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The La Polar Case

Fernando Andres Arancibia-Collao

Business and Professional Ethics Journal2025https://doi.org/10.5840/bpej20251112177article
AJG 1ABDC C
Weight
0.50

What the paper says

The La Polar case is a major financial scandal in Chile involving unethical credit practices. The department store unilaterally rescheduled customers' credit card debts without consent, inflating debts with additional interest and charges. This misconduct led to a significant drop in La Polar's stock value and a public trust crisis in Chile's financial system. Legal actions included criminal prosecutions and stricter corporate governance regulations. The ethical breaches involved a lack of transparency, misuse of insider information, and executive opportunism. Executives manipulated financial statements to inflate profits, boosting bonuses and stock options. The board of directors failed in their oversight role, ignoring audit warnings, and neglecting internal controls. Audit firm PwC was also criticized for not detecting the irregularities, spotlighting flaws in auditing practices. Through ethical frameworks like utilitarianism, deontology, and virtue ethics, the scandal reveals the profound impact of unethical behavior on financial integrity, governance, and market trust. It highlights the need for stronger corporate governance, transparency, and accountability to ensure ethical conduct within organizations and maintain a stable financial system.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5840/bpej20251112177

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@article{fernando2025,
  title        = {{The La Polar Case}},
  author       = {Fernando Andres Arancibia-Collao},
  journal      = {Business and Professional Ethics Journal},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5840/bpej20251112177},
}

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The La Polar Case

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.