CheckPoint Impacts of Unethical Behavior
XACC/280
March 11, 2014

The company that I chose to research is Tyco International. Tyco International was involved in an unethical behavior many years ago. Suspicions came up about there being some wrongdoings being done in the accounting department, and there was. At this point an investigation began; after a few years of investigation, in 2002 it was announced that Dennis Kozlowski (Tyco’s former CEO) , Mark Swartz (Tyco’s former CFO), and Mark Belnick (Tyco’s chief legal officer )had taken a total of over $170 million in unauthorized loans from Tyco for their personal uses. These unauthorized loans were all noted as bonuses which the three men seemed to think that no one would ever notice this suspicious activity. If I had been an accountant for this company, I would have reported to whomever I would have had to about my suspicions as soon as I noticed that something indeed was not right about the numbers, because when it comes to business and in life in general I am all about being ethical and doing the right thing. I believe that the criminals in this scandal got the charges that they deserved overall. I am not sure if anything could have really been done to prevent this tragic scandal, but I would just give the company the advice to keep tabs on all of their employees including CEOs and the men and women who may be higher up in the company. I’m sure that this was done on computers so; I would say that keeping tabs on company computer activity would be a good idea also. The effect of unethical behavior on the profitability of the company was that they lost all of that money that was taken from them as well as they lost clients and potential clients due to their tarnished