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Tyco

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Submitted By patrice171
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The author’s viewpoint in the Tyco case is that companies can be ruined due to the unethical actions of their leaders. In this case, the CEO Dennis Kozlowski and CFO Mark Swartz nearly ruined Tyco due to their greed and several conflicts of interest. They were only concerned with their personal gains and not those of its stakeholders. If the company follows its code of conduct, problems like those that arose in the Tyco case would not have happened or gotten nearly as bad as they did. I believe Kozlowski thought he was untouchable and could do whatever he wanted to do as long as he didn’t get caught. Greed will eventually come back on you and be the reason of your downfall. The major issues in this case were conflict of interest by embezzling funds. They used monies that should have been used to help manage the company for their own self-indulgences. They used the funds to buy themselves luxury homes, boats, jewelry, and fine art. Kozlowski even gave his wife a $2.1 million dollar birthday party in Italy all at the company’s expense saying it was a management meeting with the board of directors (Tyco). Bribery was another major issue. Bribery was committed when Mr. Walsh, the director of Tyco International accepted 20 million dollars to arrange for the acquiring of CIT Group without the board of directors knowledge (Tyco). Also accounting fraud was a major issue. Kozlowski, Swartz, and Mark Belnick (Tyco’s legal counsel) falsified the business records to hide a great amount of money loaned out without approval. Kozlowski also committed tax evasion by not paying over 1 million dollars in New York State and local sales tax for the art work he purchased (Tyco).
1. What do you think Kozlowski’s motivation for trying to avoid sales taxes on his art purchases was? Explain.
I feel that Kozlowki’s motivation for trying to avoid sales taxes on his art purchases was pure greed. I think that he wanted to save money on taxes so that he would not have to use his own money. He figured if he could get away without paying taxes by sending his purchased artwork to New Hampshire instead of New York then he would take the cheapest way out. Also the company would not find out about his purchases.
2. Explain the concept of commingling assets with respect to the Tyco case.
The concept of commingling funds in this case was the CFO and CEO mixing the company’s money with their own money. They mixed the company’s funds with their own and purchases high priced items such as luxury homes, expensive jewelry and art work. This behavior eventually brought attention to them and they were brought up on fraud charges.
3. Would it have been possible for the board of directors to see the adjustments taking place in the many different programs at Tyco? Explain.
If the board of directors would not have been so trusting of their CEO and CFO and been more involved in what was going on with the company’s funds I believe they would have seen the adjustments that were going on in its different programs. They would have realized that there was some mismanagement of funds and would have been able to investigate it further and possible prevented it from getting as bad as it did.

Reference
Stanwick, P. A., & Stanwick, S. D. (2009). Tyco: I’m Sure That It’s a Really Nice Shower Curtain. Understanding Business Ethics. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

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