Return on Life: Error in judgement or just a lie?

While running on the treadmill this afternoon, I happened to catch a story on CNN about a former Citigroup/Smith Barney broker, Ann Halloran. (Disclosure up front--all the information I have was presented in the brief presentation and interview I watched live. I'm basing my comments on that information only). Halloran had been fired and required to return over $300,000 bonus previously paid for falsifying information. According to the story, on her application when she had joined the firm over 20 years ago, she had indicated that she had graduated from a college that she never even attended. Halloran has her lawyers fighting Citigroup's action as unfair, portraying the falsification as an "error in judgement" which she made simply because she was embarrassed that she did not have a college degree. This, even though she was being hired as an assistant. To her credit, she rose through the ranks and had a wonderful career as an investment advisor, with nary a client complaint. Due to her illustrious career, the time which has passed, and the fact that it was a "little white lie" (in the words of the reporter), the gist of the story was that perhaps Citigroup was being overly reactive, and perhaps they only wanted to take the bonus back because of their recent financial troubles.

While I would agree that it's not appropriate to overreact and make more of a situation than is called for, I just can't agree that lying about your college education is a small matter. And, I'm guessing (although I don't actually know) that there is some sort of employment agreement or employee policy manual in place at Citigroup that states that falsifying information, even of this nature, is grounds for dismissal and revocation of bonuses. While the company has other issues and perhaps shows signs of poor decisions (some of which might actually also violate company code--who knows?), in my mind, that has no bearing on the fact that Halloran lied on her application, which is against company policy. I was incensed that she was playing the victim and I hope against hope that she does not win the lawsuit. I don't wish her ill, and I understand that this will likely preclude her working as an investment advisor again, but she should have thought through that 20 years ago (when she was apparently already in her forties) before she presented completely false information. Corporate America does plenty of things wrong and makes plenty of bad decisions, but let's not make it tougher for them when they make a good ethical decision and try to stand by their principles. We ought not punish good behavior!

What do you think?