Ethical Business Challenges Identify the Ethical and

Ethical Business Challenges Identify the ethical and legal issues of which Gerard needs to be aware. Gerard definitely needs to be aware of the potential conflicts of interest that he is currently dealing with. There are many rules and regulations that protect the firm's clients from any kind of disclosure of their internal state of affairs. Obviously some of the information will be disclosed as public information once the accounting documents are released to the public, but even giving out public information before the official release is considered a crime.

Even if Gerard would avoid criminal charges, the fact that he is disclosing information could be bad for the firm because it will lose its integrity amongst its clientele. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each decision Gerard has made and could make. Gerard needs to focus on his career and support his family; especially given his personal circumstance. However, he should do so by maintaining his integrity and the integrity of the firm.

He could use his insider information to invest and probably make money but this would be a bad decision. Discuss the issues of accounting firms going into the financial services market. Accounting firms that enter the financial services market must be very careful about how they structure their business and how they operate. It is generally better to either specialize in one or the other even though the profits can be appealing. Discuss the types of groups that are influencing Gerard.

Gerard is being influence by upper level management, his peers, his clients, as well as his own personal situation. Expand on how the Sarbanes-Oxley Act impacts organizational culture and why federal oversight like this is needed. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act expanded the auditing powers of the IRS and made many provisions that are intended to ensure accuracy in reporting as well as transparency. The act was mandated after the last recession which was largely due to unethical business practices and was intended to hold firms more accountable for their accounting procedures.

It has likely introduced a more cautious culture that has to do more to ensure compliance with the new rules. Additionally, Linda Thomsen mentions in the podcast that she expects.