Originally Posted by
tallpilot
If you put the former CEO in jail? That I would be in favor of. Do that to 2-3 CEOs and 98% of corporate malfeasance would stop. The fact is nobody has gone to jail since Enron so control fraud is extremely profitable to executives with almost no downside. Ergo no surprise at all that it is endemic.
I think the concept of a corporation as an "artificial person" is taken too far when criminal sanctions are in play.
Such legal entities are needed to execute legal devices, such as contracts, leases, ownership of property, etc while shielding arms-lengths owners (ie share-holders) from liability beyond the value of their shares.
But corporations don't commit crimes, people commit crimes, and should always be held accountable as individuals.
Corporations can be penalized with regulatory sanctions, lawsuits, etc. But that should be limited to non-criminal torts, regulatory violations, etc.
With that said, CEO's shouldn't be criminally liable for the crimes of underlings, if they didn't know about them. Even knowledge might not be enough, without active conspiracy. CEO's can be held professionally accountable for shirking their duties by regulatory/civil mechanisms, or hopefully by BoD/Shareholders.