They're the best symbol of the way in which executives continue to enrich themselves at shareholders' expense.
In the other criminal cases involving Enron, a majority of the suspected wrongdoing involved actions by executives working to enrich themselves, often at the company's expense.
The panel says it found no ties to the yakuza, Japan's mafia, nor evidence that Olympus's executives tried to enrich themselves.
But the executives were still able to enrich themselves.
The result is that executives have abundant opportunities to enrich themselves at shareholders' expense, and to pursue business strategies that serve their own interests rather than those of their companies' putative owners.
"The point is not to enrich executives but to see them prosper along with the company".
Andersen played no role in creating off-the-books partnerships that Enron used to hide debts and losses and to enrich executives, Berardino said in testimony to the House Financial Services capital markets subcommittee.
"People weren't allowed to engage in manipulation of stock to enrich shareholders and to enrich executives," he said.
They did this to raise equity capital, and to enrich their executives and employees — that is, they found a way to cash out.
But Mr. McCain repeated his calls to add several provisions that the administration has opposed, including a guarantee that taxpayer money would not be used to enrich the executives of failing companies.
