Jim Beal Corp. is a large company that uses long-term debt to finance projects like research and development and acquiring smaller companies competing with their corporation.

As of Dec. 31, the company reported total assets of $300 million, total debt of $100 million and total equity of $200 million.

In February, the company issued an $8 million in long-term bonds to investors at par value. This was a huge debt for Jim Beal Corp., and it had a large impact on the company’s ratio of total debt to total equity.

A few weeks later, Jim Beal Corp. filed legal papers to prepare for an additional $6 million long-term bond issue. As a result of this recent filing, the price of $6 million, the $8 million in bonds dropped to 97 because of the increased risk association with all this company’s debt. The investors in the original $8 million were not made aware of the company occurring an additional debt of $6 million within such a short period of time.

Do you think that Jim Beal Corp. acted ethically when not disclosing to the first bond investors with their immediate plans to issue a second debt offering of $6 million?