Crooks, Hoods and Vagabonds in Business

If more people knew what really goes inside many businesses, they probably would not invest in them; at the very least not so readily and blindly. That would at least force a change in the way many businesses have been operating, dealing with their people and the way some key people in those businesses have been behaving. Enron, WorldCom, HIH have all just and only just, exposed the tip of the iceberg. In these cases a small group of leaders are being pursued. The real problem is that many other people knew what was going on, and said nothing. There are many more acts of incompetence, thuggery and downright illegality being committed everyday than has been exposed or even prosecuted. This occurs in many more businesses that one can imagine. This book sets down how to spot these people, identify some of the ways to hold them accountable and protect oneself from them. For the employee, investor, manager, supervisor, Director and shareholder there are useful tools for minimizing the impact of poor ethical practices. Almost none of the legislative strategies deployed so far will have any effect on the issues described in this book. Legislation like CLERP 9 in Australia and Sarbanes-Oxley in the USA will probably distract many people from the much broader areas of corporate thuggery and abuse. Whilst there is nothing wrong with this legislation as far as it goes, the people who have been engaging in these untoward activities are very good at it and very good at disguising how they go about what they do.