Corporate Compliance Benchmarking
The major issues in the business world are governance and compliance. Due to the recent corporate scandals in the media, business owners and executives are being held responsible. As shown in the paragraphs to follow, these white-collar crimes will no longer be easy to commit without repercussions and neither judges nor juries are making it any easier. The Securities Exchange Commission is becoming more and more involved in the day-to-day business of many organizations. In a society where the corporate environment is becoming more lawless, one begins to realize that these occurrences are no longer few and far between, but they seem to be affecting many organizations, large or small. Are American executives simply ethically handicapped? If the decision is made based solely on the organizations that will be discussed, the response has to be yes.
Corporate Governance Violations
WorldCom
WorldCom is the legal name for MCI telecommunications. During the years 1998 through 2001 documents regarding taxes and other accounting information seemed to not be legitimate. In the year 2002, the former chief executive, Bernie Ebbers was involved in this high profile accounting scheme history and later was convicted (Nelson Mullins, 2005, p.1). The answer given by Ebbers when questioned about the $11 billion issue at WorldCom was that he did not understand his job and was completely clues of the scandal (Nelson Mullins, 2005). The excuse is an unforeseen and inexcusable in the eyes of the law and for the company.
WorldCom and the federal government were serious and took action against Ebbers. The company took a huge financial cut and was under public scrutiny. After a huge hit and negative publi ...