FMU business students learn slippery slope of ethics

“I’m talking about liquid. Rich enough to have your own jet. Rich enough not to waste time. Fifty, a hundred million dollars, buddy. A player. Or nothing.”
— Gordon Gekko, “Wall Street” (1987)

Though not quite as dramatic as Oliver Stone’s screenplay, Patrick J. Kuhse got a similar offer in the 1990s.

And it was one he just couldn’t make himself refuse.

After more than a decade as a successful financial planner, Kuhse got a call from an old friend who said she had a friend who was running for state treasurer of Oklahoma. She said if the candidate won, she was going to work for her and offered Kuhse the opportunity to handle investments for the state. The only catch — she wanted a cut of the money he would make off the deal.

“Have you ever made a decision in your life that you wish you could take back?” Kuhse asked a group of Francis Marion University business students during his presentation on ethics Wednesday morning.

“The first step in unethical behavior is a seemingly unimportant decision. I wanted it (the job) on my resume, and then I talked myself into believing I needed it on my resume,” he said. “When you start rationalizing and changing your wants to needs, you’re in an unethical situation. And it’s a slippery slope from there.”

Kuhse accepted the offer and soon found himself involved in a not only unethical but also criminal operation. When the friend’s friend took office, Kuhse began handling about $9 billion in investments for the state of Oklahoma. He raised his commission rate to the maximum allowed by the state, and the money began rolling in.

“I made $400,000 in one week,” Kuhse said.

Before he knew it, Kuhse was a millionaire. But with each commission check he received, he was paying off his friend in the state treasurer’s office who got him the job.

“It starts with, ‘Just this one time,’” Kuhse said. “But I kept pushing on. When is enough enough? When do you stop? I was stuck on go.”

Almost two years into the operation, Kuhse went as far as to send his friend an ATM card with his name on it. She was living well beyond her means so when a disgruntled former employee of hers approached the FBI about her lifestyle, they listened.

“And that’s when I got five knocks on my door at 6 a.m.,” he said. “I looked out of my peep hole, and there was a man holding up his FBI badge and a female agent with the IRS Fraud division. I didn’t open the door, but they launched an investigation around town and started looking into my finances.”

In 1993, Kuhse’s attorney notified him that he was going to be charged with several crimes related to his business activity. He advised him to take the prosecution’s offer of 15 months in jail and plead guilty.

Kuhse didn’t take the deal. Instead, he packed up his wife and children and fled to Costa Rica. Shortly thereafter, 32 federal indictments were filed against him.

Seven months later, two others involved in the operation were arrested in Oklahoma, and Interpol raided Kuhse’s home in Costa Rica. Kuhse, who was home alone, escaped out of a back door. He spent the next four years on the run in South America, while his family remained in Costa Rica. His wife eventually decided she’s had enough and told Kuhse she and their children were moving back to San Diego.

“I had not gotten to spend much time with them, because I was on the run. I would visit when I could, but that wasn’t much,” Kuhse said. “I watched them disappear out of sight at the airport, and I realized all the pain I’d caused. I called the embassy in Costa Rica and told them I wanted to turn myself in.”

Kuhse was put in a Costa Rican prison and later extradited to the United States, where he was convicted of several federal felony counts of money laundering, bribing a public official and conspiracy. He spent the next four years in prison and upon release, began telling his story and giving talks on business ethics to different groups as part of his community service.

“We all make mistakes in our life, but it’s what you do about it,” Kuhse told the FMU students. “The first half of my life was defined by the almighty dollar. The second half of my life will be, ‘I followed my passion.’ The definition of wealth is not money. Follow your passion. Don’t follow the dollar. Don’t compromise your career for a few extra bucks. Do good things, and your life will be rich.”