Originally Posted by
capncrunch
+1
Anyone who owns their own home and a rental knows how easy it is to hide the money. On the scale of accounting that Delta works with its unimaginable.
While hiding money is really easy for a homeowner or small business, it's not as easy as you think in this post Enron corporate world. Sarbanes-Oxley, independent auditors with skin in the game, SEC disclosures and even ALPA financial review, industry comparisons and BOD seats make true "hiding" less likely.
If an enterprise management wants to be corrupt they can do as you suggest for awhile. But airlines are such a low margin business that differences between competitors are highlighted very quickly.