two presuppositions: (1) Filial duty should be thought of as distinct from other duties in its terms and (2) different forms of duty can be related to different kinds of goods and consequently understood within...
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