Tale one: The CEO of Wells Fargo quit (or was fired) following the account-shoving scandal.“Wells Chief Quits Under Attack,” The Wall Street Journal, October 13, 2016 A1. Despite the shareholder returns he oversaw, he gets sacked following illegal actions by his troops.
Tale two: The EPA employee responsible for the huge spill from a gold mine in 2015 won’t be charged with criminal violations of environmental laws. “Charges Not Pursued Over Spill in River,” The Wall Street Journal, October 13, 2016. Guess he/she had good lawyers. Hard to see a similar outcome for a corporate employee who caused such a large spill. Not sure the EPA itself was sued for its employee’s behavior, as a corporation would have been.
Will other CEOs be fired following illegal conduct by corporate employees? Will other employees skate from criminal charges after having caused huge environmental spills? Or is it a case of “shareholders pay”?
infogovnuggets 