Introduction
This paper examines the actions and the decisions by Herve Falciani, a former system engineer at Swiss branch of HSBC to leak the list of clients of HSBC who allegedly utilized the bank in a tax-evasion and money-laundering scheme. The analysis uses deontological and Kantian ethics to showcase that despite the Swiss government convicting Herve Falciani of breaching the banking secrecy laws, it remained moral for Herve Falciani to leak the list of clients to French government.
Ethical Goal Justification
Kantian Ethics
One of the several questions in the contemporary metal-ethical discourses, the quiz, “Why be moral?” instantly stands out as one of the utmost provoking. It appears to exemplify the moral cynicism disreputably widespread in the modern society, impudently probing not merely specific moral demands, yet the validity and power of any moral demands at all. The Kant’s ethics gives an appealing response to this quiz by anchoring morality in rationally nature itself. Kant is claiming that any rational being, merely by virtue of its rationality, remains devoted to obeying the objective moral laws. Therefore, on Kant’s account, morality remains an inseparable portion of human being, rather than merely matter of culture or the prudential measure of keeping society from falling apart (Herman 65).
My ethical goal in this paper is to defend the Kant’s ethical morality and rationality theory against certain critics using the case of Herve Falciani. Such critics tried to cast serious doubts on Kant’s ethical systems by drawing absurd deduction from the fundamental ethical principle of Kant, the Categorical Imperative. Thus, I intend to use this case of Herve Falciani to showcase that such absurdities solely arose from assumption of an egoistic conception of the Kant’s rational agency, and that Kant’s individual conception or reason such challenges would never emerge. Nonetheless, this paper uses the Kant’s theory’s efficacy of reason conception to explain and encourage the sort of transcendence that has to be the premise of morality (Schwartz 259).
The conception of reason thus remains a vital variable in any attempt of justifying morality whatsoever. Since any attempt to justify morality encompasses providing reasons why one needs to remain moral, what is counting as a reason shall determine what type of a justification of morality is feasible. This because the thing one rationally needs to do is never essentially what one morally ought to do, therefore, why should one care regarding what one morality should do? If, subsequently, the solely adequate justification for morality remains to prove that it remains inherently part of being rational, why is conception of reason by Kant better suited to this same purpose as opposed to other conceptions?
This is shown by examining other two conceptions of reason along with their implications. Firstly, the Platonic and Aristotelian conceptions of morality in which both cases, morality comprises in the soul’s being controlled by reason. Moreover, it remains precise that both conceive reasons as having accessibility to objective truth regarding the manner things needs to be. Due to this, premising morality in reason remains trivial, morality remains rational merely because morality is amongst the truths that reason can directly grasp.
Deontological Ethics
This is a duty-based viewpoint which is a non-consequential mechanism whereby it remains emphasizes on the actions of individual being morally correct, instead of what the ultimate consequences are. It puts exceptional focus on connection between duties and moralities of people actions. Thus, it considers actions individually and not due to the consequent of such actions being good. Deontological ethics states that at least certain aspects remain morally obligatory irrespective of their products for the human welfare (Hooker and Tae 40).
Kant’s deontological ethics state that nothing stays good in absence of qualification apart from a good will, and which is one which wills to act in accordance with moral laws as well as out of veneration for such a law instead of out of natural proclivities. Such a moral law is viewed as a categorical imperative which means an unqualified command-and held that its content might be created by an individual’s reason only (Sarkar 52). Therefore, the superlative categorical imperative remains: Act solely on that maxim via which you one is able to simultaneously will that it needs to be a collective law. Kant regarded that categorical imperative construction is corresponding to: so act that you are treating humanity in your own person and in that of everybody else at all-time simultaneously not just as means but as an end.
Application of the Two Theories to the Herve Falciani Case:
It is imperative to understand what business ethics encompasses before subjecting the actions of Herve Falciani to the Kantian and deontological ethics. Business ethics remains a subdivision of applied ethics studying what remains morally right for a given enterprise. It is an examination of the ethical philosophies alongside challenges that emerge in an enterprise context, and applying it to every aspect of business behavior and remains pertinent to the individual behavior and that of the whole organization. To understand whether the actions by Herve Falciani to leak the data, we need to tie this to the CSR. CSR describes the business’ ongoing devotion alongside duty to its stakeholders and environment, not merely shareholder. Thus, the HSBC Code of Ethics (COE) (2014) stated that they listen and treat individuals impartially as well as value diverse standpoints, and complying with law that encompasses anti-money laundering alongside tax evasion. Nonetheless, this was never the case since evasion of tax scandal had arisen in HSBC Bank illustrating they breached their own COE.
