Reference no: EM132578286

Question - In December, 2008, former Merrill Lynch Chairman, John Thain spent over $1.2 million dollars to renovate his office even though Merrill Lynch was fighting to survive. By the way, John Thain's annual salary was reportedly $83.1 million dollars for 2008. (Do some research here.) To make matters worse, Mr. Thain decided to pay out over $3 billion dollars in bonuses to employees at year's end even though he knew his company was being acquired by Bank of America January 1, 2009. What's worse is Bank of America asked for a $25 billion bailout from the U.S. Government, and then went back and asked for $20 billion more (after the brouhaha came out about Merrill Lynch's employees receiving bonuses). Also, Bank of America was made aware that Mr. Thain was paying bonuses at year end.

Answer (with explanations) the following questions:

(1) Was John Thain's actions ethical given the nature of the economy?

(2) Was Mr. Thain looking out for Merrill Lynch's external as well as internal stakeholders?

(3) Does Bank of America have any complicity here in regard to its own Ethics?