Ethics Paper
Jennifer Lancaster
Case Study 5 pg. 246
Business & Professional Ethics Zap 1078
All That Glitters Isn’t Gold 1. Determine the stakeholders in this case. Rank them according to importance and explain your reasoning.
The stakeholders in this case study are David Walsh, John Felderhof, the Indonesian government, Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold, and Mike de Guzman. David Walsh is the most important player in this case. Without him acquiring the land in Indonesia to mine, there wouldn’t be such a scandal to discuss. John Felderhof is next in line. He was hired to be in charge of the mining aspects of the operation. He was one of the first to claim that there were large gold deposits on the Bre-X land, that he suggested David Walsh acquire mining rights to. Mike de Guzman comes next, as he was hired to perform a due-diligence survey on Bre-X, but had asked to cash in his stock options. The Indonesian government and Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold come last as they only wanted a percentage of the profits as decided by the Indonesian government. 2. Examine the red flags identified in Table 1. Explain which of these red flags investors could have reasonably ignored.
Investors could have ignored the fire that broke out at the Busang site, since the cause was never determined and fires at the work site, with gold mining, could be somewhat common. The other red flags shown in Table 1 seem to have significant relevance to the case and I would think that investors would not want to ignore these red flags. 3. What, in your opinion, motivated Felderhof to return to Toronto to defend the charges against him, especially because they were not considered extraditable charges?
I think Felderhof could have been prompted by his attorneys to return to Toronto to defend the charges against him, to make him seem as if he were an innocent party to this case. They wanted to prove that these red flags could be better interpreted as “green flags” and were only problem
Case Study 5 pg. 246
Business & Professional Ethics Zap 1078
All That Glitters Isn’t Gold 1. Determine the stakeholders in this case. Rank them according to importance and explain your reasoning.
The stakeholders in this case study are David Walsh, John Felderhof, the Indonesian government, Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold, and Mike de Guzman. David Walsh is the most important player in this case. Without him acquiring the land in Indonesia to mine, there wouldn’t be such a scandal to discuss. John Felderhof is next in line. He was hired to be in charge of the mining aspects of the operation. He was one of the first to claim that there were large gold deposits on the Bre-X land, that he suggested David Walsh acquire mining rights to. Mike de Guzman comes next, as he was hired to perform a due-diligence survey on Bre-X, but had asked to cash in his stock options. The Indonesian government and Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold come last as they only wanted a percentage of the profits as decided by the Indonesian government. 2. Examine the red flags identified in Table 1. Explain which of these red flags investors could have reasonably ignored.
Investors could have ignored the fire that broke out at the Busang site, since the cause was never determined and fires at the work site, with gold mining, could be somewhat common. The other red flags shown in Table 1 seem to have significant relevance to the case and I would think that investors would not want to ignore these red flags. 3. What, in your opinion, motivated Felderhof to return to Toronto to defend the charges against him, especially because they were not considered extraditable charges?
I think Felderhof could have been prompted by his attorneys to return to Toronto to defend the charges against him, to make him seem as if he were an innocent party to this case. They wanted to prove that these red flags could be better interpreted as “green flags” and were only problem