Case Study - Business Ethics

Please answer the following questions within 2 pages. No plagiarism. Introduction - what is the context or background of the case? What is the key problem/pressure/issue in the case? Who are the main actors in the case? What are the main fraudulent activities in the case? What are the solutions/results in the case? Bibliography - 3-4 outsides sources suggested How could this fraud have been prevented? List as many controls as you can.

Banking Fraud

The Bankers Bidding Bust

Kevin J. O'Keefe, who was a vice president at Fleet Bark (end Bank of America after it acquired fleet Bank) in Hartford, Connecticut, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit financial institution bribery and to bank fraud in connection with a scheme he cooked up with attorney Paul Aparo, who also pleaded guilty, and a Connecticut real estate developer, identified by the Justice Department only as "Individual B.

The scheme. According to documents filed with the court and statements made during the case proceedings, Aparo, O'Keefe, and Individual B corrupted the bidding process on distressed loans that Fleet Bank was selling by colluding to set up shell companies through which to submit bids on the loans and with which to receive and distribute proceeds from the scheme.

The key to the scheme was that OKeefe had access to confidential information belonging to Fleet Bank and provided that information to Aparo and Individual B so they could use it to submit winning bids on distressed loans. OKeefe also intentionally provided outdated information to rival bidders in order to cause those bidders to submit artificially low bids.

OKeefe also excluded bidders who he, Aparo, and Individual B believed would submit competitive bids for a distressed loan on which they wanted to bid.

Aparo admitted that Individual B paid him and O'Keefe $100,000 on one loan that Individual B obtained through the corrupt assistance of Aparo and O'Keefe. Individual B also agreed to pay a shell company, referred to in court documents as LA, 15 percent of the profits on a second distressed loan on which Individual B together with Aparo and O Keefe's "corrupt assistance", had submitted a winning bid. The 15 percent that individual B paid to LA through his own shell company amounted to more than $1.4 million, which Aparo and OKeefe split evenly.