Professional Ethics: A Theranos Story

The downfall of Elizbeth Holmes, founder of Theranos, has been told in many formats (books, podcasts, television). However, the story of Theranos, the company, the employees and other stakeholders have not been examined in-depth, especially from the perspective of ethical decision making and organizational culture.

In this webinar, we will explore the Theranos fraud and key stakeholders using IESBA’s (International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants) five fundamental principles of ethics as the framework for our investigation:

• Integrity
• Objectivity
• Professional competence and due care
• Confidentiality
• Professional Behaviour

We will also examine how a lack of psychological safety and a toxic organizational culture compromised the ethical decision-making process of numerous stakeholders.

This course qualifies for 2.0 verifiable ethics hours

Learning objectives:

1. Defining IESBA’s five fundamental principles of ethics
2. Summarizing the key events and dates of the Theranos fraud
3. Identifying the key stakeholders of Theranos
4. Illustrating what when wrong with Theranos using each of the five fundamental principles of ethics
5. Explaining how low psychological safety and a toxic organizational culture contributed to the fraud and poor ethical decision making

Speaker: Garth Sheriff, CPA, CA, CPA (Illinois) CIA, CGMA, MAcc