Econintersect: Two days ago GEI News reported on a survey that found from one quarter to more than a third of financial services personel would commit felonies if they thought they could get away with them, many felt that their supervisors would turn a blind eye to such activities and more than half felt that their competitors engaged in illegal or unethical behavior. Friday, later in the day after the GEI News post, a story in The Daily Beast recounted how ethical problems can begin early, while future business leaders are still in college.
Click on picture for larger image.
Picture from The Daily Beast.
An 22-year old undergraduate business major was convicted last week of identity theft following an FBI investigation. From The Daily Beast:
Matthew Weaver, a junior at California State University, San Marcos near San Diego, was sentenced Monday to a year in prison after he pleaded guilty to stealing login information from hundreds of classmates so he could cast phony votes to elect himself class president.
This was not just an ego trip. Had Weaver been able to win the election he would have received an $8,000 a year stipend and would have had control of a $300,000 annual budget. Perhaps he envisioned this as a great educational opportunity to learn first hand how to conduct accounting control fraud.
Weaver’s attorney argued that obtaining a felony conviction of a “kid who rigged a school election” was not warranted.
Econintersect suggests that a felony conviction when control of $300,000 was involved could be justified as appropriate before the person got control of $3 trillion and became too big to jail.
Sources:
- Financial Industry is Ethically Challenged (GEI News, 19 July 2013)
- From Frat House to Jail: Student Heads to Prison After Election Fraud (Eliza Shapiro, The Daily Beast, 19 July 2013)
