Ethics Case 26.10

This case concerns a company by the name of Actors Equity, an employee and Bank of New York. In 1982 Actors Equity were in search of a new comptroller. After reviewing applications, they chose Nicholas Scotti as their new comptroller. In his application, he stated that he had held various financial positions with reputable companies. Actors Equity chose to offer Mr. Scotti the position without contacting previous employees and conducting a background check.
Actors Equity maintained a checking account at the Bank of New York. Within the first six months Scotti forged the signature of the appropriate employees on four checks totaling $100K. All checks were made payable to N. Piscotti. The bank paid the checks. Once Scotti resigned Actors Equity conducted some research and they found that Scotti’s real name was actually N. Piscotti. Actors Equity sued the drawee bank to recover the $100K.
In this case Scotti did not act ethically. First, he lied about his real nam...