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Unethical Behavior by Business LeadersCatherine AlverezGina FiorelloThomas KeithBarbara LeeRebecca NicholsonAmy TomanLDR601Dr. Fick10/16/2013We live in a world where integrity isn’t talked about nearly enough. We live in a world where “the end justifies the means” has become an acceptable school of thought for far too many (Anderson, 2012). Leaders who are in the executive office have more freedom to make chooses and are under increased pressure to succeed. Most executives probably do not plan on making unethical decisions but get tempted along the way either by greed or power. Leaders should stay true to their core values. It starts with surrounding oneself with people who are honest and can help hold leaders accountable and guide them when situations are tough. Servant leaders have a desire to help others and not be focused on their own gain. A leader’s decisions affect the organization and other people’s lives as well. It can take a life time for someone to build a reputation of good character, but a short time to destroy it if you go down the wrong path. According to (Dubrin, 2013), to help leaders decide whether a given act is ethical or unethical is a list of six questions that evaluate the ethics of a specific decision:Is it right? …There are universally accepted guiding principles of rightness and wrongness, such as “thou shalt not steal”Is it fair? …Certain actions are inherently just or unjust. For example, is it unjust to fire a high-performing employee to hire a less competent relative by marriage?Who gets hurt? The question is based on the utilitarian notion of attempting to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people.Would you be comfortable if the details of your decision or actions were made public in the media or through email? This is based on the Universalist principle of disclosureWhat would you tell your child, sibling or young relative to do? This is based on reversibility, which evaluates the decision by reversing the decision maker How does it smell? This question is based on a person’s common sense and intuition… (p.182) There is a price to pay for leaders who do not regularly run contemplated decisions through ethics test.According to Anderson (2012), an example of a leader who has lost his way is a CEO that makes decisions that are not in the best interest of the organization, so the board does not replace them. That person has lost their ability to be trusted, which is the most valuable quality anyone can have. Profit in dollars or power is fleeting, but profit in people who trust you as a person of integrity is forever (Anderson, 2012, p.1). The consequences of unethical leaders can cause companies to go bankrupt or employees to be laid off. Unethical behavior can result in legal consequences or embarrassing press such as the following executives who have been in the media for unethical behavior: Martha Stewart, CEO charged with conspiracy and obstruction of justice; Patricia Dunn, chairwoman authorized a team of independent electronic security experts to spy on other board members to see who leaked sensitive information to the press; Dennis Kowzlowski, CEO did not pay back large sums of money borrowed by company and padded earnings growth; Bernie Ebbers, of MCI/WoldCom was convicted of securities fraud and filing false reports with regulators; Steve Jobs, Co-Founder of Apple and Pixar was accused of back dating stock options and Chung Yong-Koo, Owner of Hyundai Motor Co. faced charges related to embezzlement and corruption (Dubrin, 2010, pp. 183-184). The impact of their unethical decisions has been enormous.Patricia Dunn- Written by Catherine AlverezPatricia Dunn was a former Hewlett-Packard (HP) non-executive chairwoman. Dunn started her position knowing there was considerable conflict between directors. She concentrated her efforts to investigate a leak of internal information of the board that ended up on the front page of the Wall Street Journal on January 24, 2005. As the new chair of the board, her focus was to find the source of the leak. HP’s outside legal firm, failed to determine the source of the leak through interviewing processes and could not put an end to further board leaks (Heritage Institute, 2007, p.2). As a result, Dunn initiated a private internal investigation project on the board-leak issue as early as summer 2005 and along with HP General Counsel who planned and executed the leak probe (Fried & Kerstetter, 2006, p.1). Without the knowledge or consent of the rest of HP board of directors, they hired a private investigation firm, to conduct a search for board leaks. HP has been using a security firm for more than eight years and had strong dependency on its vendor as Dunn called it a ‘captive subsidiary’ for HP. So, HP outsourced much of the activities in the investigation of boardroom leaks to this private investigation firm (Darlin, 2006, p.1). According (Heritage Institute, 2007), the SEC filing, “The use of pretexting at the time of the investigation was not generally unlawful (except with respect to financial institutions), but such counsel could not confirm that the techniques employed by the outside consulting firm and the party retained by that firm complied in all respects with applicable law.”