The Business Ethics Blog

What a great story: it’s got titilation, philanthropy, and executive malfeasance. It’s downright Shakespearean.
From Reuters: “Charity exec who stole to pay dominatrix gets jail”. [Dead link deleted Nov. ’08]

An executive at a heart disease charitable foundation who embezzled close to a quarter of a million dollars over two years to pay a dominatrix to beat him was sentenced Tuesday to two to six years in prison.

Abraham Alexander, an accounts payable executive at the Manhattan Cardiovascular Research Foundation, admitted to stealing $237,162 and spending most of it on services provided by a Columbus, Ohio-based dominatrix called Lady Sage.

Manhattan prosecutors said Alexander, a Singapore-born citizen of India, had forged or altered checks payable to himself, to two credit card companies and to an online-based dominatrix company called Through the Looking Glass.

Not much to say about this one, except maybe that this story will get WAY more attention than it deserves (and yes, I’m guilty here) because Alexander spent the stolen money on a dominatrix, rather than on something passé like sports cars or cocaine. Oh, and this story also shows that the term “business ethics” needs to be interpreted broadly, as referring to ethical issues that arise in all sorts of organizations (not just for-profit corporations).

Links:
Lady Sage’s website (warning: mild sexual content)
Cardiovascular Research Foundation
Books on ethics for non-profit organizations
Books on sexual ethics