One way to profit after compliance lapses

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 07:59:59 -0400

"... You can't legislate ethical behavior." So says Walter Pavlo Jr., who was jailed for embezzling $6 million from MCI in 2001. What does he do know? Why he's on the speaking circuit of course. For a fee, he'll recount how he faced a lot of pressure to get some debts off the books of MCI, which lead him down the slippery slope to prison. The more illegal stuff he did, the more he was accepted, notes the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. We have to ask in light of the mortgage fraud cases we're now seeing whether anything has changed. Sarbanes-Oxley was the right idea, but it cannot reign in human behavior. There will always be cheats. Hopefully, the pressure for executives and auditors has been lessened a bit.

For more:
- here's the article from the Pittsburgh Tribune Review