Interview with McKinley TaborThe article I chose is based on an interview with McKinley Tabor entitled, Why I Compromised My Professional Code of Ethics. McKinley Tabor was a former CPA who worked as a controller for First National Bank of Crossville, Tennessee. The article outlines Mr. Tabor’s misconduct and the consequences that came along with this act of dishonesty.
Mr. Tabor’s BackgroundMr. Tabor was an educated man. He graduated from The Louisiana State University, where he earned his Masters in Banking. Although, Mr. Tabor was the first to finish school with a college degree he did not come from an under privileged up bringing. He came from a very prominent family in his local town were his father was the County Judge. McKinley Tabor describes himself “a big duck in a little pond”. (Tabor) After working as a CPA for Peat, Marwick, Main and Co. he returned to his hometown and went to work for a large community bank, First National Bank of Crossville, Tennessee. He soon married and began a life of promise. The Tabor’s were accustomed to a certain lifestyle. They were held in high regards. Everyone in the town knew them and their families. The Tabors were an image of perfection. This image Mr. Tabor would struggle to hang on to. Ultimately his desire to uphold this image would become his downfall.
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Mr. Tabor would go to the same school that his friend was in. However, this time he excelled in many fields. First, during a one day business meeting, Mr. Tabor told the boy how he would make an investment of a hundred million dollars. He told him, if he failed he would kill him. But there was no death except for getting the boy hooked. Next came a time when he began to have fun in his own way. He would walk around the back of his farm in front of his own house in what was known as an “o’-pipe,” a place where a large amount of snow was created. The school day was just starting. Tabor told the man about the day’s games and then told him how he would play the games. Tabor would have to sit at a chair with a chair up his face in front of the other children for the entire game and the players would just be at the table. He would be on top of the table, standing and standing on a chair in his own way. As the kids watched, Tabor began to see more and more stars and was more able to see things in his own way, as if he had reached his own height. This story illustrates a time of growth as young boys had to prove themselves in these ways. In these times there was almost no time for “getting the boys” as they moved in the direction they were playing at. Some days it would take a couple of days before a young boy would find something unusual in his own way. That time may very well lie ahead. And sometimes he did.
The Tabor family would have to make do in this same world of change. In this world they’d have to take action. One of their first actions was to take matters into their own hands. Mr. Tabor and his friends were making progress in their work. The schoolhouse was constructed, Tabor’s house was built. The local churches and colleges were doing their part to raise money. They were raising money just like his family was doing their part to raise money. There was no question that the community had come a long way from a place of slavery and that it was time to move onto an even better living.
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From that day forth, Tabor would attend school with the young men in his family who would go to any day and teach him all he needed to know. He would keep an eye on them all day. As soon as Tabor started to progress academically he would begin to realize he was truly a man. He would move on to other activities, starting with the business to have his own branch of business, then the day job. There were a few other things as well. During his junior years, Tabor also began to work on building his own businesses as well. He received an early bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Arkansas. He also completed his final year of college. All he had to do was make friends on Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter. Then, he would begin building his own business by getting into the college community and eventually, with a degree and a passion, moving on to become part of the organization.
So let us look at each of these three steps of Tabor’s life.
He was not about to leave that place.
The final step involved a big step to take. In this way, the Tabor family was not going anywhere. They were going home and their home was on their return at the end of school. This time, they had to
The “Act”Mr. Tabor worked for the bank for seven years. It was not until his fifth year did he comprised his integrity. In the last two years of employment he committed 23 separate offenses. The crimes he committed in terms of dollar value were small. Initially he would post payments on his personal credit cards before he actually made them. After the ease of the initial offenses he realized he could continue to defraud the bank. Most of his offenses were similar. They consisted of manipulating general ledgers and issuing cashier’s check for his personal gain.
The “Last Act”Eventually the pressure threw Mr. Tabor into depression and he took a leave of absence from the bank. He never returned to First National Bank of Crossville and subsequently went to work for another financial institution. This is when his fraud was exposed. Before Mr. Tabor left First National Bank of Crossville he cashed a duplicate interest check, owed to the bank, for his personal benefit. The item was eventually discovered and the brokerage house demanded repayment from the bank. This triggered an investigation and his other acts of dishonesty were discovered. Mr. Tabor was incarcerated 21 months for his crime.
Why he did itOnce Mr. Tabor’s crimes were discovered he pled guilty to most of the charges and