Trust people until they give you a reason not to. It sounds generous. Civilized. Even moral. Unfortunately, when it comes to fraud—and to many of the worst betrayals in life—that advice fails at the exact moment it matters most. In my career investigating financial crimes, I learned a hard truth early on: the people most likely to defraud you are rarely strangers. They are the people you already know. The people you rely on. The people you trust. And by the time they “give you a reason not to,” the damage is already done. Why Accounting Fraud Rarely Comes From …
How Ordinary People Rationalize Extraordinary Crimes
Most of us grew up being told the same things by our parents—especially our mothers: Don’t lie. Don’t cheat. Don’t steal. At least, that was true in my generation. So when people hear about white‑collar crime, they often assume the perpetrators must be fundamentally different from the rest of us. Greedy. Sociopathic. Wired wrong. That assumption is comforting—and dangerously wrong. After decades of investigating financial crimes, I can tell you this: most white‑collar criminals do not see themselves as criminals at all. They believe, in their heart of hearts, that they are good people who were placed in impossible situations. …
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