(p.3) According to Darlin stated, (2006), that the documents that the company had provided to government investigators showed that HP was concerned about the legality of the techniques used (Darlin, 2006, p.1). HP began its leak probe with good intentions for the company but used wrong means to find the leak source to the media. Pretexting is the attempts to access phone records by false pretense without obtaining consent and knowledge. This was the means used to find possible connections between HP’s employees, directors, and journalists. Bart Schwartz, a former federal prosecutor, and adviser hired by HP to perform an independent assessment of current investigative practices concluded that HP’s lawyers had concluded that pretexting was legal, but the documents and memorandums sent between the lawyers and detectives show that they had not given much consideration to whether it was ethical’ (Darlin, 2006, p.1).The investigative team presented its report for submission to the board at its meeting on May 18, 2006. The report concluded that the source of the leaks was Dr. Keyworth, who acknowledged that he had leaked confidential information and he was later asked to resign (Heritage Institute, 2007, p.4). Some board members stated that they objected to the matter being brought before the full board and believed the Dunn had agreed that she would handle the matter privately. California's attorney general Bill Lockyer on October 4, 2006, filed four felony, criminal, charges against former Hewlett Packard chairwoman, Patricia Dunn, Kevin T. Hunsaker, a former senior HP employee, and three private investigators involved in HP's leak investigation scandal (Heritage Institute, 2007, p.5). In December 2006, HP settled with the Attorney General’s Office for $14.5 million under the condition that the state would not pursue civil claims against HP or its current and former directors, officers, and employees. In March 2007, a California State judge dismissed the charges against Dunn who had been charged with fraudulent wire communications, wrongful use of computer data, identity theft and conspiracy (Suh, 2010, p. 2). When Dunn asked if she believed pretexting was illegal, she replied, “I have no idea, but it’s wrong” (Shank land, 2006, p.1). According to (Suh, 2010), “Although it remains undetermined whether HP’s use of pretexting was illegal, the HP case illustrates the perils of corporate counsel providing advice regarding conduct that is in a ‘gray area’ of the law. (p.5) Dunn did step down in January, but remained on the board for a short time. Dunn was faced with ethical dilemmas. The board should have been notified that it was being investigated for leaks. Dunn knew that the information that was being leaked could only come from one of the other board members. I believe she did have an obligation to the other board members. Outside investigators should have been picked who would follow the state and federal laws. Companies are being held accountable for the actions of their subcontractors, vendors, and contract manufacturers. HP had an obligation to pick an investigator that respected the rights of the people involved and to follow the values of Hewlett-Packard. Privacy is an important issue for our society today. Should HP be guided by what was legal or by the ambiguous standard of what is ethical? In addition, to employee private numbers, the phone numbers of reporters were accessed. This should never have happened (Hanson, 2006, p, 1).According to (Hanson, 2006), The past episodes of corporate scandals that began with Enron in 2002—have established a clear standard for the management of ethical scandals and other corporate crises the four principles are: Tell everything you know as you learn itApologize early and oftenPunish those who are guilty State clearly what the company has done to make another such incident unlikely The HP board fell short on many of these. Dunn is an example how decisions that are not based on good ethics can have significant consequences. Patricia Dunn died December 4, 2011, at age 58, from a long fight with cancer five years after the HP scandal (Arnold and Turner, 2011, p.1).Bernie Ebbers- Written by Thomas KeithIn 1967 as he graduated college, few would have thought that Bernie Ebbers would someday be a billionaire Chief Executive Officer, presiding over the second largest telecommunications company in the United Stated (Catan, Kirchgaessner, Ratner, and Larsen, 2003). With a degree in physical education from a small, deeply religious Southern Baptist university