Resisting Corporate Corruption, 3rd edition, is intended for use by Business School faculty in a full semester MBA course. Selected cases are also recommended for incorporation into Law School and continuing legal education (CLE) courses. Corporations and financial firms will find many of the cases helpful for business practices and ethics training.

The book is best used within a full semester framework. The 1st edition provided the central text for a 13 week course, Finance and Ethics, at the University of Houston’s C. T. Bauer College of Business. This course was taught from 2008–2014. Students typically prepared and presented solutions to two cases per class. The solutions emphasized the method discussed in the Essay: How to Work an Ethics Case (see Essay 1). The professor supplemented the case work with short lectures introducing controls-related subjects and business practice issues, e.g., the role of internal audit, guidelines for related party transactions. Finally, notable resisters were brought into class to review proposed solutions to their cases. These visitors included Enron’s Sherron Watkins, Jordan Mintz, and Vince Kaminski, and Eric Kolchinsky of Moody’s.

The Enron case solutions developed from this course work were compiled and are available in the Solutions Manual to Resisting Corporate Corruption. This CD can be obtained from www.scrivenerpublishing.com. Teachers considering use of the 3rd edition are encouraged to look at the Solutions Manual. It will provide concrete examples of the kinds of tactical toolkits and plans which were alluded to in the Preface. Since business ethics is not physics, these solutions may not be the only or even the best possible plans. The key point is to get students thinking within this framework and motivated to find better solutions within today’s circumstances.

Resisting Corporate Corruption, 3rd edition, now consists of 27 case studies, versus 17 in the 1st edition. A typical 13 week semester course can readily accommodate 22 case presentations. This leaves time for introductory material and a midterm. This approach also leaves room for including outside material and some cases that can be used as exams.

Individual cases can be assigned as exams. “Court Date Coming in California” served this purpose in the UH-Bauer courses, with students asked to produce PowerPoint slides framing a solution and draft letters providing instructions to Enron executives and outside counsel. Other cases used as final exams include Subprime Heading South at Bear Stearns and Write to Rubin. Instructors interested in viewing examples of these exams can contact the author at [email protected].

Several cases make use of attachments labeled “Historical Recreation.” Most times these are presented as draft documents meant to capture a protagonist’s thinking or the work of a staff member. It is important to note that these are not actual historical documents. Rather, they are teaching materials designed to provide background and frame choices for the case decision maker. This technique has been used because the public record frequently provides relevant information, just not in the condensed format most compatible with a case study. Where this technique is used, faculty should consult the Author’s Note at the end of the case. It will describe the reasons for providing the attachment and the source material on which it is based.

Law and financial training courses will want to select individual cases suited to their particular focus. For example, several cases contain material on securities laws, SEC rules, and the challenges of public disclosure from a difficult set of facts. Others discuss the role of internal audit and its need to sustain political support for investigations into sensitive areas. These cases can provide a practical dose of reality to complement a fundamental treatment of what the law says or how audits are conducted.

Select cases (and central issues) recommended for use by Law Schools and CLE programs include:

• New Counsel for Andy Fastow (SEC disclosure, use of outside counsel)
• Court Date Coming in California (Severe legal exposure, unhelpful counsel opinion)
• Lay Back … and Say What? (SEC Rule 10b-5 exposure & CEO public remarks)
• Whistleblowing before Imploding in Accounting Scandals (Whistleblowers pre-SOX)
• Take CitiMortgage to the Feds? (False Claims, Dodd-Frank Acts’ whistleblower incentives)

Specific cases recommended for internal business practice/ethics training include:

• Enron Oil Trading A & B (Audit irregularity investigations & management political support)
• Enter Mark-to-Market: Exit Accounting Integrity? (Manipulative accounting and interaction with firm’s CPA)
• Adjusting the Forward Curve in the Back Room (Manipulative accounting tied to “Mark-to-Model” assumptions)
• Write to Rubin? Pressure on Underwriting Standards at Citigroup (Control structures in large organizations; political pressures on underwriting practices)
• Take CitiMortgage to the Feds? (Quality assurance and reporting of major violations)
• Too Big to Know What’s Going On at Banamex? (Financial control, fraud and collusion at an overseas affiliate, FCPA implications)

Finally, faculty needs to strike a certain balance in the perspective brought to teaching this material. When discussing how to resist unethical behavior, there is a need to impress upon students that they enjoy more tactical options than is widely imagined. Conventional wisdom often argues that tough cases distill down to “go along” or “go.” This mentality needs to be challenged. The cases provided here should convey that many more options exist, and that individuals have already used them successfully. Individual resistance can make a difference, even in pretty dire circumstances.

At the same time, the difficulties awaiting resisters should not be underplayed. Students unlucky enough to face circumstances analogous to those of Watkins, Kolchinsky, Lee or Hunt will not have an easy time. Knowing their stories, knowing too the new legal protection and communication options in play, can help them confront the difficult choices they face.

Instilling the broader perspectives offered by these cases may also enable future executives to spot and defuse ethics problems before they reach the critical conditions portrayed in this book.