Corrupt Business Affects Who?

Corrupt business tendencies have often gone under the public radar. However I believe it is time to take a closer look into the corruption of large businesses. Most people do not stop to think about how insider trading, phony accounting, securities fraud, or embezzlement of large firms will affect them. In fact, most fraud cases that involve large corporations do not affect the corporation at large; it actually has most effect on common Americans who have taken the risk in being shareholders. It is terrifying to see large companies committing any type of fraud, and yet not be publicized in the media because it is the people who read the media that will ultimately be affected the most. As shareholders invest in any given company, they are giving money and ideally confidence to the company to make the shareholder money, or in the very least protect the money invested in making smart business choices. However, when a business knowingly commits fraud of any sort, they are knowingly putting their shareholders at risk of loosing large sums of money. When corporations get caught in the act of fraud they are not punished by jail, but instead, in a sense, slapped on the wrist and fined. However it is neither the CEO nor a single businessman within the corporation who ultimately committed the fraud that has to pay the fine. No, corporations take the money straight from the shareholders. In this, the shareholders loose deprecating amounts of money, while the corporation ultimately goes unpunished and continues business as usual.