Do you think that fraud is committed by employees who are too greedy and therefore want to make a lot of money very quickly? Well, it seems that not all cases of fraud are for personal benefit. According to an article on the knowledge.insead.edu website, it seems offenders are often trying to help their employer or their team.
There are many examples of wrongdoing of various kinds in the news today. Employees engage in activities that are harmful to their colleagues and customers: traders lose considerable amounts of money when they fail to follow the internal rules of their institution; accountants or financial officers try to manipulate the financial results of their company in order to make it look more prosperous.
Traders who really were not greedy
A trader working for UBS was not authorised to do the deals that resulted in losses as high as 2 billion USD. A trader at Barings Bank did the same and consequent losses rose to 1.4 billion USD. The Barings company filed for bankruptcy after such massive losses. What had these two traders in common? They lost control after they lost money. They were not making any profits. It rather seems like they were trying to save themselves from being sacked. But that still would not answer the question of why they would risk being sent to prison instead. Strange as it may sound, it is plausible that they were trying desperately to prevent the losses their companies would face.
Cyclists cheating for the success of their team
This explanation is supported by research done by Donald Palmer, Professor of Management at UC Davis Graduate School of Management and his colleagues. Well-known wrongdoings connected to the Tour de France cycling race was another example they examined. They focused on what led to cheating. It seems that the particular role of a cheating individual in the team is an important factor. When tested, team leaders had the most suspicious blood values, while cyclists competing as individuals were least likely to engage in blood doping.
-jk-