Skip to main content

Video Series

Scandals Illustrated

Ethical dilemmas are everywhere — in sports, business, politics, entertainment, academia, and so on. The deeds are surprising, but the ethical insights are familiar. Brief, animated videos summarize scandals, and detailed case studies offer insight.

Academic Fraud at UNC

Academic Fraud at UNC

UNC Chapel Hill enrolled student athletes with poor academic performance in fake classes so they would remain eligible to play. The classes soon enabled widespread academic fraud.

View

Armstrong’s Doping Downfall

Armstrong’s Doping Downfall

Cyclist Lance Armstrong thought his use of performance-enhancing drugs was a way to level the playing field in a sport with pervasive doping.

View

Baylor’s Silence on Sexual Assault

Baylor’s Silence on Sexual Assault

While the Baylor University football team was winning on the field, university officials failed to take action when allegations of sexual assault by student athletes emerged.

View

Collapse at Rana Plaza

Collapse at Rana Plaza

The deadly collapse of a garment factory building in Bangladesh stirs debate over worker safety in the effort to drive down prices for international manufacturers and consumers.

View

College Admissions Scandal

College Admissions Scandal

A college admissions prep advisor told wealthy parents that while there were front doors into universities and back doors, he had created a side door that was worth exploring.

View

Compounding Illness

Compounding Illness

The New England Compounding Center, a compounding pharmacy, knowingly produced and shipped contaminated drugs, leading to a deadly outbreak of meningitis.

View

Countrywide’s Subprime Scandal

Countrywide’s Subprime Scandal

Countrywide Financial was one of the largest mortgage lenders in the United States, but CEO Angelo Mozilo did not heed his own warnings in the lead-up to the 2007 financial crisis.

View

Daraprim Price Hike

Daraprim Price Hike

While many were outraged when the price of Daraprim rose from $13.50 per tablet to $750, Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Skreli saw himself as a Robin Hood.

View

EpiPen: Out of Reach

EpiPen: Out of Reach

Pharmaceutical company Mylan defends the drastic price increase of EpiPen, but patients who need the drug question Mylan’s reasons for the outrageous spike.

View

Equifax’s Breach of Trust

Equifax’s Breach of Trust

Credit reporting agency Equifax took several weeks to respond to a cybersecurity data breach, putting millions of people at risk of identity theft.

View

Final Exam Heist

Final Exam Heist

University of Kentucky student Henry Lynch II crawled through the ducts of his professor’s office to steal the final exam, but later confessed to the crime.

View

Making the Grade

Making the Grade

Lofty standardized testing goals and unequal resources lead teachers and administrators in the Atlanta Public Schools district to cheat.

View

OxyContin & the Opioid Epidemic

OxyContin & the Opioid Epidemic

Purdue Pharma aggressively marketed OxyContin as a safe pain medicine. As sales and profits increased, so did the number of patients addicted to painkillers.

View

OxyContin: Whale Watching

OxyContin: Whale Watching

Doctors who overprescribed OxyContin were nicknamed “whales” by Purdue Pharma. While doctors pushed pills, Purdue’s profits were pushed to new heights.

View

Packing Peanuts for Profit

Packing Peanuts for Profit

Fearing a loss of profits, the Peanut Corporation of America knowingly shipped peanuts that were contaminated with salmonella.

View

Penn State Scandal

Penn State Scandal

Following the conviction of assistant coach Jerry Sandusky for sexual abuse, debate continues on how much university officials and head coach Joe Paterno knew of the crimes.

View

Research Conflicts at UT Austin

Research Conflicts at UT Austin

University of Texas at Austin professor Chip Groat did not see a conflict of interest between his research on hydraulic fracturing and his payments from a Houston-based fracking company.

View

Samsung’s Political Connections

Samsung’s Political Connections

Samsung leader Lee Jae-yong used his company’s economic power to influence president Park Geun-hye, sparking a corruption scandal and political fallout.

View

Steering Student Athletes

Steering Student Athletes

Apparel companies, financial advisers, and managers bribed coaches and families to persuade top student athletes to attend certain schools.

View

Tesco Cooks the Books

Tesco Cooks the Books

Amid declining sales, British supermarket chain Tesco overstated profits to maintain company value. The irregularities in accounting did not go unnoticed.

View

Theranos’ Bad Blood

Theranos’ Bad Blood

Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes promised to revolutionize blood testing technology, but behind all the hype was a massive fraud.

View

United Airlines: Grounded

United Airlines: Grounded

After passenger David Dao was forcibly removed from a United Airlines flight, many questioned why airline policies and procedures would allow such a violent deplaning.

View

Wells Fargo Fraud

Wells Fargo Fraud

Under pressure to meet steep sales goals and incentives, Wells Fargo employees created over a million fraudulent accounts in their customers’ names.

View