Given all of the qualities a bank should look for in an employee, ethical behavior should be at the top of the list. However, business ethics is not always top of mind in the hiring process – and that is tragic.
As an ethics keynote speaker, ethics consultant and author, something that has bothered me for quite some time is “who get trained and who don’t.” Sometimes top management begrudgingly acquiesces to training and sometimes they mandate middle management. Ethics training – and its reinforcement, should equally affect everyone in an organization.
The Case of Karen Farrell Tigler
Tigler was barely in her twenties when she was hired by the Hancock Whitney Bank in New Orleans. Tigler was hired January 1, 2013, and worked to November 14, 2016.
She was young and impressionable and as with many bank tellers, she was barely making above a living wage. She averaged about $20,000 per year. I am, by no means excusing the young woman, for many tellers are extraordinarily responsible. Nevertheless, with a lack of oversite and a lack of ethical training and its reinforcement, the temptations are potentially overwhelming.
Early in 2015, Tigler was put into a position to assist a customer who was by then about 85-years-old. Not only are the elderly more vulnerable in general, but all customers – regardless of age – are especially vulnerable to retail bank employees. Trust is a huge issue. If the ethical contract between employee and customer is not in place, problems can and do surface.
In Tigler’s case, she embezzled about $350,000 from the elderly client using about 100 counter checks to steal from the account. She broke confidence and trust to forge the client’s signature. She was “sophisticated enough” to mark the checks for activities such as “roofing” or home renovation.
Leading down the path
Tigler failed to report the checks she deposited from the IRS in her tax returns. She knew she was in error. In fact, a relative of the elderly victim confronted Tigler about the missing funds and Tigler’s response was to blame the woman’s the housekeeper. My guess (and only a guess) was that there was possibly racism at play in the accusations.
In addition to the money, she failed to report that was stolen, she also failed to report more than $32,000 in 2015 gambling winnings. It raises the specter that Tigler stole the money because she had an uncontrolled gambling problem. This also talks to a failure in ethical behavior.
When the walls came crashing down on her, she pled guilty and could be facing up to 30 years in prison plus supervised release. She will be sentenced on August 3, 2022.
Ethically speaking, as is typical, there are no winners in this fraud. The elderly woman and the young bank teller will be forever linked. As an ethics motivational speaker and ethics consultant, I have seen far too many such cases.
In the short-term, the elderly woman will feel the pain of losing her savings to greed and fraud. In the long-term, the young woman will forever be marked by her choices. Granted, I hope she takes advantage of a second chance but she will bear the consequences of those choices every painstaking day.
The bank failed in its hiring role but more so, in not constantly teaching and reinforcing ethics training. In that regard, everyone in the organization ultimately bears culpability.
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