(Lenzner, 2008) When scrutiny revealed that Madoff has for years fabricated these returns as a way to court wealthy investors, his would prove to be both the largest of such scams in history and demonstrative of the ethical void defining today's corporate culture. Indeed, "the shocking revelation that prominent investment manager Bernard Madoff's hedge fund, Ascot Partners, was a giant scam will intensify redemptions from scores of other hedge funds that will be forced to liquidate holdings and increase downward pressure on stock prices." (Lenzner, 2000) This pattern is tied to the perception that behaviors such as those demonstrated by Madoff, and by Fuld and Stewart for that matter, are indicative of corporate culture absent of ethics, an individual disposition of moral ambivalence and an overarching detachment of corporate culture from a healthy or mainstream value system. In correspondence with the primary text by Ferrell et al., this constitutes a negative culture for the persistence of sound corporate and economic dynamism and is no small...

(2008). Prosecutors Subpoena ex-Lehman CEO Richard Fuld. Nachrichten English News. Online at http://www.welt.de/english-news/article2595425/Prosecutors-subpoena-ex-Lehman-CEO-Richard-Fuld.html
Changing Minds. (2009). Values, Morals and Ethics. Changing Minds.org. Online at http://changingminds.org/explanations/values/values_morals_ethics.htm

Cline, a. (2008). Ethics, Morals, Values: How Do They Relate? About Philosophy. Online at http://atheism.about.com/library/FAQs/phil/blfaq_phileth_values.htm

Ferrell, O.C., Hirt, G., & Ferrell, L. (2007). Business -- a Changing World, 6th edition. McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Healy, G. (2004). Individual Liberty, Free Markets, and Peace: Lessons of Martha Stewart Case. CATO Institute.

Lenzner, R. (2008). Bernie Madoff's $50 Billion Ponzi Scheme. Forbes Magazine. Online at http://www.forbes.com/2008/12/12/madoff-ponzi-hedge-pf-ii-in_rl_1212croesus_inl.html