個案資料

Too many people fall into the trap of accepting that it is appropriate to use technicalities and loopholes to break the principles behind rules when they think they can get away with it. According to Andrew Fastow, this is a problem approaching endemic proportions as seen in business deals, political fundraising, and tax avoidance. And as the former chief financial officer of Enron, he knows what he’s talking about. In 1999, Fastow’s unique financing techniques were being called ground-breaking. He felt like a creative corporate hero, not a criminal. That changed in 2002, when he was indicted on multiple counts of fraud, money laundering and conspiracy. Fastow, of course, went to jail for bending accounting rules. As he recently told Ivey Business Journal, “The fact that I did not see what I was doing as fraud, and the fact that I was not thinking that what I was doing could hurt people, doesn’t mitigate what I did…. When I was in business school, there was only one word — shareholder. And I thought what I was doing was good for shareholders and employees, so I thought I was doing my fiduciary duty.” Fastow had a good upbringing and education, and still inadvertently ended up a participant in one of the largest corporate frauds in U.S. history. Although business education has come a long way since Fastow got his MBA, students may eventually be tempted to cross the line and make ethically challenged decisions under intense pressure to perform from bosses, peers and stakeholders/shareholders. It is imperative that they develop an awareness of the need to internalize a core set of principles by which to live and lead.

• Business ethics
• accounting fraud
• business education
• tax loopholes
• Enron