The article “Insurance Executive Greg Lindberg Indicted in Bribery Investigation” by Mark Maremont and Leslie Scism was published in The Wall Street Journal at 8:30 p.m. on April 2nd of 2019. It goes into detail on Greg Lindberg, an entrepreneur from North Carolina, who lent about $2 billion that he had taken from insurers from within his own enterprises, indicted on these charges for having taken this money without permission and distributed it as if it were his own to give away. It then goes into detail on how this incident shook the Republican Party in North Carolina, with those who were defending them and corroborating his innocence being highly connected to the political party in the state. At the end of the case, it became clear that this had been a bribery scheme in the making from quite some time ago, and that there were hundreds of thousands of dollars in the air in campaign contribution in order to ensure that there would be political backing in his interest. This article is highly relevant to marketing as a whole because of how it highlights upon two very large points; first, that there are sometimes covert connections between marketing and politics, and second, that there is often much more to certain transactions that take place in this industry than what might appear on the surface. This is ultimately concerning to think about and shines some light on one of the most common types of white-collar crime in today’s society, demonstrating that even those who are the most connected and are the richest are to be punished for their actions and be served by the law. There are also further implications in that those who might be reading this article and could potentially be guilty of taking part in similar or equivalent actions, or could even just be considering doing so, might find this to be a deterrent to this kind of behavior. As a result of this, it becomes clear that a lot of what goes on behind the scenes of these companies should always be investigated in order to ensure that not only are they behaving in an ethical manner even when nobody is looking, but also to focus on how they must be transparent with the public.
Ah, the classic "friends in high places" scenario. Has always been around in politics and will continue to do so. Even in organizations like the UN who are committed to serving good have been caught in corruption scandals. Great article!
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