The Tales of a White-Collar Criminal: Can You Ever Ethically Recover?

Abstract

This case study presents guidelines on introducing real-world, white-collar fraud scenarios into the classroom by promoting critical thinking and utilizing three steps: identify, analyze, and conclude. This paper encourages educators to incorporate presentations from former white-collar criminals into classroom discussions. Our case study was tested by inviting our students to a presentation given by the former Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Enron, Mr. Andrew Fastow, about his white-collar crimes. Based on a voluntary survey provided to the students after completion, we found that case study drastically increased student interest in ethics. They reported gaining a new perspective and becoming more aware of ethical and unethical behaviors; they were better prepared to face ethical dilemmas in the future. This case can be adopted for any former white-collar criminal speaker.