Omission As A Lie

A lie of omission is the most common method of deception on earth where a person remains silent when speaking the truth and significantly alters another person's ability to make an informed decision. Lying by omission deliberately leaves another person with a misconception. People who use this type of lie believe that to intentionally remain silent when ethical behavior calls for one to speak up is not a lie at all and thus has no consequences.

In the world of business, if a corporation helps the shareholders make an informed decision by disclosing important facts no mistrust or deception is taking place. A corporation should create and maintain confidence in the mind of the shareholders. If an omission takes place that doesn’t alter or impact another person’s decision in business then whether it should be done is a gray area.

Unfortunately, an omission of facts can, in some cases, have catastrophic consequences to businesses. Such as the case of WorldCom when the board of directors decided to give CEO Bernard Ebbers 400 million in loans in hopes he wouldn’t sell his shares off. They then omitted these loans in their financial reports, not disclosing these loans along with false revenue reporting lead to the dismantling of the corporation. We have seen several of these types of scnadals in recent years from Tyco to Enron. Although, omissions may seem harmless at first, they can cause great grief in the grand scheme of things.