in Mississippi, Bernie was on course to lead a rather normal life (Catan et al., 2003). Bernie Ebbers was born and raised in Edmonton, Canada. From here Ebbers was recruited by Mississippi College, where he attended on a basketball scholarship (Catan, Kirchgaessner, Ratner, and Larsen, 2003). After graduation he married, began a family and soon moved to Columbia, Mississippi where he purchased a motel with money borrowed from two friends who mortgaged their homes for Ebbers’ investment (Catan, Kirchgaessner, Ratner, and Larsen, 2003). Ebbers’ grew his single motel into a chain of hotels alongside his two business partners who later became initial investors in Long Distance Discount Service, later known as WorldCom (Catan et al., 2003). Long Distance Discount Service suffered a rocky beginning during its startup years (Catan, Kirchgaessner, Ratner, and Larsen, 2003). When Long Distance Discount Service eventually was on the verge of collapse, Ebbers utilized his credit and the equity in his hotel chain to keep the company viable (Catan et al., 2003). Soon after Ebbers' personal investment and backing in Long Distance Discount Service, he was appointed as the organization’s Chief Executive Officer (Catan et al., 2003). “Ebbers knew nothing about engineering and a little about accounting, but had a head for cost cutting and deal making” (Staples, 2002, para. 19). Despite this, Ebbers quickly realized how he could make more money through cost containment, maintaining a small staff and selling more bandwidth at a higher discount than his competitors (Staples, 2002). Ebbers’ business ability led Long Distance Discount Service into a publically traded company in 1989, where he was able to use the company’s stock to buy out an additional seventy five organizations (Staples, 2002).Ebbers continued to grow Long Distance Discount Service through the early 1990’s when he realized there was substantially more money to be made in fiber optics and the internet (Staples, 2002). “This was Ebbers’ one great idea, the one that made him a billionaire” (Staples, 2002, para. 26). Long Distance Discount Service began taking over smaller companies that owned fiber optics, eventually acquiring the fourth largest fiber optic company in the United States at the time (Staples, 2002). Shortly after this merger, Ebbers renamed the larger organization WorldCom (Staples, 2002). In June of 1999, WorldCom’s stock reached an all-time high share price of $64.50 and Ebbers was named in Forbes magazine as the 376th richest man in the world (Staples, 2002). Despite this, Ebbers continued to be valued as a deeply religious man of faith, and garnered an enormous amount of pride from the entire state of Mississippi (Staples, 2002).As WorldCom’s value continued to grow, so did Ebbers’ personal business outside of the WorldCom empire. Over time, Ebbers’ had borrowed over $400 million from banks using the equity in his shares of WorldCom stock (Emerson, 2006). This became problematic in early 2000 when the telecommunication industry’s surge in business began to decline, causing WorldCom’s stock price to plummet in value (Emerson, 2006). The drop in stock price caused Ebbers’ personal banks to begin making margin calls and requiring him to pay back portions of his loans (Emerson, 2006). According to Emerson, Ebbers had used most of his loaned money to purchase non-liquid investments; therefore, Ebbers was forced to use every share of his WorldCom stock as collateral and turned to the WorldCom board of directors for personal loans totaling 408 million dollars (2006).With stock prices on a continued decline, and Ebbers’ personal financial empire tied to the success of WorldCom, Ebbers was under enormous pressure to keep WorldCom stock price high in order to avoid the margin calls from his personal bankers that he could no longer meet (Emerson, 2006). It was at this point that the majority of Ebbers’ fraud began to occur. In order to bolster and maintain stock price, Ebbers directed fraudulent accounting in two basic forms. Ebbers’ accountants reduced line items expenses through capitalization and exaggerated revenues (Emerson, 2006). According to Emerson, the overall objective was to hold reported line costs and continue reporting double-digit revenue growth despite revenues being substantially down (Emerson, 2006). Between 1999 and 2000, WorldCom reduced its reported line costs by approximately 3.3 billion dollars and increased its recorded revenues by over 958 million dollars (Emerson, 2006).In March of 2002, the Securities and Exchange Commission (S.E.C.) announced that it was investigating the accounting practices of several companies, including WorldCom (Emerson, 2006). The S.E.C.’s investigation comprised many facets, including loans to WorldCom’s officers and directors and accounting practices related to accounts receivable recognition (Emerson, 2006). In consideration of the investigation, Ebbers’ personal financial difficulties and complications with WorldCom’s loans, the WorldCom’s board of directors met and decided they would demand Ebbers’ resignation (Emerson, 2006). On April 30, 2002, Ebbers announced that he was stepping down as WorldCom’s Chief Executive Officer (Emerson, 2006). Shortly after Ebbers’ resignation, WorldCom’s internal audit group began its own review, concluding that there had been a number of questionable accounting practices (Emerson, 2006). In June of 2002, WorldCom publically announced that it misstated earnings and would be restating its financial condition (Emerson, 2006). On July 21, 2002, WorldCom filed for Chapter Eleven bankruptcy. WorldCom’s board of directors’ internal investigative committee revealed there were many involved in Ebbers’ misconduct. “Numerous individuals – most of them in the financial and accounting departments at many levels of the Company and in different locations around the world – became aware in varying degrees of senior management’s misconduct” (Emerson, 2006, p. 9). Although several of WorldCom’s top accounting and operating executives were fired and convicted, Ebbers received the harshest fate. In March of 2005, Ebbers was convicted of securities fraud and filing false reports with regulators and sentenced to 25 years in prison (Emerson, 2006). Certainly, Ebbers and his convicted associates were not the only ones who suffered from the fraud and unethical business practices that occurred at WorldCom. “It was not unheard for Mississippians to put eighty to one hundred percent of their retirement savings into one single stock, WorldCom” (Staples, 2002, p. 4). These local investors were so proud of Ebbers, that they maintained their confidence, despite the fraud allegations, right up until losing everything as WorldCom declared bankruptcy. WorldCom’s competitors, including AT&T and other major telecommunications companies made massive cuts and layoffs trying to compete with the lean expenses WorldCom reported (Colvin, 2005). These organizations soon found that it was impossible to operate in such a way, but this did not help those who had already lost their jobs.Bernie Ebbers’ leadership clearly left a wake of terrible outcomes. From jail time and restitution, to layoffs and lost life savings, Ebbers’ greed and unethical business practices negatively affected the lives of thousands. His personal actions, as well as those that supported him, not only damaged the financial security of many; they also damaged consumer confidence in corporate America.Steve Jobs- Written by Rebecca NicholsonSteve Jobs is known best for his role at Apple. He, along with Steve Wozniak, co-founded the Apple company (Steve Jobs, 2006). Always being interested in technology, Steve Jobs obtained a summer internship with Hewlett-Packard the summer before he went to college (Steve Jobs, 2006). Steve Jobs then went to college and started his career. In 1975 is when the first prototype for Apple computer was introduced (Steve Jobs, 2006). Steve Jobs was known as a person that could hire the right people and fire them up to get the results that he wanted (Steve Jobs, 2009). Over the next few years, Job had been forced out of Apple for not being a team player, he had a few failures, and then with the purchase of what is now known as Pixar in 1995 he was on the rise again (Steve Jobs, 2006). It was in 1997 that Jobs returned to the company that he started with the hopes of turning a failing company around (Isaacson, 2013). Between 1997 to 2002 Apple admitted to backdating stock options (Cascini and DelFavero, 2010). Backdating is giving stocks to employees generally executives at the price from an earlier date in time. The price from that date is used as to what the stock was purchased or valued at. That price is always lower than the price of the current day value of the stock. This was legal at the time as long as it was properly reported (Turning back the clock, 2007). In the case of apple it was not. Steve Jobs knew of this practice and suggested good dates for the backdating (Cascini and DelFavero, 2010). In August of 1997 Apple gave stock to 4 executives the next day the value of that stock increased 48% or 7.7 million dollars (Cascini and DelFavero, 2010). In total in the five year period apple admitted to 6428 backdating incidents (Cascini and DelFavero, 2010). Apple took an 84 million dollar charge to fix its accounting (Cascini and DelFavero, 2010). Also the former CFO, Fredrik Anderson, had to give up 3.5 million dollars worth of stock options and pay $150,000.00 fine (Cascini and DelFavero, 2010). The company was further sued by their stockholders but the shareholders could not prove that the practice hurt the stock price (Cascini and DelFavero, 2010). Jobs was acquitted by an internal probe (Cascini and DelFavero, 2010). Jobs went on to increase the Apple name with products like iTunes, iPod, iPad, iPhone, and