Eth376

Looking at the legalities and whether or not this case crosses and legal lines took a lot of thought for me. I have determined that what Mr. Campbell did was not illegal. Even though Mr. Campbell did have an agreement in place, between United and Allen Corporation that there would be a delivery in full and shipment would be scheduled for February 1, 2011, it is not illegal to break an agreement and ship early. Campbell even goes so far as to inform Sam Lorenzo the executive vice president of sales and marketing of the situation and Lorenzo assured Campbell that he would have support from top management.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act applies to this case because of Campbell forced a shipment to be recorded in full even though only part of the order had been shipped and none of the order has been paid for. SOX have policies and procedures that pertain to the maintenance of records. Sox states “the records must accurately and fairly reflect the transactions” (Morris, 2011). It is because of actions like to ones that Campbell made, that the SOX-mandated controls to protect the people. The hardest part to enforcing the SOX act is that no one wants to admit that they are manipulating financial statements.
Ethnically the acts of Campbell and United are unfair to Allen Corporation. Campbell made an agreement then changed that agreement to make sure his own company’s financial statements would reflect for the better of the company and not for the people involved.   This transaction can make the books a nightmare for both companies. For United company may have made a partial shipment by the end of the year but the rest of the shipment and the payment will not be received until the next business year. For Allen Corporation they now have to claim inventory on an item for two months that they never expected to have and will not be purchasing for two more months. I have always understood ethics to be “considered what your action will do to yourself and someone else and as long as...