What would you do?

The company is under pressure, forecasts given to the market and shareholders must be met but times are very tough.

Your immediate superior, a Board Member, comes to you with a way out.

He says:

“I have a truly brilliant, no risk plan, we will overstate sales and understate expenditure.”

“This will win us time and things will get better, then we can correct the “errors”.”

Of course he is the BOSS, what he says goes and there is no risk or damage, we ARE going to correct the “errors”.

And he is responsible at the end of the day.

And it is almost time for that performance bonus and annual appraisal.

Guess who is responsible for the granting or not of bonuses.

Guess who does the performance appraisal.

And it’s not really fraud, is it?

And everyone “adjusts” the books occasionally, don’t they?

And who would ever know?

What would you do?

A recent Oversight Systems survey found that 82% of survey respondents, all corporate fraudsters, were prepared to “do whatever it takes” to achieve their goals.

Don’t be a moron.

Of course its fraud, you are making an unlawful misrepresentation that prejudices the rights of others.

Of course “they” will find out, they always do.

Very smart people are watching you are your company; believe me they will find out.

And you are prostituting your integrity and shattering the trust your company and its shareholders have in you.

And you are justifying your actions to yourself, even though you know that what you are doing is criminal and just basically wrong.

You are prepared to sacrifice the well being of many for your own personal gain.

Nice guy, you. You are a moral man, full of integrity, the flower of humanity, the perfect employee, and the go-to man in a crisis.

Well you are going to, going to jail!

With your boss if he hasn’t managed to make you the scapegoat, which he probably will.

The upside is that you will have several years with lots of time on your hands to consider what you should have done.

What you should do is report the crooked bastard to the CEO NOW and if he is the CEO, to an Independent Director.

If they don’t listen go straight to the authorities.

And remember it is only Jason Bourne who can save the world on his own, the rest of us need a little help.