more (Isaacson, 2013). Steve Jobs was successful in turning the company around. This did not seem to take a toll on his business life and he was able to continue with the Apple company until his death on October 5, 2011. I believe that Jobs could have taken the company either further.Dennis Kozlowski- Written by Amy TomanDennis Kozlowski was born on November 16, 1946. He was raised in a blue collar family in Newark, New Jersey. His family lived in a rough area and he was very poor growing up. He put himself through school and in 1968 he graduated from Seton Hall University. He worked as a waiter and a guitar player in a band to pay his way through school. In his college days he actually quit a job because the wait staff was “pooling money” and not everyone was getting a share (). Mr. Kozlowiski was hired by SCM cooperation in 1970 as an auditor of mergers and acquisitions (). He joined Tyco, Inc. in 1975 and held positions as president of Grinnell Fire Protection Systems division, vice president and chief financial officer of Ludlow Corporation division, and president and CEO of Grinnell Corporation division. In 1989, Dennis Kozlowski was promoted to COO and president and then became the CEO of Tyco in 1992. During his rise to the top, Kozlowski was credited for his ability to turn underperforming businesses into successful entities. He was known for providing employees with lower pay with large performance bonuses. He fired people that did not live up to his standards. It was said that he was an “enterprising and effective manager” (). During his time at Tyco, he was credited with facilitating multiple effective mergers and acquisitions which substantially expanded the company. Under his leadership, he increased revenue by 48.7% and increased Tyco’s stock thirteenfold. As a leader he did not believe in micromanaging different divisions. He gave the leaders the freedom to make decisions as their pay/incentive was linked to department performance (referencefor ). Kozlowski was well compensated for his work. His income went from making 8.8 million in 1996 to 170 million in 1999 (). He also had an extravagant lifestyle and borrowed millions from Tyco to help fund his lavish lifestyle. Some questionable business deals led to an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 1999 but the company was cleared in 2000. Even through this difficulty, Tyco continued to grow and in 2001 was named a top performing company in Business Week. In 2002, Tyco was again being investigated for tax evasion and money laundering. Kozlowski made an attempt to downsize the company. During this time it was brought to light that Kozlowski and his Chief Financial Officer had sold $500 million in stock back to the company and profited about $280 million without the knowledge of the shareholders. It was also determined the company had made 700 acquisitions over a three year period at $8 billion that the shareholders were unaware of. Kozlowski resigned from Tyco in 2002 among allegations of corruption (). The day following Kozlowski’s resignation, he was indicted for tax evasion. He had failed to pay the state of New York $1 million dollars in sales tax for the purchase of fine art. Later that same year, a grand jury indicted him for racketeering schemes, grand larceny, conspiracy, securities fraud, and falsification of records. During his trial it was found that Kozlowski used company money for his personal gain. This included extensive money spent on furnishing his home and even a $2.1 million party for his wife. There was also a possibility of a civil suit by Tyco ().In June of 2005, Kozlowski was convicted of misappropriation of more that $400 million in Tyco corporate funds. He was sentenced to 8 years and 4 months of incarceration at the Mid State Correctional Facility in New York. He was denied parole in April of 2012 and Kozlowski continues to serve his time. He is eligible for parole again in September 2013 (de la Merced, Protess, Davidoff, & Lattman, 2012). Dennis Kozlowski had the potential to have a storybook life, going from a poor child in New Jersey to a multi-million dollar business man who could turn any business into a profitable entity. He had many successes and rose to the top of his profession. Unfortunately, his lack of ethics, integrity, and character took him down a deceitful path. He made decisions that were profitable for him and not the overall company. At first he was able to build up the company and made billions of dollars. Everyone was happy because they were making money. What was not known is how much Kozlowski took from the company and what that cost was to the individuals and shareholders of Tyco. His unethical behavior and unlawful practices led to a criminal conviction and jail time. He failed the company, his family, and himself by not having ethics.Chung Mong-Koo- Written by Barbara LeeChung Mong-Koo was born on March 19, 1938 in Ganguron