Convicted Ad Exec Lectures on Ethics

By Ingrid Peritz
September 28, 2005
The Globe and Mail

MONTREAL -- Convicted ad executive Paul Coffin delivered his first university lecture yesterday on Business Ethics 101 -- although some argued that the more appropriate title should be Fraud 101. Mr. Coffin was convicted of defrauding the federal government of $1.55-million in the sponsorship scandal, but instead of landing behind bars, he was in front of a class of business undergraduates at a major Canadian university. He joined the ranks of university lecturers as part of his court-imposed sentence in the community, which called for sharing his insights about business ethics.

Rather than a how-to guide, Mr. Coffin, 63, offered undergrads a how-not-to guide. Standing before about 180 students at Montreal's McGill University, the businessman used a professor's tools of the trade, complete with PowerPoint presentation and an overhead projection that read: "Paul Coffin: A lesson in business ethics."

The lecture to business students was closed to the public -- security guards even papered over the classroom windows. However, in snippets overheard through the closed door, and in reports from students afterward, Mr. Coffin delivered some life lessons for budding executives. He described Ottawa's sponsorship funds as a "cookie jar" that kept on giving. "I seemed to just keep going back to the cookie jar that seemed to have no bottom and no lid," he said, according to several students.

He said the program failed to provide checks and balances. "The carte-blanche system played to my weakness." He warned the students they would encounter temptations. "Don't get sucked into mixing bad business with good," he admonished. "I fell into the trap of making easy money. Drawing a parallel to the Enron corporate scandal, he said crooked business practices "don't have to be sophisticated to be unethical and illegal."

Students said Mr. Coffin got choked up as he recalled the scandal's toll on his family. Several observers have said Mr. Coffin received a sentence that was too lenient. Quebec Superior Court Justice gave him a community sentence of two years less a day, plus a weeknight curfew of 9 p.m. Mr. Coffin has also repaid $1-million of the defrauded $1.55-million. Some students said Mr. Coffin should be in jail, not in a lecture hall. One protest poster read "What's Next? Tenure?" "To me, he's a criminal and he really shouldn't be in class," Samuel Coulombe, 20, said. "What can we learn from him? How to commit fraud?"

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