Originally Posted by
BigFrank
The reason this is news... is because your assertion is wholly incorrect; at least to date.
Any dispassionate observer cannot but come to the conclusion that the company in question... have been able to judge to a fine t exactly what the (non) consequences would be of their cocking-a-snook at the authorities
And there's the rub
You can get away with it for so long, until you don't.
At which point the whole dirty scheme becomes a stinking pile of previously uncosted liabilities and everyone starts asking why no one noticed all this before (apart from the few people who did notice, obviously)
These things do have a tendency to snowball
Corperate history is littered with examples of institutions who convinced themselves they were untouchable, right before the whole thing unwound very quickly, in an 'emporer's new clothes' moment.
One only has to look to the global banking crisis, or dot com before that.
I would add that stellar growth, seemingly unaffected by the forces of nature and economic cycles, has of itself so often been seen in hindsight to be a clear indication that not all was adding up.