Province, South Korea. His college education was obtained at Hangang University. His net worth is $ 5.4 Billion. Chung Mong-Koo’s list of accomplishments include CEO, Hyundai Precision and industry 1997, CEO, Hyundai Pipe 1986, CEO Hyundai Motor Service 1987, Chairman and CEO of Hyundai 1996-1998, and Chairman and CEO of Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. CITATION Eri131 \l 1033 (David, 2013). Chung Mong-Koo succeeded his father Chun Ju-Yung, founder of the Hyundai Conglomerate. He is also credited with the improving the reputation and sales of Hyundai vehicles by shifting the automakers emphasis from being only on production to being about quality.In 2006, Chung Mong-Koo and his family were accused by the Seoul Public prosecutor’s office of embezzling 100 billion won or 106 million USD from Hyundai to create slush funds; an auxiliary monetary account or a reserve fund. Slush funds usually coincide with illegality, illegitimacy, or secrecy. In 2006, despite a travel ban, Chung escaped South Korea in April 2006 and was arrested on April 28, 2006 on charges related to embezzlement and corruption. He was convicted in February 2007, and then was sentenced to three years of prison time. Chung was able to remain free on bail, while he appealed the conviction.On September 6, 2007, Chief Judge Lee Jae-Hong ruled to suspend the sentence of Chung Mong-Koo, due to the huge economic impact of Chung’s imprisonment. Judge Lee Jae-Hong ordered Chung to do community service and donate $1 billion to charity instead of prison.Chung continues to contribute to the development and success of Hyundai Motor Group as well as the Korean national economy. In 2009, Hyundai came out with the Hyundai Genesis Luxury Sedan. The Sedan won North Americas Car of the year Award. By 2011, Hyundai motor group was said to be the world’s fourth-largest automaker. In 2012, Chung Mong-Koo was one of the most influential people in Bloomberg Markets Magazine.In conclusion, Chung Mong-Koo was caught doing wrong with company funds and assets. Chung did deserve and receive punishment for it, but never actually did any prison time for it. He got off very lightly compared to some who have been accused of doing the same. He still however had to pay a price.Presently Chun Mong-Koo is on the billionaires list of Forbes Magazine. As of 2012, Chung Mong-Koo sold 7.1 million Kia Hyundai’s and KIAs last year, ranking it fourth in the world in car sales. Chung Mong-Koo also sold 850, cars in China in 2012. (, 2012) Despite Chung Mong-Koo’s wrong doings, he seems to be a profit-making machine.Martha Stewart- Written by Gina FiorelloMartha Stewart is best known as an entrepreneur and self-made billionaire in the home and entertainment industry. Born Martha Kostyra, in 1941 in Jersey City, New Jersey, she was one of six children. In her teenage years, Martha began working in modeling, TV ads and advertising print CITATION Ugl05 \l 1033 (Uglow, 2005). Martha attended Barnard College located in New York City, where she received her degree in architectural and European history CITATION Ugl05 \l 1033 (Uglow, 2005). After marrying and having a daughter, Martha started a job as a stockbroker in New York City. Years later Martha moved her family to Westport, Connecticut where she made her start in business CITATION Ugl05 \l 1033 (Uglow, 2005).Realizing her true passion was in food, crafts and restoring furniture, Martha started a home business, catering weddings and other events. Within a decade, she had turned her venture into a million dollar business CITATION Ugl05 \l 1033 (Uglow, 2005). From this point, Martha continued to move onward and upward by opening a specialty food shop and publishing her first book. Additional books, videotapes, TV specials, and a spot as a contributing editor for Family Circle magazine drove up her popularity even more CITATION Ugl05 \l 1033 (Uglow, 2005). In 1990, Martha started her own magazine called Martha Stewart Living, followed by a TV show with the same name. Martha covered home and entertaining related topics including food, decorating, restoration and crafts and her fans couldn’t get enough. Interested in building her brand even more, Martha Stewart expanded into Martha Stewart Omnimedia Inc. and became a billionaire CITATION Ugl05 \l 1033 (Uglow, 2005). Martha Stewart’s rise to the top has been due to extreme drive and determination. One to take the lead and get things done, Martha has high expectations of both her and those working for her. As a leader, she could be thought of as having an autocratic leadership style. Autocratic leaders are assertive, goal-orientated decision makers who don’t necessarily look for group input or feedback. Commonly seen behaviors in an autocratic leader are “telling people what to do, asserting themselves, and serving as a model for team members” (Dubrin, 2010, p.114). Although this description is a good fit for Martha Stewart, she