“Suit accuses CEO of taking $7M”

Author
Perry Moore, Lipscomb University
Region
North America
Topic
Human Resources & Organizational Behavior
Ethics & Social Justice
Length
3 pages
Keywords
Reputation Risk
ponzi scheme
due diligence
low-balling
background investigations
Reputation Risk
decision matrix
Student Price
$4.00
Target Audience
Graduate Students
Undergraduate Students

Neely Paul was intrigued by the newspaper headline (Underwood, 2006) that accused a local business CEO of embezzling $7 million. The headline reminded Neely of his recent difficulties in using his third-party medical benefit credit card issued by that CEO’s business (1Point Solutions). As Neely investigated and read an ever-increasing supply of news reports, he came to realize that his employer had outsourced administration of the company’s medical/dependent care plans to an entity that appeared to be operating as a Ponzi Scheme. Neely pondered the sufficiency of his employer’s due diligence, the viability of 1Point’s low-ball bid, and the impact of negative events identified through due diligence.

Learning Outcomes
  1. Identify steps to perform due diligence to evaluate proposals from third-party service providers
  2. Demonstrate how a decision matrix can be used to assess such proposals
  3. Evaluate the impact of assessing negative events revealed through due diligence, their impact on reputational risk, and why customers might ignore negative due diligence
  4. Assess whether an apparent ‘low-ball’ proposal is, in fact, a legitimate proposal