Who said crime doesn't pay?

In the interest of self reflection and general advancement I have to pause this question because it is increasingly...well it is bugging me. Does crime pay? Evidence in present day society is that crime does pay, in fact crime pays handsomely, and the only issue is the amount of interest or level of fines charged on the principal.

I know many of you, who are presently studying at a business school, have wondered what you will eventually become. You dream of riches and wealth (emphasis on most not all) beyond your wildest imaginations. But what demands equal reflection is whether you will be involved in a company that will eventually get enmeshed in some litigious rigmarole. This is assuming you go onto to work for a company. If you work for yourself it is the same concern really.

At some stage in my life I discovered that the one thing that worries me the most in terms of crime is Accountants. I have quite a few friends and acquaintances who are in this field and the one thing that leaves me flabbergasted when having conversations with them is what they can actually do with money. I have actually come to the conclusion that a very good accountant...when I say very good I mean the accountants. People who set the standard in the industry good or bad. Anyway this guys can make money disappear and reappear by applying some principles that are so sophisticated....well let us just say it is far beyond the basic accounting ratios. Will I be wrong in saying that the difference between very good accountant and a criminal is the nature of the crime?

Get out of jail card

Let us take the case of Conrad Black or to use the appropriate accolade, Lord Black. Not sure how many of you have been following this guys case in Chicago.

"TRIALS of the century have become an annual event in the business world, thanks to America’s wave of corporate scandals. But the trial of Conrad Black, which began in Chicago on Wednesday March 14th, may actually merit that title, at least judged as spectacle. On show will be an epic cast, led by his Lordship, a former media baron accused (with three other executives) of looting his company, Hollinger, which once owned Britain’s Daily Telegraph and the Chicago Sun-Times." (Source www.economist.com)

I encourage you to actually dig up some of the information regarding Lord and Lady Black. It is very fascinating. Lady Black (who is in her fourth marriage) has/had a appetite for luxury and the finer things in life. It has been said that her extravagance knows no bounds and over the years they acquired property in exclusive areas, butlers and chauffeurs they had them, and to cap it all, the cherry on top was two private jets that were always on standby to fly them to wherever they so chose.

Anyway back to Lord Black, apparently growing up as a young man, the fundamental lessons passed on to him by his father was that greed and arrogance were good qualities to have and that business is nothing but a means to an end. So he went on to conduct his business in a very unscrupulous and shady manner.



Despite the fact that he has been caught one cannot help but feel that with that sort of money he can buy himself out of a fix.

The others that I could name to make my point are Bernie Ebbers whose case involved accounting "irregularities at WorldCom to the tune of $11 Billion. Coincidentally both he and Lord Black are Canadian Born. Anyway the law did catch up with Mr. Ebbers and he is serving a 25 year jail sentence. But with my limited knowledge of the American prison system I have a feeling that he will not see out his sentence.

Dennis Kozlowski "is a former CEO of TYCO International convicted of misappropriating more than $400 million of the company's funds. He was sentenced to at least eight and a third years in prison." (Source www.wikipedia.org) Eight years for $400 million dollars?? Come on now!

The nature in which the case of Steve Job and the falsified stock options was dealt with actually makes my point. The darling of shareholders and investors, Apple cannot do any wrong at the moment. I find it very difficult to believe that he -Mr. Jobs- did not know anything about what was going on. (www.ft.com - Article Title Apple ‘falsified’ files on Jobs’ options)

What I am trying to say is this, in present day society as we know it, what was actually referred to as criminal behaviour in the past is not necessarily so today, and vis-à-vis what was considered acceptable behaviour in the past is now criminal.

The problem with legislation is that it is always formulated to deal with problems that have already arisen. Therefore the problem is not really dealt with, but the symptoms associated with the problem are curtailed, only to show up in a different form in the future.

It is somewhat disheartening for most of us to see a lot of this things going on in the business world, when a majority of us are seeking to make a dollar out of 15 cents. The right way! Problem with this last statement is that it is a contradiction in terms. Make a dollar out of 15 cents usually means exploiting someone or something....can this be right?

If all else fails, just do not get caught cause it is embarrassing.