Could your lack of integrity put your company or yourself in danger? How about that CFO for Enron, Andrew Fastow, who covered up millions of dollars in losses by hiding them off the books in phony subsidiary corporations? He was aided and abetted by his own boss, Kenneth Lay, who assured stockholders only months before the collapse that all was well with Enron. Lay died before beginning his 11-year prison term. Fastow served six years. But the biggest fish with no integrity was Jeff Skilling, the CEO before Lay, who resigned and sold his $60 million in Enron stock. He was indicted for fraud and insider trading and got 24 years.  

I was a stockholder of Tyco International when Dennis Kozlowski was CEO. Kozlowski was convicted of misappropriating millions of dollars in company assets for his own benefit. He did so by conspiring with other officers to breach their own fiduciary responsibilities, offering them to share in his misappropriations. The company was nearly destroyed. As a stockholder I lost thousands of dollars. Mr. Kozlowski is doing up to 25 years in prison.  

Should we talk about Bernie Madoff? Bernie conned his best friends and business associates into the biggest ponzi scheme of all time. You wonder what kind of thoughts go through the minds of these people as they fall deeper and deeper into that black hole of deceit and dishonesty. We’ll continue.