also fits into a participative style leadership role at times. Martha is willing to work with staff or spend time building confidence in team members. Martha also coaches her viewers and fans to believe they can do any type of cooking, crafting or entertaining; just like Martha does. Martha uses this leadership style to inspire millions of fans, and business for Martha Stewart Omnimedia Inc. has boomed in response. Despite the huge success she was experiencing, in June of 2003, Martha Stewart was indicted on charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and securities fraud for a stock trade made in 2001 CITATION Hay03 \l 1033 (Hays, 2003). The charges were stemmed from her sale of ImClone stock one day before share prices plummeted due to a company announcement. The announcement entailed government denial for approval of a powerful cancer drug called Erbitux, made by ImClone. The founder of ImClone, Samuel D. Waksal was a close personal friend of Stewart, causing increased speculation of insider trading; however insider trading was not one of the official charges brought against her. The same day as charges were pressed against her, Martha Stewart stepped down as a chairperson for Martha Stewart Omnimedia Inc. Martha pleaded not guilty to charges and at trial prosecutors tried to demonstrate that Stewart and her stockbroker, Peter Bacanovic attempted to cover up evidence and falsify documents CITATION Eve04 \l 1033 (Jury 'Confusion' over Charges May Help Martha Stewart, 2004). On March 5, 2004 Martha Stewart was found guilty on all counts and headed cautiously optimistic into the sentencing stage. Martha Stewart’s lawyers suggested a sentence of 1,000 hours of community service, at the Women’s Venture Fund; a center that offers no cost financial advice to low income women CITATION Mer04 \l 1033 (Cohn, 2004). The attempt failed, and Martha Stewart was sentenced to five months in jail and five months of house arrest to follow. Martha asked to immediately start serving her prison term while her conviction was being appealed so that she could put the issue behind her and move on CITATION Fra05 \l 1033 (Francis, 2005). Stock prices for Martha Stewart Omnimedia Inc. actually rose between the time that Martha entered and was released from prison. It looked as if fans and investors around the world had forgiven the domestic goddess and respected the fact that she owned up to her mistakes and paid her dues. Martha Stewart never let her legal troubles bring her down and her brave showing during trial, post-trial and prison time was admirable to many. Martha did not seem to lose popularity, and she picked up right where she left off before the situation began however, Martha’s popularity with her fans has not been reflected in the financial situation of her company. Although stock prices held fairly firm after the release of Martha Stewart from prison, they have steadily dropped over the past eight years. From a high of $37.45 seen on February 28, 2005, stock for Martha Stewart Omnimedia, Inc. has dropped to a range of $2.00-3.00 per share CITATION Mar131 \l 1033 (Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., 2013). This information shows the domestic diva should refocus, analyze and formulate a more successful business plan moving forward. Martha, along with her top executives had to determine which businesses to continue, adapt, or sell. In the meantime, Martha remains extremely popular to the mass public and she is considered a celebrity all over the world. If success is based on popularity, Martha Stewart is very successful; but if based on financials, Martha Stewart is currently failing. Knowing the drive and determination that Martha Stewart has, it will be interesting to see where the next five to ten years take her business. Leaders are faced with many different decisions that affect the companies and the people that work for them. As we have seen throughout this paper, some leaders unfortunately make unethical decisions that negatively affect themselves, the company, and those that support them. Some of the consequences included jail time, fine, penalties, loss of employment, or even embarrassment and negative publicity. It appears that the behaviors of unethical leaders eventually catch up to them and they must live with the consequences. They also have to come to terms with the people that were affected by their decisions. The business world is a very competitive place and everyone is trying to make some money and be successful. However, it is important to remain responsible and ethical when making decisions or live with the consequences of unethical behavior. References(2013). Retrieved 10 10, 2013, from : (2007). Turning back the clock. Nature, 445(7125), 249. , A. (2012, November 28). Success will come and go, but integrity is forever. Forbes.Arnold, L., & Turner, N. (2011). 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