It is also imperative to understand the main ethical issues around this case. The main ethical issue is that HSBC assisted rich customers to evade taxes which violated the COE, as it contradicted their resolve to fairly treat customers and never assist clients in any activities purposed to violate tax commitment (HSBC 34). This means that the Bank has allowed their well-off customers to evade tax whereas the remaining loyal clienteles have been remitting their taxes and complying with the law that remains wrong morally and has culminated in suspicion for HSBC in public eye. This might result in additional clienteles feeling that HSBC has favoritism to the rich clienteles that might result in a customers’ loyalty loss, since they might never feel that they receive equal treatment. Another ethical issue arising from the case is that Herve Falciani, a system engineer for HSBC stole 130,000 accounts with detailed information about their customers and leaked it out in violation of the privacy law.
As seen in the foregoing case, HSBC seems to have taken utilitarianism approach that posits that an individual needs to act in a manner that maximizes a good of maximum proportion of individuals, however, it was incorrectly used. Such an approach has culminated in clients evading tax, resulting in the benefits of additional cash in the bank accounts that is a kind of happiness maximization. This further resulted in HSBC gaining extra profits unethically, leaving those paying tax to suffer. Nonetheless, having one form of pleasure leads to certain sort of discontentment that has happened in this case. HSBC is since suffering the penalties of its actions which include a deteriorated image, seventeen percent loss in its yearly profit, reduction in capitalization as well as a dip in prices of share that shall culminate in a drop in market confidence (Paquette et al. 37).
An ethical issue from this case that HSBC was advising its customers on how to evade local tax agencies and conceal millions of dollars in oversea accounts that is never essentially unlawful, yet opening accounts overseas to conceal funds from the tax agencies remains illegal. Whereas tax evasion stays permissible, intentionally concealing funds for tax evasion purposes is illegal. Such remains unethical since tax remains a set of computations that everyone must pay. In HSBC COE statement, involvement in financial transactions well aware that proceeds remain from unlawful activities remains a crime, as seen in the banks deliberate actions that helped Emanuel Shallop, a person convicted in blood diamond dealings (Chan 50).
It is clear from HSBC case that the bank embraced an egoism approach in the wrong way. This approach hold that an individual needs to act in some way which maximizes his own long-run interest (Mandal et al. 78). From the viewpoint of a client, they have never distinguished right from wrong that has culminated in being unethical as well as never caring regarding funding a range of public expenditure. From the viewpoint of HSBC of an egoism method, it has never been anxious with its remaining customers and even upcoming of the firm because they have imagined tax evasion shall provide the firm a short-run profit increase. Both the clients and HSBC have never utilized a conscience of moralities in a fraud which might emerge (Darwall 59). By engaging in such actions, it might make additional firms to evade tax in ingenious manner that might alter the manner an individual ethically think without knowing it is undesirable yet trusting it remains right, and never assisting societies in the fulfilment of needs (Babbitt 56).
Based on the above background, it is now possible to understand the decisions taken by Herve Falciani to leak the clients’ information. Turning to the action of Herve Falciani, his decisions to leak the client information stayed moral of him as a whistleblower to unearth and stop the unethical and immoral acts that were being perpetuated by HSBC. According to deontological or duty-based ethics, Herve Falciani did not have to consider the consequences of his actions, but only make a decision whether his actions were moral. This, is because deontological ethics would only be that the actions of informing the French government and help decipher the encrypted data in the 5 CD-ROMs he had turned to the bank be moral in his view. This is because the HSBC was indeed assisting the royals, sanctioned Russian businessmen, arms dealers, and on-the-lam-politicians-besides the US citizens alongside drug cartels to evade tax and launder money which is an immoral act and needed a whistleblower (Chandler 210).
Thus, it was never immoral of Herve Falciani according to deontological and Kantian ethics to leak the information as this remains in line with the COE of the same bank and also aligned to the business ethics (Ewin 56). The HSBC actions were grievous and hence the Kantian Morality and Rationality principles correctly informed Herve Falciani to inform the French government since the whole process of was founded already on unethical and immoral ground which saw the bank helping clients in over 200 nations evade taxes on accounts that contained 119B dollars at the expense of other tax payers. A tax must be paid and hence it was immoral of the HSBC to advise its clients on how to evade tax and hence it would be immoral if Herve Falciani would sit back and see this problem even widened. It is, thus, moral and rational for Herve Falciani to expose the secret Swiss accounts (Chakrabarty and Erin 490).
Conclusion
Both Kantians ethics and deontological ethics have helped show that Herve Falciani’s actions to expose the secret Swiss accounts were moral and should even having been convicted based on the banking secrecy law. A law should never exist to favor unlawful actions and hence a good law should only help protect legal actions and business. Thus, ethically, Herve Falciani cannot be pinned down on the consequences of his actions, but the only concern is to examine his reason conceptions in order to know whether or not he acted rationally, morally and ethically in which case, his actions to expose the bank remain moral, rational and ethical.
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