Ethics confusion about professional work setting

[SHoot85]

VERY confused as to how this question violates the code/standards. CFAI make it pretty explicit that conduct that violates the code/standards must concern the person’s professional life. Is this just a poor Mock question? I don’t condone what the guy did, but fail to see how this will impact his professional life, aside from maybe being late to the meeting.

Albert Nyakenda, CFA, was driving to a client’s office where he was expected to close a multimilliondollar
deal, when he was pulled over by a traffic policeman although he did not believe he
had violated any traffic laws. When Nyakenda realized the policeman planned to wrongly ticket him
for speeding, he offered to buy him “lunch” so that he could quickly get to his client’s office. The
lunch would cost significantly more than the ticket. The alternative was to go to the police station and
file a complaint of being wrongly accused that would also involve going to court the next day to
present his case. Did Nyakenda most likely violate the CFA Institute Code of Ethics?

• No, because the cost of lunch is more than the ticket
• No, because he was wrongly accused
• Yes

Nyakenda was effectively trying to bribe the policeman so that he would not issue a speeding ticket.
This action violates the Code of Ethics. Despite feeling he was wrongly accused, it is only his opinion,
and may not be based on fact or upheld in a court of law. Nyakenda has a responsibility to act with
integrity and in an ethical manner as required by the Code of Ethics.
2014 CFA Level I
“Guidance for Standards IVII,”
CFA Institute

 

[tickersu]

The first two choices don’t address the fact that he tried to bribe someone (especially a police officer). The point is it is unethical, illegal, and may bring scrutiny to the CFA designation or investment profession by having someone act in this manner (whereas a trespassing arrest during a protest doesn’t reflect poorly on the designation/profession, as they’ve given this example before). I’ve found that going back and reading the CFAI text for a certain standard is helpful.
If he didn’t try to bribe the officer, I don’t think there would be any issue at all, even if he was speeding (he isn’t at work doing something foolish, and it doesn’t undermine his ability/integrity as a professional).

 

[SHoot85]

tickersu wrote:
The first two choices don’t address the fact that he tried to bribe someone (especially a police officer). The point is it is unethical, illegal, and may bring scrutiny to the CFA designation or investment profession by having someone act in this manner (whereas a trespassing arrest during a protest doesn’t reflect poorly on the designation/profession, as they’ve given this example before). I’ve found that going back and reading the CFAI text for a certain standard is helpful.
If he didn’t try to bribe the officer, I don’t think there would be any issue at all, even if he was speeding (he isn’t at work doing something foolish, and it doesn’t undermine his ability/integrity as a professional).

I understand what you’re saying; in fact in the exam I’d probably slide with C just b/c A and B are terrible answers. However if there was an option for “No, because although it was unethical, it was not in the professional universe” I would most likely choose that.
I did go back and read the text: here’s a direct quote “Although CFA Institute discourages any sort of unethical behaviour by members and candidates, the C & S are primarily aimed at conduct and actions related to a member’s or candidate’s professional life.”
So it’s a little tricky to me. Unless this somehow goes public, which I doubt you would ever see in the news “Joe Blow got pulled over for speeding and tried to offer money to drop ticket” etc, it’s hard for me to fathom this type of thing impacting his professional career. That being said I suppose he could get arrested for it (attempting to bribe police officer) now that I think about it, lol, so you’re probably right.

 

[Jsnazz]

Yeah, it reflects poorly on the profession. “Investment manager tries to bribe cop.”…the typically the questions that are personal deal with things like protest, etc. Don’t reflect badly on the profession. Now if he was just pulled over for speeding, got a ticket, and that is it, no misconduct.

 

[achokshi]

I was also thrown for somewhat of a loop when I hit this question BUT answered yes due to one aspect of the paragraph:
Albert Nyakenda, CFA, was driving to a client’s office where he was expected to close a multimilliondollar deal, when he was pulled over by a traffic policeman although he did not believe he had violated any traffic laws. When Nyakenda realized the policeman planned to wrongly ticket him for speeding, he offered to buy him “lunch” so that he could quickly get to his client’s office. The
lunch would cost significantly more than the ticket. The alternative was to go to the police station and file a complaint of being wrongly accused that would also involve going to court the next day to
present his case. Did Nyakenda most likely violate the CFA Institute Code of Ethics?
Even though it is technically outside of work, because the trip was for work, it made me choose yes because the drive was tangentially related to a professional activity.
Good luck this Saturday!