FIP___Faith_Integration_project___Shanelle

A page on accounting-degree.org gives 10 of the most noteworthy scandals

of all time, listing fraud committed by companies like Enron, Freddie Mac, and

WorldCom to name a few . Over the last 2 decades, there have been many cases of

fraud like these that have been brought to the light in some way or another. A few

were brought down by whistle-blowers, some caught by the SEC, and even by

family members. The most pertinent one (turned in by his own sons) is the fraud

perpetrated by Bernard Madoff, which is the largest Ponzi scheme in history

recorded to date. By paying returns to his investors out of their own money or from

money of other investors, he was able to cheat them out of around 64 billion

scheme” (Gregoriou & Lhabitant, 2009). It’s a wonder if standards setters and

external auditors are doing enough. The SEC particularly seems questionable

because they are the ones who are appointed to expose the wrongdoings, and they

failed with Madoff. Each of the frauds that have occurred represents an ethical

compromise and the number of them in the past few decades is quite astounding.

This raises the question: Where are the morals in today’s business and accounting

practices and why is there a decline in ethics?

Gregoriou, G. N., & Lhabitant, F.-S. (2009, Summer). Madoff: a flock of red flags.

Journal of Wealth Management, 12(1), 89+. Retrieved from

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do? id=GALE