fenderextender
Free Member
Worth noting that Nick Leeson’s first foray into wrongdoing was simply to cover up a mistake he probably would have been forgiven for. He just didn’t want to lose his wunderkind reputation over a daft mistake (not closing out a position that then turned bad).
Yup. The biggest fraud in my area started out as a dude who, one month, couldn’t pay a bill so he paid it out of a suspense account in the branch, and then paid that back a few days later. Then that worked so well he did it again, til he couldn’t pay it back. Went from “harmless” fraud to “I am now a thief” by accident. But once you’re a thief, well, might as well be hanged for the sheep, especially when you reckon you’ll get away with it.
It’s a surprisingly short and direct line from “I can’t pay my rent this month because I am careless with money” to “I am now under arrest for a heroin deal involving the Bay City Rollers” Which, somehow, he was found innocent for, but it uncovered loads of other stuff. People feel invulnerable, they feel like they’re too clever to be caught. (and then, they like to tell people how clever they are)
And yep, like I mentioned there’s loads of little gateway dishonest things to start your slidey slope on. Loads of us had extra bank accounts or credit cards because sometimes we were slightly short of making our target. Dishonest, sure. For personal gain, absolutely. Easy to justify? Sure. Enough to get someone going into some other slightly bigger game? Almost certainly. Next month they stick the targets up to an unrealistic level and you’re pissed off about it so maybe the same amount of money makes its way to you, it’s not stealing, it’s just what you were owed, right? It’s the bank who’s wrong.
Etc etc. Honesty and decency and fairness are all spectrums and they all give slightly different results.
