This blog often talks of international ethics gone wrong – even becoming fraud, especially the ethical missteps of politicians who take the public trust for granted, and who try to get away with whatever they can. Why do politicians sometimes conduct themselves in such a manner? 
Sometimes it is because they are weak-willed and are carried away by the opportunity, other times it is because there are no checks and balances in place and invariably, it is because no regular program has been established to address ethical issues that may occur within their municipalities. I am often asked if ethical wrong-doing is more common to the United States than to other parts of the world. It is not.
In the interest of fairness, lapses in ethical behavior are not just the domain of towns and cities across North America, but may happen almost anywhere. Take, for example, Sweden and Värmland County in the west central part of the nation.
The story, as appeared in September 26, 2013 on a website called “The Local,” concerns a politician by the name of Annétthe Zettergren, 58 years old. If the story were not so outrageous, it would almost be funny. The politician is now sitting in a jail cell rather than on the city council, and she will be doing so for the next three and one-half years. In addition, she has been fined more than $700,000 stemming from two counts of fraud.
My Aching Back
Ms. Zettergren, by all accounts, was the highest paid physical therapist in the county. There is a good reason for this; for according to the article: “…she used to send fraudulent invoices to the county council (for physical therapy treatments) to the tune of 4.5 million kroner (about $700,000).” Adding insult to injury, she also stole about $54,000 from her former business partner’s bank account, who was apparently clueless as to what was occurring.
The politician did not stand up and admit her guilt during the first hints of an investigation. Indeed, realizing what the investigation would find, “Zettergren left all of her positions of responsibility within the county…she has served on the Värmland County Council, the board of a regional development body and the local police board.” She didn’t just resign her position, she disappeared!
For six months, this woman who was associated with the local police board, was “on the run” in Thailand. Actually, the “disappearance” was spent at a Thai resort. She also managed to get her nephew arrested for handling her stolen money.
Anything Can Be Funny, Until –
As mentioned, there is an element of humor to the story were it not for the fact that this woman stole three-quarters of a million dollars from both the county and her business partner.
She was apparently in her position of trust for many years and she re-paid them by violating that trust. The fact that she also cheated her business partner and then fled the country is further proof that ethically she had fallen off a cliff.
How could a person fall so far?
In my years of speaking to groups and in counseling individuals and organizations, I have learned that once an ethical fall-off begins, once the spiral starts, things will worsen and not magically turn around.
I would imagine that of the physical therapy invoices that were fraudulently prepared, it didn’t start with a batch of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of false bills, but of one invoice or perhaps two – and she got away with it. They trusted her, and it was easy to commit more fraud. She saw the opportunity to do wrong – and she seized it big time.
I also believe that somewhere deep inside of her, she saw herself slipping away and she couldn’t or didn’t understand how to turn back. She saw the opportunity to grab her partner’s money as well, and maybe the slipping away had by then been so painful (or numbing) that she didn’t care.
Now she has three-and-a-half years to care and to re-pay her fines and to live in disgrace. It could have all been avoided. However, if teachers don’t come into our lives, we are bound to make terrible mistakes as part of our life’s education. Sometimes such education comes at a terrible price.