There’s an interesting short article in the current issue of CFO about Ben and Jerry’s former CFO, Stuart Wiles, scamming some money from the company (Et Tu, Ben and Jerry’s). The article points out the irony of the situation, as the company is widely known for it’s social agenda, and “commitment to create ‘economic opportunities for those who have been denied them.’”

The details of the skim job are surprising in their brazenness:

“From 2000 to 2004, Wiles charged personal expenses to his company credit card and issued company checks for nonexistent obligations, using the funds to pay his own bills. Wiles, who also allegedly scammed the company into paying $58,000 for an addition to his home, agreed to plead guilty to wire fraud.”

There are several things that I find particularly disturbing…

First, what was someone like Wiles doing at a company like Ben and Jerry’s? Something must have gone wrong in the interview process to have allowed him entry into the company. You would think that someone possessing the ability to steal money from a cute cartoon cow who peddles Chunky Monkey would probably have a bit of a culture clash with the rest of the folks there. I wonder if the interview was uncomfortable but Wiles seemed to be the man for the job anyway. Either way, I have a feeling that there was probably some friction between he and the rest of the company (or at least I hope so) that might indicate that they made a poor hiring decision. Because if not, I think I’m going to be pretty paranoid about the hiring process from now on.

Or, perhaps, the feel-good social responsibility angle the company purports is little more than hype. What if it’s just a bunch of fluff and marketing hyperbole and they are actively seeking executives with a certain disregard for ethics. I doubt that is the case, but I’m still left scratching my head as to how a company with such an obvious and strong social and ethical mission would manage to bring on someone like Wiles. Perhaps this is a result of Unilever entering the picture (in 2000). It is feasible that the internal company culture changed significantly, despite the fact that Ben and Jerry’s still operates on its own. If so, what does that say about the efficacy of mergers? They already have a pretty poor reputation in terms of return to investors, but throw in a bit of extra fraud and brand dilution and one has to wonder if they are worth it at all.

Sheesh. I think I’ll go have some Phish Food and try and forget about this whole thing.

TAGS: CFO | CSR | Ethics | Fraud | Ben and Jerry’s

This entry was posted on Monday, November 14th, 2005 at 11:39 pm and is filed under Business Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility, Interesting News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.