Betty Vinson Case Summary

Question: There is no question that Ms. Vinson acted unethically in the case but I believe that the central question is to what extent did she alone act unethically. In other words, how much she was influenced by her bosses and was there ever a point in which she should have taken matters into her own hands by quitting or putting an end to the fraud.
Facts: The case study explains a situation of Betty Vinson, a women who started as a midlevel accountant at a small long-distance company. The company then grew up to be telecom giant WorldCom Inc. Ms. Vinson’s work began to change in 2000, when the telecommunications industry was in a slump. The company had 685 million dollars in unpaid bills and they were far off from their target profit. Then

You will have competence if you perform professional duties in accordance with relevant laws, regulations, and technical standards.
4. You will have integrity if you refrain from engaging in any conduct that would prejudice carrying out duties ethically.
Discussion:
Ms. Vinson acted unethically because she transferred billions of dollars of line costs to capital-expenditures and reserve accounts to increase profits. (IMA III. 2) Integrity, “Refrain from engaging in…”. Ms. Vinson knew that it was unethical to falsify profits in order for the company’s financial statements to look better, but she did it anyways ruining her integrity. Ms. Vinson broke the law because line costs are to be counted as operating leases and it is illegal to expense them as capital-expenditures, as this decreases expenses substantially. (IMA I. 2) Competence, “Perform professional duties in accordance…”. Ms. Vinson knew that this was illegal but she did it anyways. Ms. Vinson acted immorally because she did not communicate the right financial statements to the general public who use them for investing purposes. (IMA IV. 1) Credibility, “Communicate information fairly…”. Ms. Vinson did not communicate the profits of the company to the general public