The covering up of fraud by senior management teams

It's awful when a company goes public.

Well, not really. When they're listed on stock exchanges, they have a chance of becoming filthy rich. That's the board, the initial venture capital, and the senior management. So it's a wonder when there's fraud involving management, you don't hear about it much unless someone blows the whistle.

What really bugs me is that having been in the corporate world long enough, you hear stories. Stories of how people embezzle money, or steal patents, or even do worse things. What's terrible isn't just the act. It's the fact that the buck doesn't stop there.

There have been stories where whistleblowers get blacklisted from being hired again in management circles. There are also stories of the cover ups, so that the stock price doesn't falter. Kept on the lowdown. The hush-hush.

Now what I speak of, is mainly hearsay, the grapevine, the rumor mill. But those that have been where I have been probably have heard similar things. The head of so-and-so division suddenly "resigns" to take another job elsewhere when there was not really any good reasoning behind the move. "Family matters" came up and someone leaves the company. I'm not saying that these things do not happen. Sure, there are all sorts of reasoning for leaving a corporation.

But next time someone leaves and is a rather big fish, you just have to wonder... were they forced to resign? Did they do something bad? And what's to stop them from committing the same act at a different company?

There is no company in their right mind that wouldn't cover it up. In the age of stocks, your dollar amount ticking away across that ticker board is what drives business economics. One false move, and that frail number shall go tumbling. But it also makes you wonder how many unethical people out there are left to their devices.

It's a scary thought, but it's no urban legend. Just put your ear to the ground, and you'll hear the whispers of corrupt executives waiting for the next big break.